The Registry reports that Members of the European Parlioament (MEPs) may have accidentally included measures forcing ISPs to cut off internet access for those who infringe copyright through dowloading. The test calls for "cooperation" between ISPs and those "interested in the protection and promotion of lawful content". The trouble is, no one quite knows what "cooperation" means, including Malcolm Harbor, one of the MEPs responsible for the text. Today he said
"The interpretation ... is alarmist and scare-mongering and deflects from the intention which was to improve consumers' rights".
He has also promised to amend the text if it causes confusion.
The IPKat reckons that such vague language is an attempt to make everyone happy, which ultimately means that it will make no one happy. He also notes that it's not that hard to get and internet package and reckons that hardcore downloaders can probably find ways to get internet access, even if their original ISP cuts them off.
Did MEPs vote to cut off copyright infringers' internet?
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Rating:
No comments:
All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.
It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.
Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html