Cc-europe mailing list

[Paul Keller <pk AT kl.nl>]

dear all,

most of you have probably seen this already, but the EC has recently  
published a communication on Creative Content Online in the Single  
Market. The communication and a accompanying Staff working paper can  
be found here:

http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/other_actions/content_online/index_en.htm

While the consultation has no direct links to the activities of  
Creative Commons it does cover two fields that are fairly close: DRM  
and Internet Filtering (to prevent piracy). The rest of the  
communication is about multiterritorial licensing of commercial  
content. Regarding DRM it is remarkable to see that with this  
communication the Commission effectively Endorses DRM. While this is  
made with fairly humble intentions (namely to improve interoperability  
and to introduce more easy to understand labeling of DRMed content) it  
is potentially dangerous that the EU as a political body is starting  
to promote DRM. This has also been signalled by the FSF europe and  
they have written an open letter to Ms reading, demanding her to  
retract this part of the communication (not sure if that is even  
possible but anyway). the letter can be signed here:

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/EU_Letter

furthermore the communication deals with content filtering at the  
provider level in order to combat piracy and file-sharing. it my be  
obvious that this is a bad idea. specifically the communication also  
asks for feedback on the recent Memorandum of Understanding adopted by  
the French government, the ISPs and the entertainment industry, to  
monitor internet traffic and ban users from the internet if they are  
found to engage in 'illegal file sharing' (see also here:http://www.voyantes.net/blog/?p=268) 
. I dont think that i need to explain why this is obviously a bad idea  
that should under no circumstance exported to the rest of the EU.

With this the communication the commission is soliciting feedback on  
these issues. There is an Annex with 11 questions regarding these  
issues and stakeholders are asked to provide feedback before the 29th  
of february. The are good grounds to believe that there will be  
substantial amount of feedback from stakeholders that is both pro-DRM  
and pro-filtering and therefor it might make sense for some of us here  
on this list (specifically these who can provide feedback in the name  
of an organisation) to have a look at the consultation and submit  
comments to the commission).

all the best from amsterdam,
paul
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