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- From: "David Hirst" <dhirst AT pavilion.co.uk>
- To: <cc-uk AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [Cc-uk] EU and Piracy etc.
- Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 10:07:36 +0100
The
EU Parliament having just seen off the Patents Directive, it seems the EU Commission
is trying again. Wired News has reported: Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,68418,00.html This
concerns a Directive on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of
intellectual property rights. It
can be downloaded from http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2005/com2005_0276en01.pdf It
begins with the classic recording industries background about piracy, equating
it to drug trafficking. It
does not even qualify its use of the word “piracy”, which is a real
problem in the Malacca Strait and elsewhere. It involves use of machine guns to
steal ships. A quite different crime from copyright infringement. It
proposes “Member States shall ensure that all intentional infringements
of an intellectual property right on a commercial scale, and attempting, aiding
or abetting and inciting such infringements, are treated as criminal offences.” An
associated proposed Council Framework decision (which need not be scrutinised
by the EU Parliament), but decided solely by EU Ministers, also says: “The
Member States must ensure that the holders of intellectual property rights
concerned, or their representatives, and experts, are allowed to assist the
investigations carried out by joint investigation teams into the offences
referred to in Article 3 of Directive ..../…/EC.” And “Member
States shall ensure that the possibility of initiating investigations into, or
prosecution of, offences covered by Article 3 of Directive ..../…/EC are
not dependent on a report or accusation made by a person subjected to the
offence, at least if the acts were committed in the territory of the Member State.” With Blair
today on a campaign to limit human rights against terrorism, this may seem a
fairly small loss of liberty, but it seems to me to mean that any author of software
that is eventually used to infringe copyright (at a “commercial”
scale) can end up in jail. Not only that, but the “holders of intellectual
property” are permitted to be alongside the official investigations. It is
barely an exaggeration to say that this gives official sanction to a mafia like
militia. If my car is stolen, or if my house is burgled, even if my family is murdered,
neither I nor my representative is allowed to be part of the police
investigation. What is so special here? What do I have to do to become part of
the mafia? Own a copyright? I
think there are many improvements that can be made to clarify this law, which
is primarily targeted against counterfeiting. Indeed, I would suggest we ask
its title to be changed to be against counterfeiting, where criminal sanctions
could well be appropriate. Regards D David Hirst !-!?!-Hirst Solutions Limited Mobile +44 7831 405443 Home/Office +44 1273 570113 Innovation Technology Sustainability |
-
[Cc-uk] EU and Piracy etc.,
David Hirst, 08/06/2005
- Re: [Cc-uk] EU and Piracy etc. [signed], Matthias Spielkamp [c], 08/06/2005
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