[governance] "Three strikes" in Europe, on Wednesday?

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

All,

  For your review and consideration:

La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/three-strikes-in-europe-on-wednesday


"Three strikes" in Europe, on Wednesday?


*** Paris, November 2nd, 2009 - The negotiations on the Telecoms Package
might come to a close on Wednesday. The Council of the European Union is
still pushing for "three strikes" policies in Europe but is also
attempting to allow private corporations to restrict citizens' Internet
access. Will the European Parliament continue to hide behind a
disputable legal argumentation provided by the rapporteur Catherine
Trautmann, and accept the unacceptable for the future of Internet access
in Europe? ***

- ----

A campaign page [1] has been set up to allow everyone to contact Members
of the European Parliament and urge them to refuse any proposal from the
Council allowing "three strikes" policies in Europe, and to explicitly
protect EU citizens' freedom to access the Net.

- ----

The conciliation phase of the Telecoms Package could end on Wednesday,
after the next meeting of the Conciliation delegation for the European
Parliament and another interinstitutional "trialogue" meeting.

The new version of the compromise amendment presented by the Council of
the EU still allows for restrictions of Internet access such as "three
strikes" policies in Europe. Moreover, contrarily to the Parliament's
version, the Council's proposal also permits private corporations to
restrict Internet access [2], notably enabling entertainment industries
to pressure Internet service providers in order to police the Net.

"The Council's position demonstrates that its aim is to obtain a wording
compatible with 'three unproved alleged infringements and you are out of
the Internet' mass sanction policies. Some countries want to install
them by laws, others through privately operated mechanisms. The duty of
the Parliament delegation is to make sure that only a wording that makes
clear that the access to the Internet, a condition of freedom of
expression in today's world, cannot be restricted in such a manner."
comments Philippe Aigrain, strategy adviser for the citizen advocacy
group La Quadrature du Net.

Members of the delegation had on their desks all the elements [3] to
counter the arguments crafted by Mrs. Trautmann with the help of the
EP's legal services in order to drop the strong protection of citizens
voted twice by 88% of the Parliament. However, they decided to ignore
them and missed out on the possibility of rewording [4] the original
amendment 138 to improve its language while preserving its core principles.

"So far, the will of rapporteur Trautmann to quickly wrap up the
Telecoms Package was stronger than the Parliament's commitment to
protecting citizens. The legitimacy of the negotiators and of the
European Parliament as a whole is at stake. What will citizens think if
after having seen their representatives defending them on two occasions
before the elections, when they had everybody's attention, they now
witness the Parliament giving in to the Council in closed-door meetings,
by allowing 'three strikes' schemes and private police of the Net?" asks
Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for La Quadrature du Net.




* Références *

1. Campaign page:
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/URGENT_action_Parliament_about_to_authorize_European_three_strikes
2. The Council's wording limits the weak, neutralized protections that
it entails only to "measures taken by Member States" instead of "any
measures", which would include that of private parties. See our analysis
of the different versions of this dangerous wording:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/an-evolution-of-amendment-138
3. See our memo:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/improving-amendment-138-while-preserving-its-core-principles
4. See La Quadrature's proposed rewording:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/indisputable-wording-of-amendment-138


Regards,

Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 294k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
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often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

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depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
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