Austrian MEPs are speaking out against filtering of the Internet and the Telecoms Package copyright amendments.

See here for the full story.  

There is also growing concern in Austria about the threat to the free Internet posed by the "Telecoms package", as reported by FutureZone ORF - the website of the Austrian public service broadcaster. The report calls it a "concerted action by international media companies, which will be working over the summer to ensure that the Internet in Europe can be filtered".  Read the full report (in German only).  

'Broadband settlement' being negotiated behind closed doors

 Talks between the British music industry and the ISPs to resolve the P2P / free downloads  logjam have been going on secretly for the past 2-3 weeks, it emerged today.  It is not clear exactly what kind of deal is anticipated, but it is believed that some kind of levy on ISP subscriptions is on the table, under the banner of a 'broadband settlement'. And there are indications that the British music industry is not going to push for French-style enforcement involving cutting off people's internet access. If that is the case - which remains to be seen, these talks could be positive. 

The existence of the talks became evident  at the Music Publishers Association AGM in London today, where management of the composers and authors collecting societies and music publishers gathered to review the  financial performance of this sector of the industry for 2007.  They appear to have begun about 2-3 weeks ago, and were presented as a change of heart by the ISP industry, that it is now willing to talk. A timeframe of the next 3-4 weeks to reach a conclusion has been suggested, but not confirmed.

Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of British Music Rights, confirmed that the talks are happening, but refused

Report on EPP-ED Hearing, Creative Content Online, European Parliament, 12 June 2008

The French government will use its presidency of the EU to push through legislation necessary for copyright enforcement. The aim is to have everything  ready for a Council of Ministers meeting in November. This was revealed by Ms Laurence Franceschini, director of creation and broadcasting at the French Ministry of Culture, who had the longest speaking slot - 20 minutes - at this event. She gave a series of dates for Presidency events where cultural issues and online content would be discussed, and stated that the French government's "objective is to prepare Council conclusions for November".  

 Ms  Franceschini also spoke of the plans for the so-called "telecoms package": 'In the amendments added, we have seen a clear political will to raise awareness of  measures which are there to educate the consumer on piracy and respect of copyright'. And she underlined the need to get the right legal and fiscal instruments in place - but she did not expand, notably on what she meant by" fiscal"  instruments.

 Ms Franceschini's statements are worrying for privacy campaigners and indeed for the ISPs and telecoms industry.  The telecoms package contains a number of hidden amendments which will compromise privacy and enable draconian copyright enforcement practices to happen throughout Europe. MEPS voted in April against such measures being brought in, clearly stating that criminalising people for copyright infringement, and / or cutting off Internet access, is not acceptable (see here for French and here for English version). The MEP Guy Bono continues to campaign against copyright enforcement in the EU  - see his website here.  

Report on EPP-ED Hearing, Creative Content Online, European Parliament, 12 June 2008

Three minutes and you're out!  Michael Bartholomew, director of ETNO - the European Telecommunications Network Operators group - walked out of the European Parliament hearing on online content when  he was cut off from speaking after just three minutes.  Mr Bartholmew was one of only two speakers from the telecoms industry, in a seminar entitled 'the search for consensus' - compared with four speakers from the content industry who had 10 minutes each.

He did get across the point that his members are investing three hundred billion Euros in new network infrastructure, capable of carrying mass-scale, broadcast-quality television which the content industries want to do. He asked whether it was really fair that the telcos and ISPs should foot the bill for the enforcement measures which the content industries want.  And, directing comments straight to the heart of the cultural lobby, he stated that the market needs to meet requirements for cultural diversity, as well as the consumer's right to privacy, and the right NOT to be criminalised for a civil misdemeanor. 

 The overall tenor of the hearing was  skewed against the ISPs - and was it me, or did I understand correctly the suggestion that if the content industries go down with piracy, they will drag the ISPs down with them? 

Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental principle of European law. Until now. The new  French law on copyright enforcement  on the Internet reverse that principle, such that anyone accused of copyright infringement is expected to prove that they didn't. This is one of the 10 reasons to oppose the French law,  cited on the informatics website Numerama. The law will also censor legal content, because filtering of  P2P networks cannot be done in such a way that alleged illegal

A leaked document   which  is believed to be a US-led  Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement reveals proposals to punish downloaders to a greater extent than any existing proposals in the EU. The document details, for example, criminal sanctions for 'significant wilful infringements without motivation for financial gain'  - this would appear to mean that anyone downloading too many files could be branded a criminal, even if the files were only for personal use. That is considerably heavier than   the proposed EU legislation, already controversial, which would  criminalise only commmercial infringers. 

 The proposed new Trade Agreement was presented last October by US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, to representatives of the European Commission, Australia, Canada, Japan and other governments. It would also mandate proposals for ISPs  to police content at the behest of content companies, and would force them to divulge personal information identifying alleged infringers - on the basis of "effective notification of a claimed infringement". 

Not only is this  in breach of existing EU  data protection legislation, it would also appear to break a fundamental

Interesting to hear Emily Bell of the Guardian talking on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning,   complaining about the BBC encroaching on the 'newspaper' market  and allegedly threatening the businesses of the traditional UK press with anti-competitive behaviour. And disappointing to hear such an  eminent media writer as Ms Bell, presenting such a narrow view of this very important debate - what, after all, is the role of public service content  - and perhaps one should also say - the role of national flag-carrier public service content providers - in the Internet environment? 

I get the Guardian and the FT web headlines delivered to me by RSS feed, and they flash up on my screen at regular intervals through the day  - the electronic equivalent of the news boy shouting the headines on the street corner -  and both websites now offer news and features in video and audio  format as well as text.  So what does that make them? News -paper seems hardly appropriate any more. Likewise, the BBC,

Report on European Commission  High Level Conference on Counterfeiting and Piracy 13 May 2008

John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), has accused the telcos and ISPs of filibustering and avoiding coming to the table to discuss co-operation measures with the music industry. His attack was delivered during an event organised by the European Commission to discuss policy issues related to online piracy and counterfeited goods.

 Mr Kennedy said that he first called on the ISPs at a conference organised by ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators Association)  in 2005, and "three years later, there has been little or no action from the

2nd report: European Commission  High Level Conference on Counterfeiting and Piracy 13 May 2008

 Is the online auction platform, eBay, going to be the next Internet  target for the legislators? Judging by the mood at the  European Commission's policy forum on counterfeiting, the answer could be 'yes'.

Phillippe Lacoste, chairman of the clothing manufacturer of the same name, and grandson of the champion tennis player and  founder,  served first. His charming manner belied a tough message:   "eBay..ils doivent prendre responsabilite" (eBay must  take responsbility) he said.  M.Lacoste alleged that

 3rd  report: European Commission  High Level Conference on Counterfeiting and Piracy 13 May 2008

Gesac, the European author's collective body, has lashed out with  a stinging swipe at the ISP industry, saying that ISPs are "taking a free ride" and that they need to "respect the value of content".  In the open forum of the session on Internet piracy at this top-level European policy forum,  Victoriano Darias, Gesac's legal adviser, also questioned why it was taking such a long time to deal with P2P downloading, saying that after  nine years since the first P2P service (Napster) appeared, the same issues are still being raised and there is no progress. 

Gesac, the entity which represents copyright collective managment  societies across Europe, has been baying for the blood of the ISPs in other fora. It wants them to

New technologies to improve peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies are appearing behind the scenes - and they offer a pointed  reposte  to the content industries about how to deal with P2P downloading.  They demonstrate ways to solve the problem by technical means. And when you consider this carefully, it means you can  demolish the IFPI / MPAA argument that the only way to reduce P2P traffic on the networks is through litigation and sanction - or that P2P traffic can be reduced at all.  

P4P is a way for ISPs to tidy up the P2P traffic and reduce the amount of bandwidth it users - P4P is, if you like, a technically neater way to transmit P2P traffic, and will help reduce the network management overhead for ISPs.   The core group of companies developing P4P*  consists of a number of ISPs, mostly American, hand in glove with P2P companies like BitTorrent and Limewire, plus a few stalwart equipment manufacturers like Cisco. And  - this is where  it gets really interesting - on the list of observers is - well, you guessed didn't you? - the Motion Picture Association of America, NBC Universal (part-owned by Vivendi), Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting - all the content industry heavyweights.