French Constitutional Council Censored Anti-Piracy Bill

Basing its statement on the commitment for freedom of expression, customer choice and French legal system (you are by default innocent till the justice proves you are guilty), the French Constitutional Council censored the anti-piracy bill (aka Hadopi) drafted and voted last month by both French lawmakers' chambers. The Council censored the chapter of the law related to penalties to be applied on internet users caught in suing P2P network for illegal purposes. It was planned that internet connection would be cut after 2 warnings without any legal investigation, while targeted user will have to keep paying the ISP bill. This was the part of the law that made most French customers associations and internet users group actively fighting the project. By taking this decision, the French Constitutional Council decided to follow the position currently supported by the European lawmakers' chamber aiming to define internet access as part of the default rights related to freedom and expression and information for all European citizens. Its is statement, the Council indicates that the Hadopi does not have to define the procedure of penalties, but simply the scope of what is illegal or not, as the justice will have to demonstrate that the targeted users have had indeed made illegal usage of internet and P2P networks. As we hardly see how the Hadopi will launch thousands of legal actions against pirates, the current bill might simply end up in the bin... so much energy spent for such end... However, this story illustrates how lobbying of Music Majors might have leaded to a freedom-killing bill that only got censored by the last gate-keeper of the French institutions.