French Parliament Nixes Web Piracy Bill

Sacre bleu! Some conservative members of France’s parliament are probably regretting their decision to begin their Easter break a little early, as their absence allowed rival socialists to ambush an Internet piracy bill on Thursday.

The Christian Science Monitor:

With the legislation easily passing through an initial phase, many lawmakers took an early Easter recess and missed Thursday’s vote. This gave the Socialist Party a chance to shoot down the bill, which they consider an intrusion of personal privacy. It failed by a vote of 21 to 15, according to the AP.

[...] The law would have forced Internet service providers to cut off a user’s connection after repeated accusations of music or movie piracy. Supporters said the three-strikes approach would dissuade people from stealing online.

Read more

AP photo / Sang Tan

French President Nicolas Sarkozy supported the Web piracy bill but will have to wait for another voting go-round to try to push it through.