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Censorship Government Politics

French Assembly Rejects Three Strikes Bill 129

Posted by CmdrTaco from the they-don't-even-play-baseball-there dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The French Assembly has rejected the Three Strikes bill (in French!) which would allow ISPs to cut off users found to have been downloading protected content after two warnings. Summary: the Sarkozy administration can go back with a new draft for approval by both chambers or try to get upper house approval of a softer version without the cutoff passed by the lower house."
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French Assembly Rejects Three Strikes Bill More

French Assembly Rejects Three Strikes Bill

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  • Hooray (Score:5, Funny)

    by jaggeh ( 1485669 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:25AM (#27517163)
    Thats strike 1

    • Re:Hooray (Score:5, Funny)

      by nicolas.kassis ( 875270 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:29AM (#27517225)
      No no no, the French government does not obey by it's own rules. They get unlimited attempts.

    • Re:Hooray (Score:5, Informative)

      by spagiola ( 234461 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:45AM (#27517445)

      Before you get too excited, be aware that the rejection was primarily due to the absence of several government-party members of parliament. The government intends to re-present the bill after the easter recess, and presumably will make sure that all its members of parliament show up. At that point, the law will presumably be approved.

      The government cannot re-present the exact same bill, however, so they'll have to make at least a few changes.

      • Re:Hooray (Score:5, Funny)

        by PMuse ( 320639 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @10:36AM (#27518145)

        Dear god, please make it stop before I have to learn French legislative procedure just to read /.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Yvanhoe ( 564877 )
          The law was rejected in a vote. 21 no, 15 yes, about 10 no-votes. In an assembly of 577. I am ashamed of my own country. 90% of abstentees on this crucial law. It may be a victory for IT people, it is a defeat of our republican system.

      • Re:Hooray (Score:4, Insightful)

        by JohnBailey ( 1092697 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @10:54AM (#27518427)

        Before you get too excited, be aware that the rejection was primarily due to the absence of several government-party members of parliament. The government intends to re-present the bill after the easter recess, and presumably will make sure that all its members of parliament show up. At that point, the law will presumably be approved.

        If that was the case, then why try to sneak it through, which is what got it rejected in the first place. If it was a formality that it would pass, then they would have followed the usual procedure and it would have already been passed.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by English French Man ( 1220122 )

          Keep in mind that there were 36 members of parliament who voted, where the assembly is made of 577... Being French myself, I watched the live stream. The president of the assembly was dumbstruck.

          Members of parliament also have other things to do than discussing and voting every law that goes through.

          That said, members of the assembly were a lot fewer than usual this morning. This could be because some members didn't want to vote this law (votes are public, and they don't want to face public opinion), so sta

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by dstar ( 34869 )

            Members of parliament also have other things to do than discussing and voting every law that goes through.

            If you actually believe this, and it's typical of your country, I fear for the future of democracy in France.

            No. They do _not_ have better things to do than 'discussing and voting on every law that goes through'. That is, in fact, their first duty, and it is a duty that transcends everything except family crises -- and it transcends any family crises that is not literally life and death.

            As a side note, does the French parliament not have rules regarding the need for a quorum, to avoid just this sort of prob

            • It's their job. But then driving a train is a train driver's job, but does he drive trains? An air traffic controller's job is to control traffic of an air based nature, but does he control air traffic?

              No, they're on strike scowling and smoking horseshit cigarettes, the lazy frog bastards.

            • Well, actually, they have other attributions, like answering the voters about their work at the assembly, working on writing other laws, and a few other things.

              It is legal in France to be at the same time mayor of a city and member of the parliament, and it is frequent (this is unfortunate, IMHO, but legal), so they can have their mayor duties on top of their parliament duties (I really do not understand how it is even possible to do this, and still sleep and feed sometimes).

              The French parliament does have

        • The ruling party don't want to have a real voting, because it will impose members to be specific on an issue that they know is not popular. Hence, they choose to use a way where only the members present vote, which is ridiculous.

          The head of the session choose, at any time, to call for a vote, and only the present deputy.

          Opposition party members saw that there wasn't a lot of right-wing party members, so they called other members, and *hide* behind a curtain, until the vote was called. At that very moment th

      • The reason it got this far was because they passed it with only a few members (~12) of the assemblee present. By trying to rush it through at 9pm on a friday night they wanted to avoid debating the bill.

