Cablegate: MPAA, RIAA, BSA weighed in on France’s Internet disconnection law

According to a US diplomatic cable given to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, US business interests played a role in the passage of a French law that created Internet user blacklists, ostensibly to be used against people who access copyrighted content online.

The "Creation and Internet law," which became law in Sept. 2009, was initially set-back for months by the theatrics of 15 French socialist lawmakers, an April, 2009 US State Department communique details.

Noting the vote was not very well attended as most members assumed it would pass, the socialists hid in a broom closet near the entrance of parliament. Since there were no members near the chamber entrance, that meant the vote was to proceed with them in absentia, but at the last moment they emerged from the closet and charged into parliament to cast a bloc of 'no' votes, effectively killing the bill by a ballot of 21-15.

That lawmakers hid in a closet to stifle the French Internet law went unreported at the time.

After reintroduction, the bill passed in September.