A number of copyright numnuts, in particular Nicholas Sarkozy, want the law to require ISPs to take down an account on an accusation from a license holder, but the Euro Parliament passed language saying that any take-down has to be in court:

But a battle has exploded in the last few weeks over a parliamentary amendment that aimed to prevent countries from passing legislation similar to France’s ‘three-strikes’ bill that would cut off internet access if users are repeatedly caught downloading music, films and other content without permission of the copyright holder.

…

France, wanting to save what has become a flagship piece of legislation for President Nicholas Sarkozy, whose wife is a pop star, lobbied other member states heavily on the issue.

…

Catherine Trautmann, the deputy responsible for shepherding the legislation through the parliament, said she was confident that the wording in the compromise meant that a court order was required before access could be cut.

French culture minister Christine Albanel meanwhile believed that the compromise meant that websurfers who had their internet access cut had a right to judicial appeal – but only after the deed had been done.

The deal unravelled on Wednesday morning however, when the full sitting of the parliament supported a late amendment 407 to 57, with 171 abstentions, re-inserting stronger language requiring governments to obtain a court ruling before access can be cut.

…

(emphasis mine)

I guess Sarko is big on this because he just knows that record distributors and movie studios are such honest and empathic people that they would never abuse this power.

This will probably push the bill into the next session, which promises to have even more consumer advocates.

Two snaps up.