        The next time the bill is presented it will be under more a scrutiny and even less popular since everyone has learned what the Sarkozy gov't has tried to do.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          You have to feel really sorry for Sarkozy, with his French equivalent of the RIAA approved wife, blow jobs for legislation, he treads a fine line, upset the the public too much and he loses the next election and his wife, fail to toe the line and the assembly chamber is more fun than the boudoir. In the end it is inevitable that he will end up losing on all fronts but, hey, that is as it should be for political sell outs.

  • Mmmm... Is it any surprise that it would be rejected "in French!"?

  • Mon amore ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zero__Kelvin ( 151819 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:33AM (#27517293) Homepage

    "The French Assembly has rejected the Three Strikes bill (in French!)"

    I hate being rejected in French. The woman is always trying to say something like "get away you impudent fool", but it always sounds like they are saying they are dying to make love to me, and cannot wait to get to a hotel room.

    • Actually, she is asking you to go to a hotel (Score:5, Funny)

      by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:39AM (#27517371) Journal

      It is just that being french she has to talk dismissily to americans, it is in the EU constitution. Brits suck up, Italians rob you blind, we dutch sell you drugs and the french talk down to you. Oh and the germans start wars you arrive to late.

      Sorry, but you have been missing out on a lot of free and high quality foreign babe sex.

      • Oh and the germans start wars you arrive to late.

        Maybe next time we will take European advise and let the Germans have at you all.

        • Maybe next time we will take European advise and let the Germans have at you all.

          Yeah cus that would have ended so well for us.

          But I guess that's the American way -- being stupidly self-defeating in the name of pride.

      • Re:Actually, she is asking you to go to a hotel (Score:5, Funny)

        by damburger ( 981828 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @10:50AM (#27518337)
        We do NOT suck up to Americans. Our politicians do. We get drunk and verbally abuse Americans.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ignavus ( 213578 )

          We do NOT suck up to Americans. Our politicians do. We get drunk and verbally abuse Americans.

          You lot get drunk and verbally abuse everyone.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Rulian ( 1125325 )
        ..and we f*ckin don't talk down to you, you dirty b#stard !
        You're not the center of the universe, we talk down to every-motherf$cking-one on this planet, comprende ?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by khallow ( 566160 )
          You're such a kidder.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Rulian ( 1125325 )
            Sorry...
            With this new "Achievements" thing, I became some kind of Slashdot attention whore, spending my mod points as fast as I can, and replying, even if I have nothing to say...
            I'm gonna calm down.
            Sorry.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Chris Burke ( 6130 )

        Oh and the germans start wars you arrive to late.

        Ah, that explains that classified ad that said "Woman seeks man for romance, invasion of Poland"

  • "Three Strikes?" Nevaire! (Score:4, Informative)

    by LaminatorX ( 410794 ) <sabotage@prae[ ]tator.com ['can' in gap]> on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:36AM (#27517321) Homepage

    As if the National Assembly would adopt a policy rooted in the Diversion Nationale de les Etats Unis.

    • Christian Paul [christianpaul.fr] represents the Nevers' district, and he was one of the major opponents :)

  • Tres Bien (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ukab the Great ( 87152 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:38AM (#27517359)

    In keeping with French tradition, the disgruntled music industry executives must now start a riot in the suburbs.

  • Here's what happened (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nicolas MONNET ( 4727 ) <nicoaltiva@gm a i l.com> on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:42AM (#27517401) Journal

    The opposition took advantage of the very low attendance by the majority party: a dozen opposition MPs showed up at the last minute (apparently coordinated by my deputy, Mr Bloche), preventing the majority from gathering its troops. The vote failed 15 to 21 (there are 577 members in the lower chamber).
    The law is not rejected for good, because the government can (and probably will) push for a second reading in both chambers, and it has a large enough majority to get it through. But this event is going to push the issue into the spotlight, and may also allow the European Parliament to once again vote its opposition to the principle (amendment 46 to the Telecom Package), while the opposition gains team.
    Indeed, just a few days ago, a few prominent actors and directors such as Catherine Deneuve or Victoria Abril signed an open letter opposing the law, thereby disproving the main talking point of the proponents: not all artists are united behind Sarkozy-Universal.

  • Don't be too happy... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lcf34 ( 715209 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:47AM (#27517475)
    (disclaimer: written by a native "is baseball a kind of dutch cheese?" country). The Assembly is now entering some holidays so press will enjoy the news for the next days, but be sure the law will pass in less than two months (as Mr. Sarkozy has personally expressed a deep interest into it). Even if a very unlikely situation would happen & the text is then supported by a minority and would never been voted as it is, the government has a magic kind of "execute order 66" to bypass assembly and will not be afraid to use it (they already done it). This is the kind of democracy we get in France since Mr. S has arrived where he wanted to!

