Federation slams Euro government for file sharer fiasco

Spineless MEPs vote against throwing offenders off the internet because it affects their ‘human rights’

By Sara Yirrell

More from this author

14 Apr 2008

Be the first to comment

  • Digg
  • Tweet

The Federation Against Software Theft (The Federation) has criticised the European Parliament for failing to crackdown on file sharers.

In a vote last week, MEPs backed an amendment to a report on the creative industries written for the European Parliament, which said a ban on Internet access conflicted with ‘civil liberties and human rights”.

The amendment was added to the so-called Bono Report on the Cultural Industries. This was written by French MEP Guy Bono to advise the forthcoming European Parliament debate on encouraging growth in Europe’s creative industries. It called on the EU and its member states to “avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet access.”

Further reading

John Lovelock, chief executive of The Federation, said: “We are disappointed that MEPs seem not to be taking the future of our economy seriously as the UK government is.

“There is always a balance of rights, but currently some consumers and businesses are doing their best to kill off some of our key creative industries which employ many people,” he said.

“While this vote has no legal force and still leaves national governments a free hand in policy making, The Federation believes that this vote fails to move the debate forward on IP protection and is at odds with the current thinking in national governments,” added Lovelock.

“Civil liberties and human rights including the principles of proportionality should not be dressed up as a rogues charter,” he said.

display:none
Loading
We won't publish your address
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms & Conditions

Your comment will be moderated before publication.

Will Apple's attitude to the channel change in 2012?

51%

21%

27%

1%

CRN Partner Connect 2012

CRN Partner Connect logo

CRN's premier networking event is back on 17 May at the Ricoh Arena

Date: Thu 17 May 2012

CRN Fight Night 2012

One of the fights from CRN Fight Night 2010

Channel fighters preparing to square up once more on 24 May

Date: Thu 24 May 2012

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Submit your email address and we'll send a link to a personal newsletter control panel

fragment image

The mobile enterprise: Secure the data, not the device

The proliferation of endpoint devices within the enterprise has highlighted the shortcomings of one of the traditional approaches to data security

fragment image

Measuring the ROI of Google Apps

This Forrester report compares the costs and benefits of legacy email and productivity software with Google Apps


Dave the dealer blog

Dave the dealer

Clocking off

Dave discovers that rozzers are seemingly living in the technology dark ages

View from the channel

Views from the Channel

Departing CEO has done Dixons a service

Mark Needham, founder of distributor Widget, argues that John Browett leaves for Apple with Dixons in better shape than when he arrived

To send to more than one email address, simply separate each address with a comma.