France steps back

A few days ago we reported that the French parliament had voted to adopt what was being called the ‘Hadopi’ law see here.

The vote in the Senate took place in a very sparsely populated house and introduced some ‘interesting’ clauses including the ‘Jonny Halliday’ clause that allowed for actions against file sharers to be held back if the recording artiste had moved elsewhere for tax evasion purposes.

Now it seems that a much more populated National Assembly has voted down the legislation which was championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy. The plan for ‘three strikes and you’re out’ has now fallen and cannot be introduced.

At least, it cannot immediately be introduced and must now be returned for further drafting before brought back to Parliament. The vote in the National Assembly saw some government members voting with the opposition - they were protesting about a clause that would have allowed ISPs to continue to charge users for their service even when they were suspended for copyright infringement.

So, it seems that it is back to square one (to use an old BBC expression!). Watch French space later in the year.