A controversial French bill which could disconnect people caught downloading content illegally three times has been passed by the National Assembly.

法国国民代表大会通过了一项有争议的法案，法案内容为发现网民非法下载三次的时候会自动切断网路。

Consumer groups warned the new law could punish the wrong people

The legislation, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, was surprisingly voted down by the Assembly last month.

The bill sets a tough global precedent in cracking down on internet piracy, and is being closely watched by other governments as a potential deterrent.

The global music industry has been calling for tougher anti-piracy laws.

The Creation and Internet bill was passed by a vote of 296 to 233 by the lower house and will go before the Senate for final approval on Wednesday.

Three strikes

The new legislation operates under a "three strikes" system. A new state agency would first send illegal file-sharers a warning e-mail, then a letter, and finally cut off their connection for a year if they were caught a third time.

It has been backed by both the film and record industries.

But some consumer groups have warned that the wrong people might be punished, should hackers hijack their computers' identity, and that the scheme amounted to state surveillance.

The socialist parliamentarian Patrick Bloche said the bill was "dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens".

John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, which represents the global music industry, has described the bill as "an effective and proportionate（相称的，适当的） way of tackling online copyright infringement（违反） and migrating users to the wide variety of legal music services in France".