Industry encouraged to tackle internet piracy but consumer groups fear ‘back door' grab.
The European Commission wants internet service providers (ISPs) to sign up to voluntary agreements to tackle the problem of illegal internet downloading. But it is backing its invitation with the threat of legislation.
The agreements would cover creative content including films, books and music. The Commission envisages commitments by copyright holders to support new legal downloading services and commitments by ISPs to tackle piracy.
The Commission's internal market and services department held a working group meeting of ISPs, content providers, rights holders and trade unions on 6 July to discuss how to develop voluntary agreements.
A further four meetings are planned before the end of the year, with the next to be held in September. The Commission envisages that developing the agreements will take around a year.
Legal alternatives
The Commission's invitation said that “European-wide voluntary agreements... would seem to be in the common interest of all stakeholders since currently the development of new business models on the internet is hampered by the volume of illegal downloading”.
It added that “while future legislation should not be excluded at European level”, voluntary agreements are “more likely to result in balanced and proportional solutions”.
The meeting discussed gathering evidence of illegal downloading, the development of legal alternatives to piracy, deterrents or sanctions, and educating internet users.
The Commission's approach has been criticised by BEUC, the European consumers' organisation. BEUC is concerned that internet service providers may agree to suspend the internet access of persistent illegal downloaders as part of the voluntary agreements.
Draft legislation currently under discussion in France would introduce a ‘graduated response' system in which users' access could be cut off after they had received warnings that they were acting illegally.
Kostas Rossoglou of BEUC said: “We are really concerned by this working group as it might result in getting the graduated response by the back door.”
He said that the European Parliament had “strongly opposed” a graduated response during discussions with national governments this year on reforming EU telecoms regulation.
In his view, such a response “violates consumer's fundamental rights including the right to a fair trial, right to a presumption of innocence and right to privacy”. He also said that the working group “has not been established in a transparent way”. Fighting piracy
The creation of the working group has been welcomed by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the recording industry.
Frances Moore, its vice-president, said that “all parties have to play their part” in fighting piracy, and that the initiative could help promote a “level playing-field” in Europe. IFPI estimates that, at present, around 95% percent of music downloads are illegal.
