CONTROVERSIAL DRAFT SAID TO MIMIC DMCA SUBPOENA PROCESS
European file-swappers are next in line for an RIAA-like legal blitz if a European Union (EU) proposal to beef up intellectual property (IP) enforcement is adopted, a British think tank said Tues.
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U.S. recording industry announced Mon. that it filed first 261 of what could be thousands of federal copyright infringement cases (CED Sept 9 p1). Draft EU directive would “mimic U.S. law by giving record companies a fast-track legal procedure to find out the names and addresses of Internet users who are sharing music or other types of copyrighted works,” said Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR). Moreover, it said, it would provide little protection against misuse of those powers.
FIPR is part of an international coalition of some 40 civil liberties and consumer groups that last month urged EP Legal Affairs & Internal Market (JURI) Committee members not to move forward with the proposal. Campaign for an Open Digital Environment (CODE) opposition centers on 2 provisions: (1) Art. 9, which creates a “right of information” that would give IP owners wide-ranging subpoena powers -- similar to those granted by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) -- to obtain personal information. (2) Art. 21, which bans manufacture, use and distribution of technical devices that could circumvent IP protections.
EU draft has also drawn ire of U.S. ISPs such as Verizon, which say proposal is not only “the RIAA case imported to Europe” but also that it threatens immunity from liability for infringing acts of their subscribers that ISPs enjoy under DMCA. European ISPs have yet to coalesce on the issue, but are looking to raise funds to oppose it, said U.S. Internet Industry Assn. (USIIA) Pres. David McClure. USIIA is attempting to help with those fundraising efforts, he said.
JURI Committee is expected to begin debate on the draft Thurs. (Sept. 11), although item wasn’t on JURI agenda at our deadline. Document could be voted on by full parliament as early as late Nov., said Robin Gross, exec. dir. of IP Justice, a CODE member. Since CODE’s Aug. 11 letter to JURI members, she told us, coalition has grown to nearly 50 groups.
“Music companies seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot by suing their own customers,” FPIR Dir. Ian Brown said. “The EU should not be supporting them by making this process easier in Europe.”