Actually, the whole history - which isn't hard to find on the 'Net if you can read French and you know where to look - fits perfectly my 1994 criticisms of the Académie Française: First, they wanted "message électronique", then "courrier électronique", and now they go with the spontaeously created Canadian term "courriel." Blew it twice before going with something simpler, easier to pronounce, easier to spell and easier to remember. Thank God they didn't take the OLF's recommended spelling "courriél."

Yes, uh, thank God.

Since I don't speak French and I have both a full-time job and fragments of a social life, I am not inclined to spend hours researching the French government's policy on language. Like most others, I am left to the interpretations of our esteemed news agencies; in this case, it was the AP who broke the story and referred to the policy as a ban on the use of the word email. Pedantry excerpts the AP report and nowhere does it mention that this policy has been in place in one way or another for several years and, in fact, states:

The move to ban "e-mail" was announced last week after the decision was published in the official government register on June 20.

So I think Pedantry's comment that this is just something that the "right wing loons" are dredging up with which to attack the French is incorrect. The French chose to bring this to public attention now, and since timing is everything, I stand by my original assessment.