(Hat-tip to harrismint for this one)

On Torrentfreak there is a report of an EU vote (481 in favour, 25 against and 21 abstentions) to accept a report about fundamental freedoms on the Internet.

For the third time in a year the European Parliament has spoken out against tougher anti-piracy legislation that would allow alleged file-sharers to be disconnected from the Internet based on evidence from anti-piracy lobby groups. Instead, they chose to protect rights and freedoms of Internet users.

Apparently, the French are not amused.

The report and (press release) contains lots of “whereas’s” and “having regard to’s ” but is essentially a “hands off!” to individual governments. It’s not a bad draft for that ever-phantom “Internet Bill of Rights” actually, and worth the read.

So, Germany has said no, the UK has backed off, Ireland’s action is a) voluntary, b) restricted to one ISP and c) likely to disappear as it was contingent on all the other Irish ISPs coming on board, which they declined to do, the EU has several times said no (three times in the last year, the press release says) and AT&T and Comcast in the US have both denied doing deals with the RIAA, as was reported last week. Oh, and New Zealand blocked it as well. Eventually.

Where does that leave the French? They’re not known for giving a franc about what the rest of Europe thinks, but I can’t see even a massive ego like Sarkozy wanting to jeopardize trade links just to push this through. They were supposed to be the precedent-setting vanguard for graduated response in Europe, just as we were for the English speaking world, and now they stand alone, up un creek sans le paddle, or even much l’eau.