distribution of their work, or strongly, as a prohibition for copyright holders to use technical means to prevent private legal copies. The "three-step test" was also copied into article "1 bis" of the draft law, which updates CPI L122-5. See Copyright exceptions. Politics The DADVSI law unexpectedly rose as a somewhat well-publicized topic in national French politics in December 2005 with the vote of the so-called "global license". Two major presidential candidates personally intervened in the controversy while others made declarations. Legislative process The initial draft of the law was proposed in 2003 by then Minister of Culture Jean-Jacques Aillagon (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP). Because of various circumstances, including the replacement of Aillagon by Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres (UMP), the bill was presented very late to the French Parliament and was initially to be examined in the National Assembly on December 20, 21 and 22, 2005 just before the Christmas holidays. The government (the cabinet of ministers, as represented by the Minister of Culture) had declared the law to be urgent, which means, under the Constitution of France, that the law would be examined only once by each house of Parliament; the reason given by the minister was that France was threatened by the European Commission with sanctions if it failed to implement the directive. Despite being initially presented as a technical text the law became hotly controversial. It became perceived as criminalising Internet users for sending files of copyrighted works to each other, as well as being a threat to free software. It was also feared that it would mean, in practice, the end to the right of creating a "private copy": for instance, making a copy of a record onto digital magnetic tape for the private use of the owner of the record, which is currently authorized by CPI L122-5. . The examination of the draft law by the National Assembly, initially seen as a quick matter preceding the Christmas break, was marred by several incidents, the best known being the vote on the first amendment of the "global license" (see below). Supplemental sittings of the Assembly had to be allotted in March in order for the law to be fully examined. An important factor was that the schedule of full sittings of the Assembly or the Senate is almost entirely decided by the executive. Prior to the examination of the law by the assembly in