Papers and Articles on Internet Policy

ACTA, SOPA & the EU - essential background

The Copyright Enforcement Enigma jacket

SOPA and PIPA have put Internet copyright into the mainstream news agenda. The Copyright Enforcement Enigma introduces you to this topic. It explains the history of copyright sanctions. It puts 3-strikes and blocking policies into context. And it unravels the strange story of how it all got mixed up in the Telecoms Package and Amendment 138. When you finish it, you will understand why the ISPs and fundamental rights are under attack! Click here to get it!

Internet Threats

Copyright enforcement is not the only threat to the open and neutral Internet. Since I began researching EU policy in 2007, we have seen several different groups of stakeholders lobbying for blocks to be placed on websites or user access. One of those groups of stakeholders is concerned with children, and confuses the method of dealing with child pornography, which is a criminal offence, with parental control of what children see. These are two quite different problems, and the policy approach should be addressed in different fora. Other calls for Internet blocking are now arising in respect to libel and defamation, and we have seen this in the UK with the Twitter injunctions. Further calls came after the recent UK riots - a knee-jerk to block Blackberry Messenger, without any real consideration of how such blocking would solve the actual problem at hand. This section will address these issues in relation to policy and the EU.

How America could impose Internet censorship on the EU

Monica Horten

Published on 20 November 2011

As Victoria A. Espinel, the White House co-ordinator on copyright enforcement prepares to speak in the European Parliament next week, we learn of new powers being sought by the US government to impose IPR rules on other countries, including the EU. The Stop Online Piracy Act (also sometimes referred to as E-parasite) in the US congress seeks to impose the most draconian measures against Internet users and websites. But from an EU perspective, it contains a poison pill. American academics and NGOs who have studied are warning that it contains dangerous provisions which would empower US Embassies to force other countries to adopt the same anti-Internet measures.

The UK regulator, the police and the IFPI – is it out of line?

Monica Horten

Published on 04 November 2011

Is it the role of the telecoms regulator to assist with extra-judicial punishments on behalf of private companies?

The decision of the UK government’s premium rate services referee to assist in the blocking of payment services on behalf of the IFPI raises serious questions as to the role of the telecommunications regulators in copyright enforcement. It also exposes actions by the British music industry to use payment services as a new – and possibly illegal – way to enforce copyright on the Internet.

G8 Deauville Declaration - Sarkozy's web of threats

Monica Horten

Published on 30 May 2011

The G8 Deauville Declaration is positioned as ‘ A new step for liberty and democracy'. But whose liberty?

Last week's inter-governmental summit of the heads of the so-called G8 group of nations took place in the fresh air of the French seaside resort of Deauville. But the sea air does not appear to have had a beneficial effect on final communiqué, which incorporates a call for stronger enforcement of intellectual property online.

The call is positioned as an economic priority for governments worldwide, and it is a coded demand for 3-strikes and website blocking.

The so-called Deauville Declaration, in the context of 'a new step for liberty and democracy' wants to see national frameworks to improve ‘respect' for