EU Copyright Criminal petition
p2pnet.net news:- It’s only 13 days away. On April 24th, the European Parliament will vote on IPRED2, the Second Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive and, “With one stroke, they risk turning thousands of innocent EU citizens and businesses into copycriminals,” says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), declaring on a special petition site.
If IPRED2 passes in its current form, “aiding, abetting, or inciting” copyright infringement on a “commercial scale” in the EU will become a crime.
Penalties for these brand new copycrimes will include permanent bans on doing business, seizure of assets, criminal records, and fines of up to â¬100,000.
IPRED2’s backers say these copycrimes are meant only for professional criminals selling fake merchandise. But Europe already has laws against these fraudsters. With many terms in IPRED2 left unclear or completeley undefined – including “commercial scale” and “incitement” – IPRED2 will expand police authority and make suspects out of legitimate consumers and businesses, slowing innovation and limiting your digital rights.
IPRED2 and Business
The entertainment industry spent millions suing the makers of the first VCRs, MP3 players and digital video recorders, trying to use copyright law to kill those innovative products because they threatened old business models. Fortunately, the industry was unsuccessful.
IPRED2’s new crime of “aiding, abetting and inciting” infringement again takes aim at innovators, including open source coders, media-sharing sites like YouTube, and ISPs that refuse to block P2P services.
With the new directive, music labels and Hollywood studios will push for the criminal prosecution of these innovators in Europe, saying their products “incite” piracy – with EU taxpayers covering the costs.
Under IPRED2, these same entertainment companies can work with transnational “joint investigation teams” to advise the authorities on how to investigate and prosecute their rivals!
IPRED2 and Your Digital Freedoms
Criminal law needs to be clear to be fair. While IPRED2 says that only “commercial scale” infringement will be punished, the directive doesn’t define “commercial scale” or “incitement.” Even IP lawyers can’t agree on what are “private” and “personal” uses of copyrighted works. One step over that fuzzy line, however, and anyone could be threatened with punishments intended for professional counterfeiters and organized criminals.
How can ordinary citizens feel safe exercising their rights under copyright and trademark law when serious criminal penalties may be brought against them if they cross the line?
Tell the European Parliament to Fix IPRED2
The excesses of IPRED2 need to be reined back. Sign our petition now!
Says the petition:
We believe that IPRED2’s new criminal sanctions pose a risk to legitimate business and respect for individual freedoms in the EU.
We ask that the European Parliament approve amendments that would remove the new crimes of “aiding, abetting, or inciting” and limit the directive to combat only trademark counterfeiting and true commercial-scale copyright piracy.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
April 11th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Everyone who somehow aproves or promotes the criminalization of file sharing or copying will regret it as soon as a son, a relative, or a frind isarrested.
Then will come the regret and “What hve I done?”.
Someone will then say, incorrectly of course, “Forgive them, for they know not what the do.”.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com