The conservative party in France is known as UMP, and its members include French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who sponsored the bill. To date, the bill has already been struck down in an earlier incarnation, only to return today, when the country's lower legislative house, the National Assembly, will start debate.
Officials said that even though debate is underway, the Assembly won't cast a final vote on it until after their summer recess.
Here's how the bill would work: People caught illegally downloading music and movies would receive email warnings and eventually a certified letter asking them to stop. Finally, a judge would decide whether or not to cut off their online access.
The original version of the bill would have created a new government agency to police piracy. The new version doesn't specify what constitutes "illegal" downloads or how many warnings a user would have to receive before action is taken.
The bill's opposition comes from the more liberal Socialist party, which has added more than 700 amendments to the bill in an attempt to slow its progress.
Jeff Random, president of 3ob.com seemed dubious of the effectiveness of such a bill.
"If it passes, I wonder how long until their government officials and their families become banned from the Internet?"
But X-Play President Jeff Mullen applauded the potential new law.
"I think that it's not only a great idea, but also a much needed one," he told XBIZ. "Why would any legitimate corporation continue to allow thieves to utilize their resources to continue their crimes? To me, this has always been a very obvious step, but getting anything regarding intellectual property laws put into motion seems to be difficult for our nation and much too difficult to enforce."
