Looks like another stay of execution for illegal file sharers in France. The “three-strikes” anti-piracy law approved by the French senate last October, and due to to come into effect this month, is being put on pause by the government’s main agency overseeing the use of personal data and online privacy, the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL).

Now some believe the laws are unlikely to be put into action until April. This means that further action on Hadopi may be postponed until after the next lot of regional elections in France. This mirrors U.K.‘s own three-strikes Digital Economy Bill, which enters the Committee stage in the House of Lords on 6 January, and is unlikely to be passed through parliament before the next general election. Some media (eg. BBC News) are still reporting the Hadopi law as taking effect on January 1.

The Hadopi law suggests a gradual course of action against people who stream and trade in pirated content online, from warning emails, to letters, and ultimately court action and cut-off access. But to put it into effect, the French government needs the approval of the CNIL, and the group has yet to reach a conclusion, although it has voiced its dissent on aspects of the law in its past iterations.

Hadopi has attracted a maelstrom of criticism both in France and abroad. Before it is even live, some sites are already offering workarounds to keep file-sharers out of the slammer.

PCUK spoke with Tony Ballard, a partner with UK media law firm Harbottle & Lewis, who says that another possible delay might come from the need to harmonize Hadopi with the new European telecoms bill that got passed in November 2009. The French government will need to ensure that whatever new legislation they put in place will be in line with the EU bill, Ballard says. But, while the European bill no longer has a provision that affected freeloaders will get a court hearing before having their accounts suspended, the French law does.

Ballard adds that implementing Hadopi will also give more weight to similar laws being considered in the UK and elsewhere. “It’s very likely we will see more [laws like this in other countries] particularly with the new directive,” he says. “It creates a framework through which this kind of mechanism can be deployed.”

In the UK, ISPs, content owners and lawmakers are tussling over the Digital Economy Bill (DEB), which, like Hadopi, details a gradual set of responses to illegal file sharers, starting with cease and desist letters, and culminating in disconnection. The DEB is due to enter the Committee stage in the House of Lords on 6 January.

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