To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39257520,00.htm

EU law to end file-sharers time online?
'Three strikes and you're out' concerns…

By David Meyer

Published: Wednesday 09 July 2008

A set of telecommunications laws has been given the green light by a European parliamentary committee, which includes amendments that some argue could lead to file-sharers being disconnected by their internet service providers.

The 'telecoms package', which on Monday gained approval by the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), has sparked concern over its support for greater collaboration between ISPs and the content industry - an association that many fear could lead to a so-called 'three strikes and you're out' law being introduced in European countries.

silicon.com Classics

Want the best of silicon.com from the past 10 years? Look no further…

1. The best of Google Earth

2. Digital Blunders

3. A London pub crawl… with wi-fi on the side

4. 10 weird uses for an iPod

5. 10 hard drive disasters

6. The iPod and BlackBerry lost property mountain

7. 30 tips for better business travel

8. The Peeping Tom phone filter

9. 'Nigerian' money scam - What happens when you reply?

10. The 10 craziest uses of RFID

Such a law would force ISPs to warn, then disconnect, those customers they think have been sharing copyrighted material online. The telecoms package will, however, need to pass a vote in the European Parliament in September before it can be enacted.

One of the authors of the amendments, the British Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour, told the BBC on Tuesday that the amendments "have nothing to do with copyright enforcement".

Harbour said: "The interpretation of them is alarmist and scaremongering and deflects from the intention which was to improve consumers' rights."

Lilian Edwards, a law professor at the University of Southampton and author of the Pangloss blog, wrote on Tuesday she was "relieved" to have heard Harbour say he would accept further revision of the amendments if they were deemed to be too open to interpretation. Edwards had told silicon.com sister site ZDNet.co.uk ahead of the vote that the wording was "definitely wide enough to provide a legitimate foundation in EC law for 'three strikes and you're out'".

Edwards wrote: "Pangloss… hopes there is an opportunity in the remaining legislative process to tighten these provisions up in a way that retains their public interest intent (e.g. public education about child pornography) but could not be subsequently misinterpreted as legitimising three strikes legislation."