France Rejects 3 Strikes Anti-Piracy Law
Written by Ernesto on April 09, 2009Last week, the French Parliament passed a new law requiring Internet service providers to cut off Internet access for persistent copyright offenders. Since the parliament voted in favor of the law, everyone – including the most fanatical critics – believed that it would easily pass through Senate and the National Assembly today – but it didn’t.
In order to reduce piracy, the French Parliament approved the new ‘HADOPI’ (Creation and Internet) law. Under the new legislation ISPs have to send warnings to alleged copyright infringers, who would eventually lose their Internet access upon receiving their third warning. In addition, the new law would make it possible to order ISPs to block sites such as The Pirate Bay.
The new law has been criticized by the majority of the French public, with many of them believing it will fail to reduce piracy. After the parliament voted in favor of the law, no one doubted that it would be approved by the senate and National Assembly as well. As expected the law was indeed ratified by the senate this morning, but to everyone’s surprise it didn’t make it through the National Assembly.
After a two hour discussion, the law was rejected by the National Assembly with 21 votes against and 15 votes in favor. According to early reports, the Socialist deputies changed their initial position and decided to vote against the law after witnessing the mass opposition from the French public.
“There was a wind of revolt in the country, which engulfed the Assembly and made us move from opposition to the majority,” a Socialist member said in a response, adding “The government is now in trouble.” France’s Minister of Culture Christine Albanel was shocked by the rejection and said it was a “trap” set up by the Socialist opposition.
Unfortunately the law is not completely off the table. It is likely to be voted on again on April 27 according to members of UMP, one of the supporting parties. However, failing to get it passed through the National Assembly the first time is clearly a huge mistake that is almost amateurish, and public opinion is not likely to change anytime soon.
Last month the European Parliament indicated it was opposed to “3 strikes” legislation when it defined Internet access as a “fundamental freedom.”
The vote and subsequent celebration.
Previously: French Anti-Piracy Law Doomed to Fail
Next: BBC Gets Ready for BitTorrent Distribution
90 Responses
Our democracy finally shows it’s real face.
YEEEEEEEES !
EPIC WIN!!
viva la révolution
YESSSSS!!!!
Im gonna live in france, epic win socialist
PPPPPPWWWNNNNNDDD
EPIC FAIL :D
Good news at last!
Win !
Fail -> http://twitpic.com/31kem
WIN
Congratulations to the French peers.
Hopefully this will learn them to vote next time for a p2p-friendlier president & gov.
“the Socialist party changed their initial position and decided to vote against the law”
Not exactly. The socialist party was against this law since the beginning.
nice surprise .. but yet:
what does the legislation in France look like?
Parliament, Senat, National Assembly …
Can one overrule the decisions of the other in a renewed voting?
Does the president have the right to overwrite decisions of certain institutions?
How come that at least three institutions are concerned with legislation anyway? What’s next?
The French are really complicated … ;)
Hail Freedom!
No reason for congratulation : the law will be adopted at the next session : the governement will ask the majority to be present and to vote : only 21 votes against 15, and we have 577 deputies!
The only way to reject this law is the ” Conseil Constitutionnel” and the European Court, as the law doesn’t respect our fundamental rights.
France’s Minister of Culture Christine Albanel was shocked by the rejection and said it was a “trap” set up by the Socialist opposition.
Once again, ignorance wins. She seems to have the idea that she is in some sort of battle with the socialist party and that political games like this matter more than what the people actually want? Showcase example of wrong political priorities if you ask me.
@ Dievochka
Will french people go to European people in case its adopted in next session?
Conseil Constitutionnel” and the European Court i mean
Major grats to the french people, huzzah!
i lolled myself at that video.
haha gratz france, i bet all those against the law were users of TPB :P
IZ A TRAP, HIDES NAUW!!!!
wah wah wah
I kinda figured this wouldn’t go anyway, what if someone hijacked an IP addrss of someone who didn’t even file share? That wouldn’t be fair to them would it? They’d just get a warning and that wouldn’t be right would it. Stikes is too vague to actually catch file sharers anyway, since they’ll just do direct downloads or encrypted bittorrent anyway.
I kinda figured this wouldn’t go anyway, what if someone hijacked an IP address of someone who didn’t even file share? That wouldn’t be fair to them would it? They’d just get a warning and that wouldn’t be right would it. 3 Strikes is too vague to actually catch file sharers anyway, since they’ll just do direct downloads or encrypted bittorrent anyway.
