European Directive on the Enforcement of Copyright

eoin@host.ie

I am bringing this to peoples attention on a number of Irish boards/lists as it could do this industry a lot of damage in the long term. The proposed European Directive on the Enforcement of Copyright(strongly backed by lobbyists from the music industry) is currently expected to be adopted at a meeting in March of this year of the Competitiveness Council and IP Working Group, chaired by An Tanaiste Mary Harney,

The keys issues that arise from the directive for Internet companies operating in Ireland are:
· It creates new liabilities for ISP’s and those providing content. Any exemptions in respect of Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) provided in the recent Ecommerce Directive will be over turned.
· The scope for infringements of IPR is extremely wide. All infringements, even if trivial and unintentional give rise for an action against the relevant ISP under this proposed directive.
· In contrast to the E-Commerce Directive ISP’s could be served with injunctions to prevent future IPR infringements thus imposing an obligation to monitor all customers’ services(which is impractical).

Any Irish ISP/forum provider should be extremely concerned about the long term implications of this directive for the Irish internet and IT industry.
If passed without amendment the current draft may well force companies like Google and Ebay to re-assess their Irish presence. For example, under the directive any Google search results from their database (stored in their new Irish facility in Esat X) that includes material that infringes IPR might ultimately render Google liable to prosecution under this directive.

I have written to the minister and other state bodies asking that the directive be amended dramatically as otherwise it will damage the Irish IT/ISP industry.

Eoin

mneylon

Eoin

Who should we contact about this?
It sounds highly impractical, although quite typical of the current government

eoin@host.ie

Originally posted by blacknight
Eoin

Who should we contact about this?
It sounds highly impractical, although quite typical of the current government

Mary Harney as she is currently president of the EU Competitiveness Council and IP Working Group
Head of IDA
Head of Enterprise Ireland
Diana Wallis English MEP who is opposing the directive
Brian Crowley MEP He is on one of the committees (the Legal Affairs Committee) which is reviewing the directive
All the Irish MEPs
Your data centre

Eoin

dahamsta

http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/fsfe-ie/2004-January/000689.html

The EUCD was signed into Irish law on 22.1.2004. See http://www.entemp.ie/tcmr/ipuwork.htm. Much as expected-Arts 5.1, 5.2(a) & 6.4.4. The declaration that "Nothing in the chapter shall be construed as operating to prevent any person from undertaking the acts permitted" has been maintained, a slight chink of (meaningless!) light. There was no "extensive consultation process"!
There's also a section on the IPRE and softpat directives, Not quite accurate in that the IPRE link is not to the latest text under discussion and it refers to a vote on 9.2.2004-the debate may be on 9.2.2004 and the vote on 25.2.2004.
On Monday, I will accompany the national association of ISPs to two meetings, with the government department responsible for the IPRE and also the Deputy Data Protection Commissioner. The DP commissioner was very concerned when he heard about the directive and wants to table it for a European meeting of DP people in February. The recent complaint by the German DP commissioner (as reported in EDRI-gram) is very timely.

mneylon

Any update on this?