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Thje “Creation and Internet” bill is a piece of French legislation, backed by President Sarkozy, that would put stif penalties on Internet users caught downloading illegal material.  The bill would implement a three-strikes rule, allowing ISP’s (or forcing them), to disconnect repeat offenders of the new law.

The legislation passed both houses on the first reading, but during the final vote in the National Assembly, a bunch of Socialists (as in the political affiliation, not the swear) showed up to a nearly empty chamber, and tilted the vote against the bill, 21-15.

The bill is nicknamed HADOPI because of a clause in the text proposing the creation of a High Authority for the dissemination of works and protection of rights on the Internet.

Manuel Medina Ortega, a member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party, has released his report on piracy(PDF). His wish list is very similiar to that of the RIAA/IFPI ACTA wishlist.

Number 31, under “Implementation of rights”, Medina calls for:

“the setting up in the individual Member States of administrative authorities responsible, on instruction from rightholders and using a graduated approach, for the enforcement of copyright on the internet;”

That’s a fancy way of saying he wants a 3-strikes law enforcible across all countries in the EU. Keep in mind that no proof is needed for an ISP to disconnect a customer, just the word of the rightsholder (which will almost always be a corporation with an army of lawyers begging for the chance to take every penny you’ve ever earned, just because you downloaded a single mp3 from the Pirate Bay).

Number 35, under “Implementation of rights”:

“Encourages the use of work identification and recognition technologies with a view to distinguishing more easily between legal and pirated products;”

Here, Medina is endorsing digital rights management systems. It would seem also that Medina want to criminalize all P2P usage, infringing or not:

(Under “Sanctions and the protection of copyright and related rights holders”) “So the activity of internet users who send files to their peers must be regarded as an illegal act of communication to the public without the possibility of exceptions being applied.”

Under the “Explanatory Statement”, in big bold text:

The nature of copyright must not be allowed to change as a result of technological progress

The above heading goes against logic in every way.

The European Parliament has voted against 3 strikes proposals twice before, but this report is being touted as a much more reasonable approach to copyright law. I don’t see that.