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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.

From Slashdot:

“Germany’s Minister for Families has announced a legislative initiative to force ISPs to implement a government-mandated block list (in English), which will be updated daily. The BKA (Germany’s equivalent of the FBI) will be in charge of generating and maintaining the list. As usual, this is being brought in under the ‘fight child porn’ guise. The minister is quoted as saying: ‘We must not water down the problem’ in reply to being challenged that this law and technology could be used to censor other content. She then went on to say: ‘I can’t know what wishes and plans future governments will develop.’ She has agreed the principle of the legislation with the interior minister and the technology minister, which in German coalition government terms means it’s pretty much a done deal.”