[jbrennan]

It sets a bad precedent, and unfortunately it's not the only country to do so (or consider it). When I was younger, I had always dreamed of living briefly in France or maybe Australia at some point in my life, but both countries now see to either enforce strict censorship, or are on the verge of doing so.

I live in Canada, and it wouldn't shock me if our Conservative government did the same, but it still saddens me nonetheless.

I don't keep up on French politics/culture very much, but this move does surprise me, given their Revolutionary history.

[nextparadigms]

That revolutionary history was quite a long time ago. France has a pretty conservative culture right now.

[yardie]

They are into their 5th republic so the revolution wasn't that long ago.

The student protestors from the 60s are now retired or (even worse) running the government and they are the ones voting on these laws. Unfortunately, Sarkozy is far more popular than I would like him to be and his biggest political rival is sitting in NYC under house arrest.