ISPs and privacy: European view
p2pnet news | P2P:- British provider TalkTalk publicly refused talks with lobby group British Phonographic Industry (BPI) about voluntarily handing over customer data in cases of alleged infringement. In Britain, ISPs are under political pressure to settle the dispute with film- and music industries or else new legislation will force their hands.
Whether that legislation comes to happen remains to be seen, though. But it’s a threat that access and hosting providers are taking seriously, and it’s looming in other countries as well. Filtering, cutting of alleged infringers and other measures are also being discussed in Ireland, France, Australia.
This year, [they're] lobbying for more legislation in their favour is music industry’s top priority in Germany and elsewhere. They demand leverage to access ISP customer data in cases of alleged infringements. Not totally sucessful so far, but not unsuccessful either: Although German government has agreed on a new law that will give rights holders some leverage against third parties (eg ISPs), the provision leaves the decision of whether or not data will be handed over to a judge.
Furthermore, the planned law will apply only in cases of infringement “of commercial scope”. That distinction is not very precise and leaves ample room for argument.
Critics fear that sharing a complete new album might already be deemed “commercial”. The law has yet to pass both chambers, Bundestag and Bundesrat.
Today it passed Bundestag’s commission of legislation, so parliament’s consent can be expected.
A little sign of hope: The planned law takes vast databases generated by new legislation out of music industry’s reach, at least in theory. For national security and the fight against terrorism, German ISPs have been forced by law to collect and store all customer and connection data for six months, generating a honeypot the film and music industry would love to dip into.
Practically, as of now there is no effective way to distinguish data that can be shared and data that’s out of reach, so operational and technical issues may taint that provision.
In other news, more prosecutors have opposed the discovery tactics by German music industry lawyers, saying they’re abusing criminal prosecution for their civil cases. DA’s from Wuppertal recently stated they’d stop pursuing file sharing cases brought onto them (in the thousands) by music industry lawyers. Investigating those complaints, they argue, would be disproportional, as filesharers didn’t have any financial interests. Music industry, the prosecutors say, didn’t want to see these cases prosecuted in the first place, they were just after the customer’s identity to advance their civil proceedings.
Also, a court in Saarbrücken has forbidden that personal data relating to IP addresses be shared with music industry lawyers as defendants rights to privacy protection might have to be held higher than music industry’s claim for remedies.
Finally, mirroring the scrutiny MediaSentry’s methods are getting in the US, a Hamburg court recently ruled that printouts of shared folder contents aren’t sufficient evidence to support a file sharing claim.
Those printouts are generally provided by ProMedia, the German twin of MediaSentry. This is just a procedural glitch, though, as ProMedia is likely to adjust procedures and/or be required to support evidence by witness testimony from the investigators that gathered the evidence.
Volker Briegleb
[Briegleb says he covers P2P and the music industry (among other things) for German magazine c't and Heise Online, their website,.]
(Thanks, Ray and Volker)
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April 10th, 2008 at 5:13 am
If it’s a choice between having the Internet crippled by these rabid crack monkeys and ISPs losing all their customers, or maintain the status quo, I choose the latter. The former need not occur as ISPs can’t be sued, and neither should they be legally required to terminate their users and betray their privacy. If they are, then they should all fight it tooth and nail as rabidly as the music mongrels do. Let it drag out endlessly if need be, but meanwhile keep it business as usual. Just don’t pay those thieving animals a thing.