EU to criminalize P2P sharing?

EU to criminalize P2P sharing?
The European Parliament is set to debate a draft law that would weed out mass piracy of digital products, such as music and movies. There is a chance, however, that the proposed law might be stretched to include peer-to-peer file sharing as well.

The changes would create a situation similar to the one in USA, where ISPs and RIAA have been arguing whether or not the Digital Millennium Copyright Act grants copyright holders to obtain personal details of individual customers if they are suspected of P2P piracy.



"The balance between privacy of subscribers and the duty to cooperate with right holders seeking to protect their intellectual property that was reached in the e-commerce directive could be changed by this directive," said Tilmann Kupfer, British Telecommunication PLC's (BT's) European regulatory manager.

World Trade Organization (WTO) rules urge WTO members to impose criminal sanctions for people who counterfeit goods for commercial gain. That was exactly what the original draft of the law sought. European Motion Picture Association (EMPA), however, didn't feel that the proposal was enough.

"The Commission's proposal fell short of international requirements agreed at the World Trade Organization," said Ted Shapiro, director of the EMPA.

European ISPs fear that individual consumers might be placed on the same level with criminals seeking commercial gain by counterfeiting products. Legal experts have expressed similar concerns, and many feel that a law that would criminalize private P2P use would go too far.

Source: Infoworld

Written by: Jari Ketola @ 9 Feb 2004 3:30
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  • 7 comments
  • Rodgers

    As I see it, no matter which Continent you are residing on, P2P sharing is private between parties and this privacy should not be invaded. I don't know how this will be resolved in EU, but it will always be a problem in the USA, until the Supreme Court makes some decisions. If I buy a book, or a record, or a video tape and want to share it with my next door neighbor, that's my private business and nobody should have the right to invade it. What the neighbor does with the item(s) I share with them is their private business. I realize it is not quite as simple as I make it, but it covers the crux of the matter. Sometimes things of a simple nature go a long way to making decisions a lot easier.
    Best to All!
    Rodgers

    9.2.2004 07:19 #1

  • Ghostdog

    Exactly. They canīt criminalize P2P or any other kind of filesharing. Itīs our right to share things with people.

    The situation isnīt, as you said, as simple when it comes down to intelectual property, but filesharing can not be criminalized.

    Imagine living in a world where tour every single action is monitored by rights organizations, to see if your are following the law.

    9.2.2004 11:48 #2

  • GrayArea

    Ghostdog >"Imagine living in a world where your every single action is monitored by rights organizations, to see if your are following the law."

    IMHO we are about three baby steps away from that right now as far as the net is concerned. That's *exactly* what content "owners" (with microsoft's DRM blessings) want and are moving twards quite effectivly. Then there's the whole (USA) anti-terrorist patriot act etc...

    9.2.2004 15:03 #3

  • cyberiain

    P2P will be stopped within five years unless people make a stand now... we need some politicians on our sides and can only be done by their own teenage sons and daughters.. i said on the sharerector forum Goverments do not like free speach or free information they are doing their upmost to stop p2p and to control how the www is used... knowledge is power, the general public does not have a say, if you think about it all the new legislation that stops us from doing anything is always decided by about 30 people, top politicians all over 45 who have no idea what the real world is about.. you only have rights until goverments change the legislation then you are a criminal... cheers.

    25.3.2004 12:34 #4

  • DaOsT

    well the BPI has jumped on the band wagon now with idle threats of instant messages to downloaders warning them

    as for the english music ESPECIALLY chart music its vile to listen to manufacteured SHIT N I would NOT Thank you for it for free

    so warn away

    ::LivE ForeveR OR DiE TryiN!!::....::DonT FinD US WE WilL FinD YoU::..
    ChecK OuT ThE PenguiN GamE AnD PosT YouR HighesT DistancE ON ThE ForuM
    http://www.gazholland.com/

    26.3.2004 02:30 #5

  • julio123

    I feel that if we get sued as individuals, then the our service provider should get sued also. Like comcast, timewarner, or whoever your service provider is. Because they all promote piracy. If you ever look at any of there comercials on tv, the people in almost every commercial about fast speed internet, staids that you can download music for free, and movies, games. If this is not misleading to the public consumer then what is. Also, this p2p will never be stopped being that it has been created by them for us. Meaning, most of us only use the fast speed internet for downloads, so lets say if we all quit our fast connections, this will have such a big effect on the service provider that the price of dsl will eventually have to drop... I don't know if anybody ever used aol's private chat, we'll this is a perfect example of what I mean.. Last year around christmas aol took out all there cerver, smut, all of this chat rooms. What was the result, they had such a big drop rate on there aol service that they had to come up with a atternative, which is now mirc... So, the record company saying that they are loosing so much money because of piracy,I do not think that this is true, I think that they are too greedy, with there prices. If they drop there prices on there cd's more people will by them, but most of us pay 14.95 for one good song... and usually the rest of the cd suckss.... this is why the sale of records have dropped...

    26.3.2004 06:58 #6

  • mayg27

    If people can no longer use P2P, why would they
    continue to use and pay for high bandwidth?, if
    the internet will become just for chats and
    email, a good dial-up will do, then goodbye to
    dsl and satellite investors.

    13.7.2005 21:09 #7

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