[FSFE PR][EN] IPRED: A Hushed Up Directive
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press at tristage.fsfeurope.org
Sun Mar 7 18:09:01 CET 2004
[for immediate distribution]
IPRED: A Hushed Up Directive
The EU parliament in Strasbourg is about to debate the "Intellectual
Property Rights Enforcement Directive" (IPRED), which further
restricts European law on copyright, patents and other unspecified
"intellectual property rights." [1] The directive's rapporteur is
French MEP Janelly Fourtou, wife of the head of Vivendi Universal [2],
a group of media and telecommunications companies.
The directive was presented by the legal commission for the internal
market in January 2003 [3] then further elaborated behind closed doors
to be set on an accelerated course for approval, one normally reserved
for directives on which there is already unanimous agreement and does
not allow for public debate by citizens, political forces and civil
rights groups.
The directive proposes to harmonizes national laws and to combat
"piracy" [4] based on statistics, analysis and market forecasts
provided by the BSA [5] and other content providers that predict the
birth of hundreds of thousands of jobs in Europe (paragraph 2.C, page
10 of the directive); to that end it considers equal unintentional
illicit copies not made for profit and those made on a large scale for
profit -- and authorizes the rights' holders to hire private police to
raid a suspect¹s home (Article 11).
An international coalition of civil rights and consumer groups has
formed to sound the alarm on the risks of this directive and to try
and limit the damages [6], creating a Campaign for an Open Digital
Environment that will meet March 8 from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm in
Strasbourg outside the European Parliament.
Participants include IP Justice[8], European Digital Rights (EDRi)[9],
Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR)[10], Foundation for
a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII)[11] and Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF)[12].
The Free Software Foundation Europe has added its voice to the chorus
of protests.
"The directive is extremely dangerous and delicate, it was not debated
in a democratic manner. We believe that every law involving immaterial
output should be closely evaluated by our elected representatives and
citizenry to avoid accepting passively the interests of some companies
operating in that sector and ignoring the rights of citizens, content
producers and independent operators, " said Alessandro Rubini, who
writes both free software programs and manuals.
Among the dangers:
- The sweeping breadth of the directive, which covers copyright,
patents, trademarks, satellite and cable transmissions, data bases,
software etc., does not give a precise definition of "intellectual
property," an expression that has different definitions in various
countries nullifying the pretense of harmony.
- It puts into discussion civil liberties like privacy, fair use for
non-commercial purposes of material under copyright for teaching
purposes or research, the legal safe-guards (that cover, for example,
the right to be heard in legal proceedings) and the right of
self-expression.
- It reinforces the control over use and distribution over
technological devices through the imposition of unilateral licenses
susceptible to modification or repeal in any moment and for any
reason.
- It prohibits the deactivation, neutralization, removal or
manipulation of RFID (Radio Frequency ID) devices that transmit
information via radio frequencies the location and movements of an
individual.
- Use of private police forces paid by media companies to search
private homes of those suspected of violating the law. These types of
raids were formerly only possible in the UK where the "Anton Piller"
measures could be extended to commercial violations. With this
directive it would extend to all European citizens.
- An appeal of the Mareva injuction by which it will be possible to
freeze bank accounts and property of those suspected of violating
the law before they can appear before the authorities investigating
the presumed crime.
- The confiscation and destruction of machines and instruments of
Internet provides (ISP) based only on the suspicion that their users
are violating the law.
For further details and updates on the March 8 protest in Strasbourg:
http://www.ipjustice.org/CODE/
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty
[2] http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/
[3] http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/it/com/pdf/2003/com2003_0046it01.pdf
[4] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy
[5] http://global.bsa.org/eupolicy/copyright/index.phtml
[6] http://www.ipjustice.org/CODE/release20040302_en.shtml
[7] http://www.ipjustice.org/CODE/rally.shtml
[8] http://www.ipjustice.org/
[9] http://www.edri.org/
[10] http://www.fipr.org/
[11] http://www.ffii.org/
[12] http://www.eff.org/
[13] http://www.ipjustice.org/CODE/whitepaper.shtml
More information: http://fsfeurope.org/
Italian contacts:
Alessandro Rubini <rubini at fsfeurope.org>
Tel: +39 0382 52 95 54
Cel: +39 349 26 89 041
Stefano Maffulli <maffulli at fsfeurope.org>
Tel (office): +39 02 34 537 127
Fax (office): +30 02 34 531 282
Cel: +39 347 14 93 733
Further information is available for the press at:
http://fsfeurope.org/press/
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