[PLUTO-soci] European Parliament Criminalises Businesses, Consumers, Innovators

[Simone Stevanin]

Ciao,

si sperava che non approvassero questa direttiva, ma l'hanno fatto purtroppo.

Tempi bui per l'Europa. Davvero bui.

S.

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European Parliament Criminalises Businesses, Consumers, Innovators
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Strasbourg, 25 April 2007 -- The European Parliament today accepted the 
IP Criminal Measures directive after its first reading in a vote of 374 
to 278, and 17 abstentions. It left several unexamined rights in the 
scope, and threatens to criminalise consumers and incriminate ISPs. 
Recommendations from an alliance of libraries, consumers and innovators 
were not followed, although Parliament was clearly divided on several 
issues.

A summary of the adopted text follows:
* Apart from copyright (piracy) and trademarks (counterfeiting), also 
the unexamined database and design rights are included in the scope, as 
well as trade names (which do not fall under Community Law). Patents and 
utility models (petty patents) are excluded;
* A weak definition of "commercial scale" was adopted. It does not 
clearly protect consumers and the young generation;
* Inciting an IPR infringement is criminalised. This introduces 
liabilities for software and service providers;
* Abuse of the measures provided by this directive are punishable, 
"fair use"-like actions such as infringing for the purpose of criticism, 
research and reporting are removed from the scope, and the neutrality of 
the investigations should be safeguarded.

"Terrorists illegally copying and selling phone directories will 
probably not sleep very well tonight. Neither will spare parts makers 
who, according to Parliament, should risk criminal penalties if they 
infringe on a part's design right. It is very strange that the 
rapporteur insisted on having these unexamined database and design 
rights included in the scope", said Jonas Maebe, FFII analyst.

"Today, 'inciting' is only criminal in some member states, and in 
exceptional cases such as hate speech. Elevating IPRs to the same level 
is a scary development. The inciting clause is also reminiscent of the 
US 'Induce Act', which threatened to make MP3 players such as the iPod 
illegal", Maebe added.

He continued: "On the positive side, Parliament did decide that abuse of 
these misguided measures has to be punishable, and that the neutrality 
of investigations should be safeguarded. It also explicitly mentioned 
several statutory exceptions to IPRs, where criminal measures should not 
be applied."

"We are also thankful for the strong support our position received from 
the Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups, as well as from several Members of 
the EPP, PSE and ALDE groups. A number of Members from the EPP and PSE 
groups afterwards concurred that the directive did not get the time it 
deserved for discussion, and that many Members became aware of its 
dangers too late", Maebe said.

The directive now goes to the Council for its first reading. Several 
Council members, such as the Dutch and UK governments, have already 
expressed serious concerns about the scope and nature of this directive. 
Maebe concluded: "We hope that they will take the joint recommendations 
of law experts and civil society into account more fully."


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Background information
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The Commission introduced the Criminal Measures IP directive, also known 
as IPRED2 or Criminal Enforcement directive, as a way to combat 
organised crime and terrorism. It would do so by turning all 
intentional, commercial scale infringements of all IP rights into a 
criminal offence.

The problem with this logic is that very few infringements have anything 
to do whatsoever with criminal activities, let alone with terrorism. 
Furthermore, the TRIPs treaty already requires criminal measures against 
commercial scale copyright piracy and counterfeiting, and in most other 
cases civil law is more appropriate.

The directive is also controversial because it is the first time that 
the European Parliament is co-legislating criminal law in the EU to such 
an extent. This also means that individual governments lose their veto 
power when the directive will be treated in the Council.


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Links
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* Examples demonstrating the consequences of the adopted text
http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Plenary1_Tabled_Amendments/Consequences

* Overview of the tabled amendments
http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Plenary1_Tabled_Amendments

* Result of the vote
http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Plenary1_Tabled_Amendments?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=plen1-results.pdf

* Coalition of libraries, innovators and consumers criticises directive
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Carte_Blanche_criminal_law_a_threat_to_innovation

* UK Government position on the tabled amendments
http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/UK_Government_Advice_for_Plenary1

* Dutch Parliament says No to European criminal law against IP violations
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Dutch_Parliament_says_No_to_European_criminal_law_against_IP_violations

* Permanent link to this press release
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/European_Parliament_Criminalises_Businesses%2C_Consumers%2C_Innovators


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Contact information
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Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-2-414 84 03 (fixed)
+32-484-56 61 09 (mobile)
bhenrion a ffii.org
(French/English)

Ante Wessels
FFII analyst
+31 6 100 99 063
ante a ffii.org
(Dutch/English)

Jonas Maebe
FFII analyst
jmaebe a ffii.org
(Dutch/English)


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About the FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European
countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the
public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards.
More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have
entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions
concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.