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French President Nicolas Sarkozy instigated the Creation and Internet Law to ban illegal downloaders from the internet (reportedly at the behest of his wife, singer Carla Bruni) as a consequence of the uncontrolled incidences of illegal use of internet entertainment in France, with a third of users admitting to downloading films and music illegally.   If his law survived a planned challenge by the Socialist opposition, a state agency, Hadopi, would begin identifying offenders in the summer of 2010.   Anyone ignoring two e-mail warnings and a registered letter could then receive an internet ban of up to one year.

Hollywood and the music industry were in complete support of Sarkozy’s motion, but opposition was voiced by internet and civil liberties groups and a number of notable artists, who condemned the act as an unworkable breach of freedom which would punish innocent citizens whose internet access is available to children, employees or people hooking into wi-fi connections.   A group of directors and actors, including Catherine Deneuve and Victoria Abril published a protest on Tuesday 7^th April denouncing the move and urging people to fight a law that was ‘demagogic, inapplicable and stupidly ignorant of new ways of downloading’.

Other opponents to the law included Jacques Attali, an economic adviser to previous French governments, who said, ‘It is absurd, because people no longer download, they stream audio and video ... absurd because it would deprive entire families of internet access ... because real artists have nothing to lose by letting people know their work.’   Internet search engine giant Google stated that a plan to have a label of quality for legal download sites to be given priority in search engine results contravened its policies.

 Approval of the law was assumed to be a foregone conclusion, but a near-deserted National Assembly rejected the law by a vote of 21-15, largely thanks to the votes of the opposition Socialists.   Roger Karoutchi, a junior minister, announced that the government intended to resubmit the bill after legislators return from the Easter break [ADD]

12/5/2009: Government Acts on Illegal Downloads