sarkozyPARIS – President Sarkozy has been rebuffed by the opposition party in his bid to create the world’s first state agency tasked with the job of tracking down people who download copyrighted entertainment without paying.

The defeat is considered an embarrassment for the French president for two reasons, reports the Times Online. “The low turnout for the morning vote by members of Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) reflected the weakness of parliamenary procedures in France’s presidential regime.


It also testified to the lack of enthusiasm in the government camp for a law which is deemed by critics to be a breach of democracy and counterproductive”

Several of Sarkozy’s MPs also voted against the law, saying they did so because of a last-minute amendment that would require internet users to continue paying for packaged services even if their Web access had been cut off.

The legislation, which has the strong support of the international film and television industries, will now go back for another vote.