This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had hoped to see the passage of an anti-piracy law he was attempting to push for some time now. The law, which purported to completely cut off the internet connection of consistent copyright pirates, would have been the most far-reaching anti-piracy law to date. France has had to deal with a stigma of having large copyright piracy and illegal music downloading problems, and Sarkozy had hoped this would show his strong position against such activities.
According to a NY Times article, French lawmakers had other plans, as they could not work out disagreements this week, and an extremely low turnout of voters rejected its passage. I don’t believe this will be the end of Sarkosy’s push, however, as he loves to appeal to the music and film industries. We will see more of this bill, and others, that fight copyright piracy and expand these industries in France.
Ian McClure is a former corporate & securities and intellectual property law attorney with 
Trevor M. Blum is a former Associate in the Chicago-based, valuation practice group of Ocean Tomo, LLC., an intellectual property (IP) consultancy. Additionally, he provided instrumental research support to Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc., an IP exchange start-up. Trevor holds a B.S. from Indiana University and is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Cambridge, focusing on international business and finance. His interests also include entrepreneurship, economics, and informational visualization. He enjoys running and cycling in his free time. Trevor seeks to bring a transnational business perspective to the blog. 
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