French legislators reject toughened 'three strikes' law

The French National Assembly has rejected a law that threatened to suspend the Internet access of those caught downloading copyright works without permission.

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.

In the mostly empty chamber of the National Assembly, 15 deputies voted in favor and 21 voted 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.

It reinstated the double penalty for Internet users accused three times of downloading copyright works without permission: In addition to having their Internet access suspended, they will now have to continue to pay for that service for the duration of the suspension. The commission made the change despite warnings from some National Assembly members that it could be unconstitutional.

The unavailability of a copyright work through legal channels will no longer be a defense against charges of piracy, the commission decided.

In other changes made by the commission, the government lost its right to nominate the president of the High Authority for the Distribution of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet (Hadopi) that the law creates -- but will now nominate more of the authority's members, who in turn will elect its president. The Hadopi's main role is to examine accusations against Internet users that they have illegally downloaded copyright works. It will now also have the responsibility for managing a Web portal listing legal online music outlets. The previous draft of the law required the authority to oblige search engines to prioritize links to legal content over those to illegal content.

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.

IDG News Service

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