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Breaking news are hitting a few French blogs : rumors that the Constitutional Council of France might censor HADOPI have been confirmed.

More specifically, the Council declares that “Internet is a component of freedom of speech and consumption”, or that “It belongs to Justice to pronounce sanctions when an internet user is caught downloading illegal content” (approximate translations of my own).

In other terms, the Council takes away from the HADOPI authority the right granted by the government  to put sanctions on internet users upon being caught downloading illegal music or videos, among other things.

This would be a serious failure for Christine Albanel (French Culture Minister) whose project would be turned from a lethal weapon into a harmless law, and where HADOPI could only have the power to inform internet users that they’ve been tracked down doing something illegal, but could not distribute sanctions, and would have to bring the case before competent authorities : justice courts.

More details (in French only unfortunately), there, there and there on Twitter.