EU Rejects ‘3 Strikes’ for File-Sharers
Written by enigmax on March 27, 2009The European Parliament has approved a report which goes against the French plan to implement a ‘3 strikes’ regime for alleged P2P copyright infringers. The proposals to increase security and ensure freedom on the Internet were accepted, but disconnecting users from the Internet was ruled out.
For the third time in a year the European Parliament has spoken out against tougher anti-piracy legislation that would allow alleged file-sharers to be disconnected from the Internet based on evidence from anti-piracy lobby groups. Instead, they chose to protect rights and freedoms of Internet users.
The report from Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis concerning security and the protection of fundamental freedoms on the Internet, has been accepted by an overwhelming majority. The European Parliament adopted the report with 481 votes in favor, 25 against and 21 abstentions. French proposals that would allow a ‘graduated response’ aka ‘3 strikes’ regime to deal with alleged copyright infringers were rejected.
“While ensuring that the Internet is more secure is a legitimate goal for our societies, we must monitor and restrict the use of surveillance and control techniques that threaten our freedoms, especially in cases which question its necessity, proportionality and effectiveness,” says the report.
In a clear snub to both the French government and copyright holders the report says, “Governments or private companies should not see the denial of such access as a means of imposing sanctions, as proposed in some countries in the union.”
The report further states that computer and electronic literacy is the new literacy of the 21st century and that guaranteeing Internet access to all European citizens is synonymous with guaranteeing education.
The French tried to protect their upcoming 3 Strikes law, but failed. An amendment proposed to read, “Access to the Internet should not be the subject of abuse for purposes of illegal activities and that a balance between the various basic rights guaranteed in Community legislation must be respected,” was rejected.
At this stage it is unclear if this pressure from the European Parliament will cause the French to reconsider their ‘3 strikes’ plans. It would not be the first time Sarkozy has chosen to ignore the democratic vote.
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47 Responses
EPIC! WIN!
Nice to know there’s still some common sense floating around
some common sense at last? hope so. about time the various governments realised it is not in the best interest of business or the public to try to implement the type of restrictions proposed by the music/movie industries. rather, it only protects those industries which is to the detriment of all others. said before, move with the times and produce good quality media at sensible prices that people will buy. that way, everyone gains.
yay
HAHAgreat statement!
In your fu***** face…..jajaja
So the basic human rights apply to our actions on the internet as well?
Seems a bit redundant, don’t you think?
Of course they apply!
You’re not a different type of entity as soon as you log on!
Seems pretty pointless and it is probably just a distraction to appease the mob.
And also, they have the part about “protecting the children” there as well, which in reality is really a very negligible issue, but it always works a red flag.
Watch out!
Every time they mention pedophiles, it’s just a ruse to bring about another big bad evil scheme.
Great stuff.. BTW what’s up with Demonoid?
WIN
Once again, the European Union proving why it deserves the title of global superpower.
The MPAA will not simply stop trading with the EU – we are a bigger market than North America!
Kudos to the EU parlaiment, what with their pressure on Westminster stopping the national ID card scheme in Britain (Your papers citizen – show them to me) I for one welcome our Elected Eurpopean Overlords.
Pity people don’t realise that _we_ elect some of these overlords proportional to our population!
Pax Europa.
Awesomeness :D
“french plan” me thinks some french ministers need to be followed around by paparazzi 24/7 have their phonelines tapped, mail, e-mail and various other forms of cummunication monitered plus bandwidth throttled down to 56k.
those that don’t get picked up for corruption will understand what their poposals are like to the average user.
faith in the EU restored, temporarily.
wow i don’t believe it.. you mean the world isn’t completely run by big corporations that can bribe anybody and anything?
*Disarms bomb*
well.. wont be needing this anymore..
yay for the world.
French gov can change their proposal of law from <> yo <>, and this law won’t forbid it.
French gov can change their proposal of law from “3 strikes you’re out” to “3 strikes you pay a fine”, and this law won’t forbid it.
Now what needs to happen is to legalize all non-commercial sharing. Non-commercial sharing and creation of derivative works needs to be made legal.
Baseball is not very popular in the EU, huh? XD
This is great news. Hopefully it rejects the ability of private companies to form alliances to restrict user rights too (I’ve not read the details yet).
Thank Christ Ireland is in the EU is all I can say. Our muppets in government and industry bend over too easily.
I can’t believe eircom wants to endorse this. It is clearly an administration nightmare for them although it makes little difference at the moment. They will be bankrupt shortly or bought out since they tried to announce forced redundancies and the staff are a major shareholder in the company that would be a mistake on their part.
I heart the EU (also Baseball is boring unless your plastered drunk).
yey from Romania :D
What does this mean for eircom[largest isp in Irelands] 3 strike policy?
Problem is: The EU-Parliament has no power at all, it is merely a simulation of democracy. Thats why they are allowed to vote for stuff like this, it makes the EU look democratic and like people have a way to vote.
