EU balks at French three-strike internet rules

French plans to seek Europe-wide adherence to its controversial three-strikes internet usage rules have been foiled for a second time.

The European Parliament committee on Industry, Research and Energy again adopted an amendment 138/46 of the Framework Directive of the Telecoms Package.

The amendment states that users can access web content with no restrictions unless subject to a court order.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had been pushing to drop the amendment, and bring European policy in line with its three-strikes policy.

The French government had proposed establishing an agency called Hadopi – la Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des œuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet – which would police the internet on behalf of copyright holders and force ISPs to hand over details of users who were downloading copyrighted material.

Under the proposals, users caught violating the rules three times would have their internet connections cut off for a year.

Both the movie and music industries have been pushing for ISPs to suspend user internet access because of perceived revenue losses from peer-to-peer file sharing.