PARIS - The French government will move ahead with a new Internet law even though a key aspect contravenes the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, the culture minister said Thursday.
Christine Albanel told Europe-1 radio that people illegally downloading material over the Internet would start receiving warnings later this year.
President Nicolas Sarkozy had pressed for the newly voted law to attack the growing problem of illegal downloads that deprive artists of remuneration for their works. It would cut Internet access for those who don't heed a series of warnings.
However, a key aspect of the hotly debated measure was struck down Wednesday in its current form by the constitutional Council, which ruled that only a judge can order the cutting of anyone's Internet access.
The law had given the job to a high council to be set up. The constitutional Council ruled that that would go against the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen that marked the dawn of a new era in France. It said both freedom of expression and presumption of innocence would be breached should an administrative authority cut anyone's Internet access, a job it deemed should be left to a judge.
Albanel said the law must return to parliament for a fix, but that portions not affected by the decision would be applied, including graduated warnings that precede any cutoff of Internet access.
"What is certain is that the will to defend authors' rights is intact, that the High Authority (council) will be created, that (warning) emails and letters will be sent starting in the fall," she said.
The entertainment industry hails the legislation, but Internet privacy advocates have hotly contested it, and the rival Socialist Party took it before the constitutional Council for a ruling.
