France's pro-entertainment lobby “three times a pirate” and you lose you internet connection law has been chucked out by the highest court in the land.

The French president forced through the law which was made at the request of his chums in the entertainment business. It required a new state agency to cut off offenders from the web. The Constitutional Council ruled that "free access to public communication services on line" was a human right, and that only a judge should have the power to strike an individual from the Internet.

This is news to the Entertainment lobby which believes that it has the right to accuse people and cut off their internet connection without having to prove it to a court. It is also news to President Nicolas Sarkozy who recently approved the use of military force to shut down a P2P site. Unfortunately, like the Entertainment industry is finding in the US, revolutionary wisdom that founded the country is a little bit too tricky to by-pass.

Council members based their ruling on the preamble to the French constitution, which lists freedom of communication and expression as a basic human right.