French Parliament Say Non to Sarkozy-style "Three Strikes" Internet rule

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Danny O'Brien sez,

The anti-three strikes amendment, condemning policies that would throw citizens off the Net, has cleared the European Parliament!
The French government lobbied and fought at the last minute to stop the language, writing to all French MEPs, and splitting it into two (one against bad things that might hurt the Net and society, and the other specifically highlighting Internet termination as an example of the above). Both parts got a majority in the Euro Parliament.
Awesome work by everyone against a concerted IFPI lobbying campaign. EFF's summary; more details from new French advocacy group Squaring the Net.

Link (Thanks, Danny!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Irene Delse

Cool, but the title should be “European Parliament says Non…”

The French parliament is solidly aligned with Sarkozy, alas, or we wouldn’t have the 3-strikes Internet legislation in France either.
Takuan

I see. Is there some way to tie the database to the sex offender database? I mean, an illegal downloader could very well be downloading porn – and maybe even political literature!
jungle

Is there a list of what MEP’s voted for what? So we have a chance to influence individual mep’s?
emayoh

The anti-three strikes amendment, condemning policies that would throw citizens off the Net, has cleared the European Parliament!

There are so many negatives in this sentence, my head is now on backwards! Is this good or bad?
Joe

Please fix this very serious error. The European Parliament, not the French Parliament, has gone against Sarkozy. What’s more, the European Parliament is a weak body whose decisions aren’t binding in most cases.
Anonymous

As a native English speaker, I have to agree that the article required careful reading to comprehend the less-than-clear title. Perhaps you could rephrase it, with some consideration for those without native or high-level English language skills?
Takuan

someone please enlighten me; is Mssr.Sarkozy a filthy, collaborator traitor, or is he merely a sub-human, Boch-licking quisling? These EU intricacies are beyond my feeble intellect.
Antinous

Apparently, he’s a big Lenny Kravitz fan. Can you extrapolate from there?
Takuan

ah! crypto-democrat neo-pagancon!
Irene Delse

@ Takuan : He’s Carla Bruni’s husband. Nuff said.
stephane

Yes this is the European parliament, not the French. But a report was recently given to president Sarkozy (of France. But he will also be president of the European Union from July to December) recommending the following actions against “illegal download”:
- On the first time the “pirate” is caught, his access provider sends him a warning e-mail.
- On the second time, he gets a formal letter.
- The third time his internet access is suspended for six month and he is blacklisted to all internet providers in the country.
On top of that your personal data is listed in a few obscure databases to make sure everybody knows you’re a dangerous criminal.

Well, I’m not sure about the details but that’s the spirit.
The bill was supposed to be voted by the French parliament soon, I don’t know whether the decision by the European parliament will have any influence on that.