In what the French government denounced as a “sad comedy,” lawmakers on Thursday rejected President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to bolster the movie and music industries by cutting off the Internet connections of persistent copyright pirates.
The surprise outcome delayed, but may not kill, the most far-reaching initiative by any government in the battle against unauthorized file-sharing. It is also a major embarrassment for Mr. Sarkozy, who has rallied sufficient legislative support for other measures popular with French media companies, like phasing out advertising on public television.
Until Thursday afternoon, the anti-piracy plan appeared on track for passage in the National Assembly, after having been approved by the other house of Parliament, the Senate. A committee of members of both chambers had worked out differences this week.
But the measure, while supported by many members of the French cultural establishment, had always been unpopular with ordinary voters. File-sharing is widespread in France, where legitimate online services like Apple’s iTunes music store have never caught on to the extent that they have in the United States.
Rather than stick their political necks out, many members of the 577-member National Assembly, even those in Sarkozy’s party, decided to skip the vote. With only a handful of hard-core supporters in the room, apparently confident of passage, the measure was put to a vote by a show of hands.
At the last minute, several members of the opposition Socialist Party rushed in to vote against the plan, according to Christine Albanel, the culture minister, in what she called a “cynical maneuver by the opposition.” The bill was rejected, 21-15.
Jérémie Zimmermann, director of La Quadrature du Net, an Internet advocacy group in Paris, described the outcome as “a huge political blow” for Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Albanel. “It’s a victory for the citizens and the civil liberties over the corporate interests,” Mr. Zimmermann added.
While film studios and record companies blame piracy for billions of euros in lost sales, critics said Mr. Sarkozy’s plan would violate Internet users’ rights and might have been unworkable.
Under the proposal, the music and movie industries would be allowed to analyze the downloads of individual Internet users to look for unauthorized sharing of movies and music, and to report violations to a newly created, government-run agency. The agency would send warning letters to violators; after the third letter, the Internet service provider would be required to sever service.
Patrick Bloche, a Socialist member of the National Assembly who has led opposition to the Sarkozy proposal, said the plan was “politically dead.”
“This effort to intimidate 18 million French Internet users, the vote today showed, will not succeed,” he said.
Under France’s parliamentary system, it is unusual for a government initiative to be voted down. According to the newspaper Le Figaro, it was the first time that a bill worked out in a joint committee of Parliament had been rejected.
But French lawmakers have sometimes entertained maverick approaches on media-related issues. Three years ago, members of the National Assembly discussed, but then rejected, a proposal for a “global license” for anyone to download unlimited amounts of music in return for a modest annual fee.
Sarkozy’s anti-piracy plan could still be revived, at least in its broad outlines. Ms. Albanel said in a statement that she was “determined to fight for its adoption by the two chambers when the bill is debated anew, by the end of the month.”
The progress of the bill was being followed closely outside France because other governments, under pressure from the entertainment industry, have also been considering more aggressive laws against piracy. In South Korea, for example, the government this month introduced a measure that would allow it to shut down online message boards that had repeatedly ignored warnings to remove pirated content.
Britain, meanwhile, has been pushing Internet providers and content companies to come up with a solution on their own, without requiring legislation — so far, to no avail. In New Zealand, the government recently suspended a law requiring Internet service providers to cut off copyright pirates because the I.S.P.’s and content owners could not agree on how to enforce it.
“The ‘three strikes’ policy is a highly politically charged and sensitive issue that triggers extreme reactions on both sides of the debate,” said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research. The vote in Paris “illustrates the risks associated with business issues being subject to political concerns.”
While many Socialists have long opposed the idea of cutting off Internet users, Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Albanel also apparently failed to persuade some party lawmakers to come into line.
Hervé Rony, director general of S.N.E.P., a trade group for French record companies, said he thought a revived proposal, removing the requirement for payment to continue during the cutoff period, could win support from lawmakers.
“Of course, we are very disappointed,” he said. “But it is probably just a political maneuver. It will take some weeks more, and that’s a problem — the more we wait, the more the people download.”
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