EU IP law criminal sanctions
p2pnet.net News:- The European Commission is thinking about whether or not to find ways to have criminal sanction measures inserted into the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive which was passed by the European Union assembly on Tuesday, says internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein.
“Moreover, the Directive will not prevent Member States from applying criminal sanctions if they wish to,” he says in a statement.
Even as it stands, the directive will treat “average consumers who accidentally infringe a single copyright with the same harsh penalties formerly reserved for large commercial counterfeiters,” says IP Justice here, going on that it, “creates powerful new enforcement measures to be applied throughout the EU that permit Hollywood and recording industry executives to civilly prosecute consumers for minor and non-commercial infringements of intellectual property rights”.
But, “The Commission considers that effective action against counterfeiting and piracy requires criminal sanctions for serious, intentional infringements committed for commercial purposes,” says Bolkestein.
“We will therefore examine the possibility of proposing in due course further measures providing for criminal sanctions in this field.”
Proposals for criminal sanctions were dropped from an earlier version, to the disappointment of the international entertainment industry and associated enterprises such as Microsoft, Apple and Intel.
“Of course, Member States are free to go further than the proposed Directive and the Commission hopes that the clear political signal being given in support of a strong stance against counterfeiting and piracy will also lead to a concerted information effort by national and regional authorities and other interested parties, leading ultimately to more public awareness,” declares Bolkestein.
The enforcement directive creates a broad new ‘Right of Information’ which requires ISPs to disclose personal information about their customers to recording industry executives for civil prosecution of p2p- file-sharing and other activities, says IP Justice.
“Similar subpoena powers, created under the notorious US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) have been abused by the US recording industry to obtain personal information on thousands of US consumers and have resulted in financial settlements from those consumers, including 12-year girls who live in public housing and 70-year old grandparents.
“Under this directive, the personal information of European citizens must be forcibly disclosed to companies such as Vivendi-Universal who can now harass and financially extort European consumers as well. And the EU directive applies to all types of intellectual property infringements, not just copyrights.
“It also provides for Anton Pillar orders or ‘midnight knocks’ that permit private citizens? homes to be raided by recording industry executives, and Mareva injunctions, which freeze consumers? bank accounts and other assets without the need for a court hearing.
“ISPs are concerned about the directive because it allows for their equipment and servers to be confiscated and destroyed without the need for a court hearing for the allegedly infringing activity of their customers.”