The most interesting at the end of this video is how the minister of culture (with the flashing red thingy) is leaving without saying a word! Héhé awesome!
Her name is Christine Albanel and she is one stupid person so it’s enjoyable to see her like that after all the BS she said on this project of law.
However, let it be said that the law will be back in the National Assembly for an other vote and will in the end be adopted cause the conversative dumbasses have the majority…
That felt good anyway :D
And a little picture cause it’s too funny :D
http://www.numerama.com/media/attach/46356720355a2c82fb29d0ac8f80a.jpg
that video is lol-worthy.
a nearly empty room.
counting of hands.
the people may care, but apparently only 36 of the members of the national assembly cared enough to even show up.
#25 : it was lunch time, that’s a reason :D
In fact, it seems that the right parlementaries don’t like what their right government want them to vote for, so they try to look away when their presence in needed :p
Viva La Francé!
With 577 seats in total, the socialist party has about 186. How many will show up for the re-vote? It still seems uncertain.
#25 : from what i’ve heard it seems that the government thought they had enough parlementaries (15) to vote quickly the law but parlementaries from the opposion (the socialists) hide themselves in the National Assembly and then appeared in the chamber just before the vote!
Result 21 to 15 against the frakking law :D
New law IS passed,,new law is NOT passed,WTF,wish someone would make up their minds.This National Assembly at least seems to have something going for it. Did not think the French would take this without a fight.No wonder the world is in such a mess!!!!!!!!!
Great news but poor article.
French Parliament = Senate + National Assembly (like Senate + House of Representatives in USA)
National Assembly first approbed the new law at preliminary votation (days ago) but later rejected it at final votation (today).
A final votation was mandatory because of amendments passed by Senate, and it was expected National Assembly pass the new law, but National Assembly overturned its previous position.
The game is not over. French Goverment will ask a new votation.
ep;c
This is awesome, you deserve it france! from belgium^^
EPIC FAIL
http://bayimg.com/image/maoapaabo.jpg
Actually parliamant = national assembly.
But a special commitee called “commission paritaire” had to give an opinion on some options, and hardened the text, which implied a suspension of the first vote, and a second passage at the assembly.
And today, by some kind of miracle, only 36 deputies were present (wtf) and 21 were against the project.
The government will present the law again (this is were democracy stops) after the eastern holidays, and we’ll see how the majority votes this time.
The rejection isn’t final. At the moment, it’s just been postponed by 2-3 weeks. Let’s hope the majority deputies will massively abstain, so this law gets dumped for good.
But this is not a victory.
“It is likely to be voted on again on April 27″
That’s the kicker, isn’t it. If an attempt at some unpopular new law fails then they just keep on resubmitting it over and over in subtlely differing guise until it passes.
Maybe I’m just too cynical and will be proven wrong? We’ll see. Actually I kinda wish at least one of these countries threatening “3 strikes” would _actually_implement_it_ as I’m fed up reading about it.
If this kind of law pass, a new market will show up with services like secure proxy to browse and share file without the “Big Brother Watching” us. So this law will just give more administrative tasks to follow without any successful results to stop copyrights enfreignment.
They should adapt the medias to new technologies and don’t even try to control wich technologies will be used. Controlling people has always failed. Show them the way, they’ll choose wisely.
wow.
never before in my life have i heard/seen proof of how you can, with a lot of effort, change the way you get bullied.
despite the cynical side of me, i am happy to see this progress
This is not right.
Socialists ftw.
so, now, we have a precedent :)
we can relax…@ least for now..
and 500 or so senators ran and hide instead a casting a vote that wold have caused a major …incident i am sure.
NOW they can be bribed still by saying I NEED ENOUGH TO HIDE FOREVER.
yaeh france!
nice lol, dont piss off the french people or they’ll be revolution
Lol. It’s funny how people don’t respect democracy.. “oh it didn’t go through? Let’s vote again and again until it’s passed!”
The fact that despite the decision of the European Parliament against the law for it would deny a “fundamental freedom”, the French government still wants to pass that law is a proof of its politics slipping towards fascism.
Some people just dont like to lose, like those that were in favor of the law application, and keep trying, wasting money and time that in this time, we cant waste, just ban theyr S out of europe and go back to the USA!
They should have A three strikes law.
A law that states that you can only try to push through your unpopular legislation 3 times and then your out of government.
