In a surprise decision earlier today, the French National Assembly rejected a law that threatened to suspend internet access to anyone caught downloading copyright works without prior consent. Deputies in the National Assembly rejected a compromise text proposed by a joint commission of lawmakers from the Assembly and the Senate, just hours after the Senate had approved it. The largely empty National Assembly cast 15 votes in favour and 21 against, according to local news reports.
Conflicting versions of the law were voted by the French National Assembly last week and the French Senate last year, forcing the government to appoint a joint commission composed of members of the two houses of the French parliament to reconcile the differences in a final text.
The joint commission discarded a number of amendments voted by the National Assembly that had softened the Senate’s earlier draft of the law.
The bill, if passed, would have provided a double penalty for internet users accused three times of downloading copyright works without permission: In addition to having their Internet access suspended, they would be legally obligted to continue paying for that service for the duration of the suspension.
Also, citing unavailability of a copyright work through legal channels would not be a defense against charges of piracy.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has championed intellectual property rights like no other head of state, and it has been under his watch that the proposed law was given top priority status in the legislature.
Now that the Assembly has rejected the compromise text, it must once again be debated, and perhaps amended, by both chambers of the French parliament.