I hate to be the naysayer, this report will not have any effect at all. Same happened with all the other decisions from the EU-Parliament.
Eircom is owned by a “get this” New Zealand company,who clearly don’t give a f— about people in Ireland.
Why 3 strikes? why not 2-1/2? why why why…
WHY BOTHER….
Don’t be fooled. This is not victory (yet). As far as I know, these reports are non-binding and could be overriden with further directives.
I’m sorry, taklamakan, but you are disillusioned. EU parliament had the power to introduce all of the essential statutes of DMCA into the European Copyright Act and add some! However, legislation is usually originating from the European Commission, but the parliament needs to accept it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_legislative_procedure
Uhm??
If you actually read the text in the link provided in the article, I fail to find the quoted statement:
“In a clear snub to both the French government and copyright holders the report says, “Governments or private companies should not see the denial of such access as a means of imposing sanctions, as proposed in some countries in the union.”
Did they remove it or something?
Yay! Kudos to the Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis and to those who rejected the French amendment!
Why don’t they focus on taking peoples cars away for drink driving?
Is their priority really to punish people for taking a COPY of a file rather than punishing someone for killing someone through drink driving?
Well done!
@25: Yes, they are allowed to vote for or against a law and try to change it two times. If the European Council doesn’t like the changes, they can block passing the law by not agreeing on it. Even if the Parliament would stop a drafted law by vetoing on it, the Council can bypass the Parliament by titling it “European Regulation” on which the Parliament has not right to veto.
Anyway, this is not a law and not even a draft, they are not allowed to draft a law. This power only has the European Commission. This is a “report”. Its nonbinding and can be ignored by the European Commission and the Council.
Thats why I’m saying they are powerless in giving such a report.
Hell yes!
Good news today!
Kudos to the EU parlaiment, what with their pressure on Westminster stopping the national ID card scheme in Britain (Your papers citizen – show them to me) I for one welcome our Elected Eurpopean Overlords.
fin I am all for the id card! long doesn’t screw up and costing in wast etc. I mean underage drinking to illegal aliens etc. why not have ID? not against liberty just so we know who you are etc.
Banning people from the internet just isn’t feasible. It’s as good as stopping someone ever earning a decent living.
@32 I have no problem with ID cards, it’s not as if our government has people silly enough to copy large pieces of it onto unencrypted disks that get lost in the post.
Or that put it on pen drives and loose them on public transport.
Or print off top secret documents and leave them on the train.
Not at all, our government is totaly competent to start including biometric data into this information so it is perfectlt secure – sans total incompetence as standard on their side….
America sucks. Long live EU!
Here in Portugal our phonographic industry all it says is that it should do more propaganda against file sharing, more commercials and sh!t. No 3 strikes law or fines.
After all here in Portugal it’s not a crime to possess any kind of drug.
@33
It’s not just banning people from the internet that isn’t feasible. It’s the whole system.
Despite all of the MAFIAA’s cage rattling, their 3 strikes law is something we’ll never see successfully implemented because you need realtime packet monitoring against a database of everything copyrighted, ever, to pull it off… Along with no margin of error.
A manned flight to the sun is higher on the list of things likely to happen. But according to what the copyright lobby says, it sounds like it’s just around the corner, doesn’t it?
Hah!
This is good news :)
I always thought it was crazy that you could get arrested, tried and put in prison for filesharing, but then you could use the computers in prison to fileshare some more…
Whattaworld!
All right, taklamakan, that makes more sense and sounds about right ti me, but you initially flat out said “The EU-Parliament has no power at all”, which is clearly incorrect.
But true, this is only a “recommendation” and the parliament is the weakest of the entities inside the EU. Nevertheless we should take part in the upcoming election process and let our voices heard in June.
“Baseball is not very popular in the EU, huh?”
What’s that? ;)
Thank god they rejected this! So many freedoms lost … More and more sniffing on our traffic, and restrictions, fortunately this stupid motion didn’t get passed!
Money Guy
http://finance-proxy.com
FFFFF YEA!!!!
What? The French LOST??
*slaps face in awe*
” Why don’t they focus on taking peoples cars away for drink driving?
Is their priority really to punish people for taking a COPY of a file rather than punishing someone for killing someone through drink driving?”
you fail at debate.
Maybe I should move to Europe…
It seems like USA gets worse and worse by the day.
Limiting freedom, turning into communism, corrupt politicians everywhere…
Disgusting…
Bravo Lambrinidis :)
nice to see the EU realising the importance of the internet, and refusing to agree with kicking people off it over something so petty as corporate profits
@42
No actually the french people won already. Sarkozy and MAFIAA loving clique lost
It’s a sad day when an american like myself would actually want to move to europe based soley on the fact that they seem to care more about the people then the american government.
millions of French people are against that 3-strikes law, the French representatives have received a lot of bad feed-back from their voters… only the government and its too numerous followers at the parliament are trying to pass that shameful law against the democratic will!
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