Legal experts discover that proposed new European Union laws could lead to controversial ‘three-strikes-and-your-out’ plans despite previous rejections by the European Parliament.
It was just two months ago that the European Parliament rejected "three-strikes" anti-file-sharing proposals to disconnect copyright infringers as well as plans to force ISPs to filter copyrighted material from their networks.
All would seem well until recently when Sheffield University professor of internet law Lilian Edwards, and student Simon Bradshaw, began analyzing new European Union telecommunication reform documents and have discovered that proposed new EU laws could lead to a "three-strikes" or "connection sanctions" over the previous rejections by the European Parliament.
From their analysis:
On the basis of our analysis it is clear that the package does, or at least can provide a mandatory basis for the “warnings” part of a Frenchstyle connection sanctions law (the“strikes”) (see para 12 of brief), and also potentially provides a means by which public CSPs (ISPs and the like)can be compelled by the national regulator to work with (“promoting cooperation”) rightsholders to implement a disconnection scheme. Wording in various places of the latest version seems to confirm that this“cooperation” is a more extensive obligation than simply providing copyrightrelated public interest information.
If you recall, France is slowly inching closer and closer to a "Three-Strikes" plan of its own. The French Senate approved a "graduated response" plan just s few weeks ago, and the legislation is now awaiting approval by the the lower house of the country’s parliament.
Their paper continues:
This is a crucial set of obligations, about to be imposed on all of Europe’s ISPs and telcos,which should be debated in the open, not passed undercover of stealth in the context of a vast and incomprehensible package of telecoms regulation. It seems, on careful legal examination by independent experts, more than possible that such a deliberate stealth exercise is indeed going on. When passed, these obligations will provide Europelevel authority for France’s current “3 strikes” legislation, even though this has already been denounced as against fundamental rights by the European Parliament, when it was made clear to them what they were voting for or against.
If their analysis is true, and the proposed amendments to the EU Directives governing telecommunications and related services can be interpreted as they suggest then it’s important for the public and policy makers to take note.
jared@zeropaid.com
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So when will the Entertainment Industry be investing in the prisons to hold all these newly made criminals they have spent billions on hunting down..
or is thier plan to Home Detention them all with Electronic Monitoring with Built in MP3 players on thier Detention Bands???