France strikes down hated Internet law

It's a shame the U.S. Supreme Court isn't like France's highest legal authority.

France's Constitutional Council has now struck down part of a new law that set up a government agency to bar alleged file sharers from the Internet.

Right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy and "entertainment" companies had championed the new law, which would have barred people from the Internet for a year if they were accused of illegally copying files.

But consumer groups and Sarkozy's progressive opponents fought this law because it didn't give the accused any way to challenge the accusations against them.

Sarkozy was proven to be a hypocrite by supporting the new law even though he was caught using copyrighted music for partisan events without permission.

The Constitutional Council ruled that unrestricted access to communication services like the Internet is a right, not a privilege. Thus, a government board like the one established by this law cannot revoke someone's Internet access.

This ruling also bores a massive Bubblicious hole through the online thought police's longtime battle cry that "the internets is not a rite lololol."

(Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25619120-12335,00.html)