French Three-Strikes Law Ruled Unconstitutional

"The French 'Conseil Constitutionnel' just ruled that the recently voted 'Hadopi' law, which enforces a 'three strikes and you're out' system, is actually unconstitutional [article in French; here's an English-language article at Ars]. They mainly make two points: 1) They argue that removing Internet access is equivalent to hindering a person's freedom of speech, and as such can only be decided by appointed judges. This removes all punitive power from the administrative body supposed to enforce the three-strikes rule; all it can do now is warn you that 'they're watching you.' 2) When illegal filesharing is detected, users have to prove their innocence. This is obviously contrary to the constitutional principle of presumption of innocence."

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To call the decision a "bombshell" is to do a grave disservice to bombshells everywhere. The French law has been a showpiece for the recording industry's worldwide graduated response campaign, and it's been one of the toughtest such laws proposed anywhere. The Council's censure appears to mean that disconnections—a penalty that the industry says is essential—must be treated like court cases, not "you're probably guilty" administrative proceedings. That, of course, was precisely what such systems were set up to avoid, since suing individual file-swappers hasn't worked so well and costs unbelievable amounts of time and money.

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