  • Spelling, Bad French, please (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:49AM (#27517517)

    As much as I don't like him, it's "Sarkozy" with a "k", not a "c". And please trolls, stop the French sentences with a mistake in every one of them.

  • Nicolas who...? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tygerstripes ( 832644 ) on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:49AM (#27517523)

    the Sarcozy administration can go back with a new draft for approval by both chambers...

    Okay, but how would the Sarkozy administration react?

    Pedantic? Well okay, but is it too much to ask that they get the President's name right? Sheesh...

  • Don't fool yourself, this (temporary) rejection was only possible because some of the left wing party sneaked at the last minute to vote AGAINST the proposal. There were not enough right wing (government) politicians in the assembly to vote for it and the text was rejected.

    This, however, changes NOTHING in the long run: despite being a stupid, non-applicable, lobbied-by-the-SACEM*-to-maintain-the-outdated-cash-machine, this law *will* be accepted in the end, since the government has enough of its own member

    • 1. It makes the gov't look foolish, and it's attracted lots of media attention
      2. This will push the final vote back to just before the European Parliament election; it will either cost Sarkozy's party quite a few votes, or make them want to give it up
      3. It will give time to the EP to vote their anti-3 strike amendment once more.

  • In French??? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09, 2009 @09:57AM (#27517651)

    "The French Assembly has rejected the Three Strikes bill (in French!)"

    Well, I guess we must be thankful they rejected it in French. Just think how awkward it would have been if they had rejected it in English, say, or Russian, or God forbid, Chinese.

  • Everything you want to know about Hadopi can be found here [pcinpact.com] (Fr).

  • They-don't-even-play-baseball-there (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Potor ( 658520 ) <farker1NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday April 09, 2009 @10:00AM (#27517683) Journal
    False! I have played baseball in France, more than once.

  • Translating a section from the article:

    The CMP party had essentially re-established "double damages", so-named by the bill's opponents. Internet users sanctioned under this bill for illegal downloads, after two warnings, would continue paying their subscription fees for between two months to a year while their access was suspended. [...] "Once again we are seeing the government's amateurism, as well as that of the Ministry of Culture and the UMP Party," commented Mr. Dupont-Aignan.

  • Percentage of Slashdot readers who RTFA when it's in English: less than 10%
    Percentage of Slashdot readers who RTFA when it's != English: less than 2%

    (These numbers based on my own estimations, with zero research to back them up)
  • Given the previous discussion on the AP, I found this article by the AP on google. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j4VjVAXxp684miiKgGtfUEnU04OQD97EV64O0 [google.com] However, the AP article fails to mention that no proof is required, only 3 accusations.
  • fun fact, out of roughly 570 deputes, only 34 were present during the vote. No question asked regarding what these guys do instead of working...

  • Does the French Administration all gather in a room, arms on shoulders with each other and sing(?):

    So it's one, two, three strikes you're out
    at the down load game!

  • .. that the industry (ISPs) that seems to not be able to detect 'bot traffic and spam emitters well enough to shut those hosts down should be expected to detect downloads of "protected content" and then take action.

  • Since when? (Score:5, Funny)

    by SteveFoerster ( 136027 ) <`steve' `at' `stevefoerster.com'> on Thursday April 09, 2009 @12:05PM (#27519539) Homepage

    Since when is anyone in France against strikes?

  • Am I missing something? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mikfire ( 68619 )

    I don't understand why everybody is so happy when these bills fail to pass.

    Let them pass.

    And then accuse every member who voted for it of downloading copy righted material. Make sure you accuse some of the aides, secretaries, etc. too. Try your best to make sure every last governmental office is taken off line. Accuse several of the CEOs in the music and film industries too. I see all sorts of potential in this.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HuguesT ( 84078 )

      Random members of the public cannot level accusations like this. It's the job of the owners of the works that are being shared illegally to find out who shares is (by IP numbers). Then they call this "high authority" HADOPI who subpoena the names from the ISPs. The first time the offenders gets a reminder e-mail, the second time a registered post mail and the third time the connection is cut from 1 month to a year depending on whether you admit your guilt or complain, respectively.

      The "brilliant" idea of t

  • Frederic Lefebvre is the biggest douchebag and a major proponent of that law. That idiot had left the parliament for lunch and missed the vote.
    I need you all to send him an email at: flefebvre@assemblee-nationale.fr, ask him if he enjoyed his lunch. You can do it in english.

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