""The plan has been drawn up by French retail exec Denis Olivennes. It will see signatory ISPs - including France Telecom, which owns Orange in the UK - hand over information on heavy users of file-sharing networks to a new enforcement body which will formally warn them to stop. If they persist, their connection will be cut.
"But not content with penalising French Internet users, and chilling creativity in that country, Sarkozy seems determined to bend Europe to his will (the infection has already spread to the UK).
"First, attempts were made to sneak an obligation to impose the "three strikes and your out" approach (rebranded as "graduated response") into a complex and irrelevant EU telecoms package. The European Parliament, to its credit, pushed back, and added several clauses to preserve fundamental freedoms, like the right to judicial review of any attempts to cut Internet access."
