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The French government yesterday provoked no small measure of both surprise and shock in its decision to reject a bill designed to crack down on internet piracy. The bill had been commended prior to the vote by public figures ranging from president Nicolas Sarkozy to US film director Steven Soderbergh. (For more info on background see Guardian Technology for example).

However, far from being surprised I instead find myself relieved - and puzzled that so many are dismayed by the decision...

While not wanting to deny the need to control illegal internet downloading both for the sakes of artists and production labels/studios etc and users, it seems that this particular measure was fundamentally flawed in one sense - it relied upon cutting people off from the internet as a punative measure.

The main component of the bill would have permitted record companies or film studios to track illegal downloading and then, via the users' ISPs, issue a warning. After three warnings users would then be cut off from their internet connections by up to a year at a time.

Herein lies a huge problem - and one that everyone should be glad that the French government was sensitive to: that a country which employs measures that deliberately reduces levels of internet access is choosing both economic and cultural decline.

After all, we all know the vast extent to which such downloading takes place - meaning that if such a bill were passed we would then see literally hundreds of thousands of internet connections blocked within months, possibly rising to millions by the end of 2010.

So what happens to all those people who work using internet connections, or whose internet use earns money for other companies - through advertising etc? Though one could argue that they themselves have broken the law - it will be the whole economy that suffers from reduced productivity - and that is not a risk any country in the world can afford right now.

Yes it's also true that the policy would be very tricky to implement (what of households with multiple users on one connection? who gets punished and how?), but ultimately just as 100% employment is the economic ideal that governments recognise as worthy of striving for - so too maximum internet connectivity is essential for job creation, skills training, economic development and all the rest of it. It's not something worth jeoperdising because one particular sector is having difficulties - another solution is required.

Dejan Levi