French parliament approves disputed download law

By Emile Picy

PARIS (Reuters) - France's disputed Internet piracy law, which will allow authorities to disconnect repeat illegal downloaders, was finally approved in parliament on Tuesday but the opposition immediately announced a fresh court challenge.

The bill, revised after France's top constitutional court overturned an earlier version voted in June, cleared its last parliamentary hurdle when it was passed in the joint legislative committee of the two houses by 258 votes to 131.

The opposition Socialists, who took the previous version of the so-called "Hadopi" law to the constitutional court, said they would mount a second challenge.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has thrown his weight behind the law and has been backed by the recording and film industries, which say they have lost millions of euros through illegal Internet downloads.

Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, who steered the second version of the bill through parliament, said the law would prevent "pillage" of works of art by "demagogues" who say that works of art should be free just because they were on the web.

"Freedom is not free license, liberalism isn't the jungle," he told the committee.

But the law, which will set up a new regulatory body with the power to investigate suspected illegal downloaders and recommend sanctions, has also been heavily criticized by consumer groups as well as the opposition.

They say it will be ineffective in combating determined pirates and will impose unduly harsh punishment on ordinary Internet users.