[Infowarrior] - Surprise - French lawmakers reject Internet piracy bill

[Richard Forno]

French lawmakers reject Internet piracy bill
In surprise move, French lawmakers reject bill punishing illegal  
downloading

     * Scott Sayare, Associated Press Writer
     * Thursday April 9, 2009, 9:23 am EDT

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/French-lawmakers-reject-apf-14890742.html

PARIS (AP) -- French lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a bill Thursday  
that would have cut off the Internet connections of people who  
repeatedly download music or films illegally.

The bill would have also created the world's first government agency  
to track and punish those who steal music and film on the Internet.

The music and film industry had supported the bill, aimed at boosting  
revenue for their struggling sector and cracking down on illegal  
downloading. Critics said it would be too tough to apply and encroach  
on freedoms.

The Senate had approved an earlier version of the bill. New measures  
were added in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly,  
which passed it last week after a month of contentious debate.

On Thursday, lawmakers from both houses met to approve the final  
wording. The bill had widely been expected to pass, and few people  
showed up to take part in the vote, apparently assuming it was a  
foregone conclusion.

Instead, when the near-empty National Assembly held a vote, the bill  
was rejected by a vote of 21-15. Most of those voting were opposition  
Socialists, who had opposed the measure from the outset.

"It's an immense joy," said Socialist legislator Patrick Bloche.

The government was not giving up, however, and planned to resubmit the  
measure to both houses of parliament after legislators return from  
their Easter break on April 27, said Roger Karoutchi, the junior  
minister in charge of the government's relations with the parliament.

Under the legislation, users would receive e-mail warnings for their  
first two identified offenses, a certified letter for the next, and  
would have their Web connection cut for any subsequent illegal  
downloads.

"It's absolutely innovative," said Professor Pierre-Yves Gautier, an  
Internet law expert at the University Pantheon-Assas in Paris.

Music labels, film distributors and artists -- who have seen CD and  
DVD sales in France plummet 60 percent in the past six years -- hailed  
the bill as a decisive step toward eliminating online piracy and an  
example to other governments.

But some French activists and legislators say the law would represent  
a Big Brother intrusion on civil liberties.

Other opponents note that users downloading from public Wi-Fi hotspots  
or using masked IP addresses might be impossible to trace.

They say the law also misses the point, by targeting traditional  
downloads at a time when online streaming is taking off, for example.

"It will, in any case, be completely impossible to apply," said  
Jeremie Zimmerman, coordinator of the Quadrature du Net, a Paris-based  
Internet activist group that opposes the bill. "It is a bad response  
to a false problem."

French Culture Minister Christine Albanel has said the law "doesn't  
aim to completely eradicate" illegal downloads, but rather to  
"contribute to a raising of consciousness" among offenders.

"There needs to be an experiment," said Gautier, the Internet law  
expert, noting plummeting entertainment industry profits. "Frankly,  
it's worth it."

Associated Press writer Emmanuel Georges-Picot in Paris contributed to  
this report.