The French certainly have a flair for the dramatic, what with the recent kidnapping of bosses and the near-constant succession of transport and farmers' strikes. Even last night's "graduated response" vote featured its share of parliamentary theatrics, as the controversial Cr�ation et Internet law went down to a shocking 21-15 defeat.

That's right—"three strikes" has struck out in France. At least for now.

A model for the world

According to French daily Lib�ration, the surprising vote came after the Senate and the National Assembly worked out the differences between their versions of the bill, which would set up a state agency called HADOPI to enforce warnings and Internet disconnections against repeat file-swappers. Both houses had already passed the bill, and all that remained was for them each to ratify the final text that came out of the conference committee.

The Senate passed its version, and things looked set to move ahead in the National Assembly, when the supernatural made its presence felt. "All�luia ! C’est un miracle parlementaire!" said Socialist MP Christian Paul about the vote, which turned down the bill 21-15.

Why so few votes for such a major piece of legislation? Apparently, the government (which backed the law) thought it had its votes in the bag. Culture Minister Christine Albanel, now fuming about the loss, describes the vote as a "trap" and a "pathetic commedia dell'arte" mounted by the opposition.

According to Albanel's people, as the vote came up, 15 Socialists were hanging about in the hallway, charging in at the last minute to cast their votes and defeat the law. It's a bizarre turn of events for what has become one of France's signature bits of legislation, the sort of thing routinely held up as a model for the world to follow by music and movie industry representatives. This isn't the example they hoped to set, however.

Albanel apparently plans to bring the bill back on April 27, but it will face a new round of debate and scheduling difficulties. Paul argues that the bill is dead.

La Quadrature du Net, which has long opposed the plan, was ecstatic. "This is a formidable victory for all citizens," said J�r�mie Zimmermann, one of the group's cofounders. "This vote shows that it is still possible to make oneself heard. It is a fantastic example of how to use the Net to fight against those who are trying to control it. Individual liberties, in the end, have not been sacrificed to try to preserve the corporate interests of some obsolete industries. The HADOPI law has been interred earlier than expected."

IFPI, the global music trade group, holds out hope that the law can still be passed on resubmission. "It is disappointing that the law was not confirmed today," said IFPI boss John Kennedy in a statement sent to Ars, "but we understand that the French Government will be resubmitting the law very shortly. President Sarkozy has been a true champion of intellectual property rights and the proposed law is an effective and proportionate way of tackling online copyright infringement and migrating users to the wide variety of legal music services in France."