[Chapter-delegates] ISOC Europe rejects EU plan to fight online piracy

[Franck Martin]

I just got flagged this. 

Congratulation to ISOC-ECC for becoming quite active and getting a consensus from all the European chapters.

I had participated a bit in Paris (the beginning) to the ISOC-ECC meeting and I'm glad that this regional chapter is getting stronger.

More info/comments?

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Mark Perkins lists" <lists at markperkins.info>
To: "Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society Discussion List" <picisoc at picisoc.org>
Sent: Tuesday, 9 September, 2008 6:59:39 PM GMT +12:00 Fiji
Subject: [PICISOC] ISOC Europe rejects EU plan to fight online piracy

Internet Society European Chapters Coordinating Council
<http://www.isoc-ecc.org/docs/ipr2008/GRADUATED_RESPONSES_FIN2_040808.pdf>
Brussels, 4 August 2008

Aide Memoire

Subject: Internet – creative content and “graduated responses” 
			- Submission by ISOC-ECC

References: - Communication from the EU Commission, COM (2007) 836 final, 3
January 2008
		- Projet de loi favorisant la diffusion et la protection de
la création sur internet,
		République Française, présenté en Conseil des ministres le
18 juin2008.

Summary:
The purpose of this Aide Memoire is to express the comments of European
Chapters of the Internet
Society with regard to proposed restrictions on access to and use of the
Internet, in the name of
protection of intellectual property rights. This Aide Memoire has been
endorsed by the following
ISOC Chapters, members of ISOC-ECC:

France, Poland, England, Germany, Wallonia, Belgium, Romania,
Luxembourg, Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Spain, Netherlands

Recognising the importance of copyright, some proposed measures go beyond
that which would be
necessary or effective. In short, the signatories, consider that the
proposed French law in particular
is a disproportionate response to the stated objectives of the EU
Commission's Communication and
that the proposed measures and sanctions reflect a lack of understanding as
to the nature of the
Internet with unfavourable consequences for the use of the Internet for many
economic and social
purposes. Furthermore, the proposed law focuses on only one aspect of the EU
Communication,
which also includes issues of availability of content, multi-territory
licensing, and the
interoperability of digital rights management systems1. ISOC-ECC would be
particularly concerned
were the Hadopi proposals to be emulated by any other EU, EEA or EFTA Member
State, or that
they be promoted or endorsed by the EU Commission.

Noting that several aspects of this complex nexus of inter-related issues
are currently being debated
in the European Parliament, through amendments tabled to the proposed EU
telecommunications
package, ISOC-ECC may revert to those aspects of proposed EU
telecommunications legislation
that impinge on the use and development of the Internet.

--snip--

Conclusion

In the light of our members' broad knowledge and experience of many aspects
of the Internet,
ISOC-ECC has to conclude – with some regret - that the so-called “Graduated
Response” (of which
Hadopi would appear to be a precursor) is not an appropriate answer to the
perceived problem of
illegal downloading of media files6. The proposed measures would not achieve
the declared
economic objectives; they appear to be technically flawed and are probably
legally unenforceable,
at least in a non-discriminatory manner. An unacceptably high level of
monitoring of individual use
of the Internet might be necessary. Should such measures be widely applied
they would interfere
with several other priority objectives associated with generalised
broad-band Internet access and
with the EU Internal Market for electronic commerce.

Needless to say, any such measures would quickly become quite unpopular
among younger
generations of voting citizens and Internet users.

This Aide Memoire does not exhaust the issues under discussion in the
European Institutions and in
the Member States. Accordingly ISOC-ECC and its member Chapters reserves the
possibility of
returning to further consideration of these matters, particularly from the
point of view of developing
alternative policy