Anti-P2P amendments pass first reading in European Parliament
Via the Young Green mailing list:
“The European Parliament adopted in first reading yesterday, the 24th of September, the Telecom Package – a group of measures meant to update the Telecommunications Framework Directive. This new packet aims to create a single EU Telecom Market which is supposed to reinforce the rights of telecommunications consumers in Europe.
But the Harbour Report, a part of the Telecom Package, contains several articles which are clearly out of scope. Instead of defending consumers, they are a back-door attempt, supported by conservatives, liberals, and socialists, to help shutting down P2P networks. That’s why these articles have been labelled the “Torpedo Amendments”.
“Although the European Parliament argues that consumers are the real winners of this Package being adopted, the Telecom Package has unfortunately been used by several MEPs to introduce a new line of intervention against filesharing on the Internet”, commented Marina Barbalata, Co-Spokesperson of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG). “This measure is only one step from the criminalisation of young people, the main group of Internet filesharing users. This vote, based on the total misunderstanding of the Web 2.0 by some MEPs, may lead to the loss of basic civil liberties and rights in the virtual world – the right to copy for private use in particular. Such a measure can prevent the success of innovative filesharing softwares for universities, scientists and libraries. I strongly doubt this really is to the benefit of the European consumer.”, continued Marina Barbalata.
Marc Gimenez, Co-Spokesperson of FYEG added: “The measures approved today within the Harbour report are merely a new attempt of the industry against open culture, open knowledge and open standards. All these, together with the software patents or the copyright time extension are undermining citizens’ rights on the Internet. What is first? The economic benefit of a small group, or the rights of the citizens? Because this is what is at stake now, when we say “digital rights” we mean “civil rights on the Internet”. And they should prevail over other economic considerations”
Young European Greens shall continue using P2P, because we believe we have the right to share. We strongly support the campaign defending Digital Rights against the Torpedo Amendments that is being carried out by consumers, internet users, and digital rights activists all over the EU (also through famous social networks). We believe this campaign will influence the final outcome of this legislation, and we are also spreading the word all over the European Union, in a call to defend our rights.”
More information:
- Harbour Report as approved in the EP on September 24th
- Analysis of the dangerous amendments by Digital Rights activists La Quadrature du Net
- Facebook group against the Torpedo Amendments
September 28th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
You expose well the dangers, but the vote of Sept. 24 would require a more thorough analysis. In particular, the “Amendment 138″ is a first (and quite huge) stone in the garden of proponents of the “three-strikes” approach (that is, the banning of users from the Internet when they are allegedly found guilty by private agencies of sharing files in a way not allowed by the copyright holder).
While a “three-strikes” bill is about to be submitted to the French senate by the Ministry of the Majors^H^H^H^H^H^HCulture, the impact of such an amendment can be tremendous in sinking down such attempts, and having lawmakers rethink the copyright system in a more balanced way.
Wait and see.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:29 am
[...] mushin published a blog post. Michel Bauwens: Anti-P2P amendments pass first reading in European Parliament (via Blog) [...]