Holy Crap France didn’t fold like a cheap card table in the face of adversity for once.
Now theres a first :)!
Sorry for the spam-like comment, but I just can’t stop myself:
\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/
EPIC WIN EPIC WIN EPIC WIN EPIC WIN
EPIC WIN EPIC WIN EPIC WIN EPIC WIN
EPIC WIN EPIC WIN WPIC WIN EPIC WIN
Good about bloody time let all those who believe in imaginary property feel the boot up there arse. for now is the time for them pay,there lies will be seen and law breaking will be punished.
well done the french
viva la révolution
Amazing that these politicians have nothing better to do. There’s no other laws they could be concerned with passing? We’re in a world filled with murders, rapes, and other horrible crimes – not to mention the famine, and war happening worldwide… yet they waste their time on Filesharing. Filesharing!! Unbelievable.
Politicians should be more concerned with passing laws that would protect people FIRST, and then worry about passing laws that protect people’s money (ie: MPAA) later when everything else is functioning correctly.
They lose track of the issues that matter and get all wound up about this kind of nonsense.
This is NOT an epic win. This is still an epic fail. Why? Because the law will be reexaminated on April the 27th.
hope so… i worry that this only some cheap act
32
“but parlementaries from the opposion (the socialists) hide themselves in the National Assembly and then appeared in the chamber just before the vote”
You make it sound funny, I lol’d. We need more Ninjas in the French political scene.
Those politicians are like NINJAS man…
Epic Win: pirates, democracy advocates, anyone who believes in online freedom.
Epic Fail: IFPI, Sarkozy, the Big 4, MAFIAA, anti-piracy trolls/tards/shills.
Assuming of course that when it does come back up again later this year as one comment has said, opposition is as strong as it is now.
One word:
Rejeté!
Only 36 out of 577 people show up? even the Canadian senate when it had lifetime appointments had better turnouts than that. WTF France? This means nothing in the end. The next time more people will be forced to actually do their job and vote and unfortunately the majority of the elected will see that this law is passed.
This is NOT over. Remember the bailouts in America? Everyone called their politicians and told them not to vote for it, and it worked… for about two weeks. The politicians simply waited for the protesters to run out of steam, added a whole bunch of pork and passed a bill that was even worse than the original.
Yes, this is France, but sleazy politicians are universal.
WHOA!
I said HADOPI wouldn’t last through April, but I didn’t expect it to get struck downthis quickly. Sarkozy must be sweating like a pig right about now.
It isn’t going to pass on the 27th, by the way. So there’s no sense worrying that HADOPI will ever materialize, because it seriously doesn’t have a prayer.
“France’s Minister of Culture Christine Albanel was shocked by the rejection and said it was a “trap” set up by the Socialist opposition.”
A trap?
The reason only 36 National Assembly members were present for the vote is because
Sarkozy and Albanel have been trying to pass HADOPI while Parliament, the Senate, and the National Assembly had their backs turned. Yes, it was a trap – but luckily the Socialist party got there in time to dismantled it.
The fact remains that if people show up and they vote along party lines it will pass. It’s BS that they just get a do over so soon but that’s parliamentary politics for you. I for one want this to happen in France before where I live so some good anonymizing P2P clients can be developed.
Go Frogs
“The fact remains that if people show up and they vote along party lines it will pass. ”
No, it won’t. That’s why they’ve been trying to pass HADOPI in the middle of the night, so to speak.
If they hadn’t resorted to dirty tricks, it wouldn’t have even made it past the Senate.
Suck n that RIAA/MPAA !!
There is also one big danger in that law. According to “Czech News Agency” (Ceska tiskova kancelar, cited by Czech TV) French Senate tried to include a clause in that law, that would not only allow to disconnect the alleged infringers from the internet for two to twelve monts, but also REQUIRED them to pay for that service during the time the person is disconnected! That is in my opinion call for the true revolution.
At least they understood that it’s not going to work. :-)
Ta clarify how the french legislation works:
The parliament is the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly), the representatives of the people.
And there is also the Sénat, a bunch of old people.
The law got first approved by the Sénat, then approved by the Assemblée Nationale (but in a modified form). Since the 2 assemblies did not agree on the same exact text, the final version of the text was made by the Commission Mixte Paritaire (made of people chosen by the government).
This final version of the law must then be approved by the Sénat and the Assemblée Nationale. The Sénat approved it earlier in the morning, but the Assemblée Nationale rejected it.
