Last week, France's highest court ripped the heart out of a law that was designed by President Nicolas Sar-kozy to go some way to protecting the creative industries and creative artists from the economic damage inflicted on them by the illegal downloading and file-sharing of their copyrighted material. The issue, claimed les sages, the court's wise men, was one of human rights. My view is that they have got their rights very wrong.

There is a film out at the moment called Coraline. It follows the eponymous heroine as she stumbles on a tunnel in her house that takes her into a parallel world – a near- replica of her own. This world is dominated by her “other” parents, who look like her real parents and seem much nicer. But where their eyes should be are buttons. Perhaps you have already seen a pirated copy.

Like Coraline's “other” parents, piracy (think Johnny Depp) and file-sharing sound harmless enough. But as it involves the widespread appropriation of intellectual property without payment, file-sharing is better described as file-nicking. It is theft. Hundreds of millions of pounds are haemorrhaging out of the film and TV industries, just in the UK. Jobs are being lost and companies will fold. This is not in contention. Lord Carter, communications minister, and the current government agree that it is profoundly serious. Yet they appear to have wandered into the same parallel universe as les sages, where this can continue without meaningful protection for rights-holders.