The Medina report has been indefinitely postponed, and may be shelved forever, according to reports emerging from the European Parliament.

 

The controversial Medina report, which attempted to get the European Parliament to vote in favour of graduated response, has been postponed. It is understood that it has been removed from the European Parliament's agenda,  at least until after the European elections and possibly forever. The sources for this information are apparently the administrative staff in the

JURI committee secretariat. One report says that the Socialist group in the European Parliament did not want a "war" of competing resolutions, which suggests that other members of the group were proposing to table amendments that would oppose the content of the Medina report. Manuel Medina Ortega is a member of the Socialist group, and so is Guy Bono , who tabled Amendment 138 which opposes graduated response. So also is Arlene McCarthy , the IMCO committee chair, who tabled amendments to the Medina report supporting enforcment of copyright. Certainly, had the Medina report got to the plenary, it would have created a political problem for the Socialists. It would also have created a problem for the Telecoms Package, because the Parliament could not have passed it, and continued its support for Amendment 138.

 

Early reports in the Spanish press had given the tip off about a week ago, but it wasn't certain how accurate they were.   The news then emerged last week in a press release from La Quadrature du Net . Further confirmation has appeared on the website of Scambio Etico, an Italian campaigning organisation. The latter quotes Innocenzo Genna, director of the Italian ISP association AIIP, and  Euroispa. I have also had second-hand confirmation from sources close to the European Parliament. 

 

The Medina report called for a range of measures in support of copyright enforcement, including increased liability for ISPs, secondary liability for peer-to-peer sites, and graduated response. It contained amendments calling for stronger 'protection of copyright' put forward by, among others, the wife of the CEO of Vivendi, Janelly Fourtou . 

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