French legislators have rejected the 'Hadopi' bill which would terminate the internet connections of copyright infringers. Assembly members (not The Sénat, or upper house, as previously stated) rejected the measure by 21-15 in a poorly attended vote, a week after the lower house passed the measure.

The Government may yet revise the measure by watering down the proposed sanctions against file sharers, arguing that barely 10 per cent of Senators could be bothered to attend.

Loi Hadopi emerged from the review of internet commerce conducted by Denis Olivennes, head of the retail chain FNAC. The bill establishes a new enforcement agency requiring ISPs to supply details of persistent leechers, or "libretards" as they're known in France. ®

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