Usually, the majority has twice more hidden voters than the opposition. But this time it seems that the representatives from the majority were afraid to lose the support of their electors.
Anyway, you can bet that Sarkozy will do everything in his power to pass this text, even if he has to use dirty tricks.
Very few people in France know the reality of this law, because Sarkozy controls all the media. When the first version of the text was voted by 16 representatives in the middle of the night, the TVs showed an assembly filled with hundreds of representatives praising the government.
And this is how it works for every law passed in France.
@56: yes there is, they want to forbid hoods after the anti-nato riots in strasburg…
French tv station – BFMTV – did a snap poll late last night. Out of 11,000
votes cast, 8% for and 92% against the law. I think the people are speaking.
government by subterfuge. disgusting
France are still the surrender monkeys of Europe
The normal procedure for a law in France is
The law is proposed either by the government (law project, 90% of the laws) or Parliament members (Parliament = Senate + National Assembly, law proposition, 10%).
Then the text is talk about and modified (or not) in the National Assembly, then it goes to the Senate where is talk about and modified (or not) then it goes back to the National Assembly etc… until the Senate will vote the law without modifying it.
They usually agree on it at the first time because the text is worked before be put to vote in various “work comities” (wich is also why there is nearly nobody during the votes, most of the work is already done, the representatives are in the building but there working on other texts).
When it goes to the National Assembly for the second time (NA->S->NA) the government can call a “mix parity commission” with 7 deputies & 7 senators who have to work a common version of the law. This version only have to be voted by the National Assembly.
This is an exceptional procedure to be used in case the law is urgent matter (or to free schedule when the Parliament is overwhelmed).
The main difference between the National Assembly and the Senate is that the deputies are elected directly by the citizens (district based) when the senators are elected indirectly (by mayors, county’s representatives, etc…). The Senate is therefore supposed to be less “passionate” since it avoid pressure of a pending re-election, acting like a “council of the elders” (since you have to be very well connected to be elected, the average senate member is quite old).
Pirates and ninjas united can’t be stopped.
What? No calls for a quorum?
36 out of 577 voting is NOT democracy, it is disgraceful.
This might be why it could come up for a vote again.
Don’t hold your breath!
A few hours before, at breakfast, Sarkozy was congratulating his minister and members of his cabinet for the smooth adoption of the new law.
Theoretically yes there is a need of a quorum (half the chamber +1) but there is a loop hole since they doesn’t count before voting assuming there is always a quorum (one of the party leaders have to ask the President of the chamber to check if the quorum is reach).
If there’s no quorum there is a report time to get more deputies/senators (most of them are in fact in the building working on the next laws project in “work comities” who are composed by members of all the groups).
That’s kind of weird but that’s how it works it allow parliament members to specialise themselves (security specialised deputies goes work on security laws, budget specialised deputies goes work on budget laws, etc…) none can be an expert of all that way they don’t spend all their time either sleeping or posing dumb questions during the debate/vote part (the “debate” part it’s therefore inexistent in the Assembly, the the debate still exist but in smaller specialised comities). It’s a schedule arrangement with this system you debate in fact dozen of laws at the same time.
The call for quorum is in fact used to avoid a case like that (when a majority party leader realise there is more opposition’s members than it’s own troops present to vote he has to call it to gain time to go rally some).
That’s why I wouldn’t be in the shoes of the UMP group leader right now (who was absent during the vote and therefore let this happen).
…and the day was saved by the socialists.
Oui Oui les Cheveaux
Yes!
It’s a huge victory for bloggers in France, before this unexpected rejection of Hadopi, no media ever gave any coverage to the law. Now it’s everywhere, even in the New York Times!
Blogs and websites like numerama, pcimpact, ecrans.fr and fr.readwriteweb.com have been batteling for months, giving the opposition all the necessary details and explanations for anti-Hadopi deputies to perfectly master their argument during the debate.
Yes we can!
Are politicians jerking around with taxpayers’ money like this in the first place?
Le win de epic! … or somethign :D
Win
Wow, now that was unexpected, and some awesome news, gratz to the french people =)
thank you, this happened when I was still in France xd
http://www.youtupe-com-watch-2332-fsdkjfc-1223-11ds.inserat.in
imagine all the fun when someone decides to write a new zombie to infect and leech
Well at least the commies respect the opinion of the masses.
Bravo pour cette victoire épique!
V
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