In 2007, the EU Commission conducted a public consultation into intellectual property issues, prompted by concerns about the impact that digital downloads and file sharing may have on the rights of publishers and creative artists. The consultation was followed by an official "Communication" in January 2008 and a further consultation in February 2008. During the same period, the French government developed a draft law, commonly known as the "Hadopi" law, which proposed a system of warnings and sanctions to be imposed by ISPs on users who breached intellectual property law.
ISOC-ECC, which coordinates the work of the European Chapters of ISOC, produced an "Aide Memoire" critical of the proposed Hadopi law and the analogous discussions in the European Parliament as a "disproportionate response to the objective of developing creative content online". The Aide Memoire was in fact based on a strong position paper originally developed by Charles Simon for ISOC's French Chapter.
The response warns that the unintended consequences of the law could include cutting off citizens' access to essential services such as tax filing, online banking, and even education.
The Aide Memoire has been endorsed by 14 European Chapters of ISOC, namely France, Poland, England, Germany, Wallonia, Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Italy, Finland, Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands. It has now been presented to the responsible member of the European Commission, Madame Viviane Reding, and to the rapporteur of the European Parliament Committee dealing with telecommunications legislation, Madame Catherine Trautmann.
ISOC-ECC is now encouraging other Chapters to post the Aide Memoire to their own web sites and to refer it to their respective MEPs and other senior officials in the EU.
ISOC's Director of Public Policy, Frédéric Donck, describes the process leading to the coordination and development of this response as a successful example of full cooperation and coordination between ISOC chapters at regional level.
"Thanks to the hard work of the European Chapters, led by ISOC-ECC Chair Christopher Wilkinson, building on the efforts of Charles Simon and France Miremont from the French Chapter, the result is a strong position on an important piece of legislation at both national and regional level," said Frédéric.
The Aide Memoire is available on the ISOC-ECC web site in both English and French:
http://www.isoc-ecc.org/docs/ipr2008/GRADUATED_RESPONSES_FIN2_040808.pdf - English and http://www.isoc-ecc.org/docs/ipr2008/GRADUATED_RESPONSES_FIN_040808_FR2.pdf - French
