The draft Directive, proposed in January this year, covers
infringements of all intellectual property rights, including
copyright, trade marks and designs. It concentrates on
infringements carried out for commercial purposes and provides for
counterfeiters to be jailed and have their accounts frozen.
For criminal sanctions to apply, the draft law requires that the
infringement is serious. An infringement is considered serious if
carried out intentionally and for commercial purposes.
This means that this Directive will not introduce new sanctions
against individuals downloading music from the internet for their
own use, though it will not stop Member Sates' authorities from
introducing and applying tougher laws.
An international coalition of 38 civil liberties groups and
consumer rights campaigns, including IP Justice, European Digital
Rights and the UK Campaign for Digital Rights, sent a letter to the
European Union on Monday urging rejection of the proposed
Enforcement Directive.
The letter warned that the proposed Directive is overbroad and
threatens civil liberties, innovation, and competition policy.
"If this proposal becomes a reality, major companies from abroad
can use intellectual property regulations to gain control over the
lives of ordinary European citizens and threaten digital freedoms",
said Andy Müller-Maguhn, a board member of European Digital Rights
and speaker for the Chaos Computer Club.
He added, "Under this proposal, a person's individual liberty to
use his own property is replaced with a limited license that can be
revoked or its terms changed at any time and for any reason".
The group was particularly concerned over an article in the
proposal which gives intellectual property holders broad new
subpoena powers to obtain personal information about any European
citizen that is alleged to be connected to an infringement.
Similar subpoena powers were created in the US by the
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the
coalition alleges that these are abused by the Recording Industry
Association of America to obtain personal information about
thousands of users of file-sharing software.
The proposed IP Enforcement Directive would extend the ability
to abuse this power to Europe, says the letter.
Another concern is an article of the draft Directive which
requires Member States to prohibit technology, including software,
that is capable of bypassing technical restrictions imposed by
intellectual property holders.
The coalition states that this provision threatens market
competition by permitting foreign IP owners to restrict parallel
imports and impose price discrimination within the EU.
It also forbids Europeans from deactivating or removing
technical devices such as Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags that can
be used in goods to prevent counterfeiting but that civil liberties
groups fear will also be used to invade privacy.
"One can think of the EU IP Enforcement Directive as the 'DMCA
on steroids' since any industrial property right that can be
licensed will be enforced through technical devices that it will be
absolutely illegal to circumvent throughout Europe," said Robin
Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice.
The letter was sent on the same day as the coalition launched
the Campaign for an Open Digital Environment (CODE) to raise
awareness about the proposed IP Enforcement Directive's perceived
threat to consumer rights and market competition. CODE encourages
European citizens to contact MEPs to urge the proposal's
rejection.
When the Directive was first proposed it met with harsh
criticism from the parties currently most affected by digital
piracy – the software and music industries.
In a joint statement at the time, a group of trade associations,
including the Business Software Alliance, the International
Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the Motion Picture
Association, claimed that the draft Directive "fails to introduce
urgently needed measures to hold back the epidemic of
counterfeiting", and that it "falls short of providing the legal
framework necessary to fight piracy in all its forms in the
EU."
The next step for the proposed Directive takes place on 11th
September when it will be put before the European Parliament for
consideration. It has also to receive the approval of the Council
of Ministers.
