MEP Erika Mann indicates  there may be a move in the European Parliament to get copyright enforcement and content out of the Telecoms  Package -  and a second reading next Spring

German MEP Erika Mann has said that content and copyright has no place in telecommunications law, and that in her opinion, it should never have been in the Telecoms Package. She says she has worked to get the controversial  amendments related to content and copyright re-examined.  Her comments are made in a video  interview with the German website Netzpolitik on 11th September.

But what is really interesting about this interview is the insights that she gives into the latest developments in the European Parliament.  When asked about the concept of 'lawful content' which is in some of the controversial copyright amendments, Mann refers to discussions between herself and her colleagues Catherine Trautmann and Malcolm Harbour. She indicates that there is a general agreement that

Read more: Content 'raus' from telecoms law, says German MEP

The European Data Protection Supervisor's report condemns the copyright amendments in the Telecoms Package

The office of the European Data Protection Supervisor yesterday (2nd September 2008)  issued public comment  on privacy related issues in the Telecoms Package Universal Service and ePrivacy Directives, otherwise known as the IMCO report. He  says that the concern is not about any amendment taken individually, but about the effect of the amendments  taken collectively.

 The net effect of a series of amendments inserted into the Package  could be increased monitoring of individuals on the Internet and a "slippery slope" towards a 3-strikes regime. Another effect could be to lay the ground for filtering and monitoring of individual users for the purpose of detecting copyright violation. In this respect, he goes further than most commentators, including myself, have so far suggested.  The amendments he is concerned about are: IMCO report 9,30,76,81,112,130 and 134.

 The issues covered in the report are:privacy status of IP addresses; graduated response; systematic monitoring of the Internet; and standardisation of equipment for "privacy-friendly" products. 

 On IP addresses, he calls the the relevant amendments to be rejected, (IMCO Amendment 30) and for  a study to look into the full suite of consequences of altering the status of IP addresses, prior to any legislation being drawn up. 

On graduated response, he says that Amendment 30 - which weakens the privacy protection for IP addresses - combined with Amendments

Read more: Data protection chief warns of 'slippery slope'

Is corporate censorship by the music industry what we want for Europe?  

Italian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been ordered by a judge to block access to the Swedish peer-to-peer file trading site The Pirate Bay. It's understood the order was given on 8th August by a judge in the city of Bergamo, in the north of Italy, and sent to all the large Italian ISPs. It is understood that they  have since complied with it.

The Pirate Bay is understood to have put in place measures which permit users to get access in spite of the blocks.

However,  what concerned me was a report in TorrentFreak that the blocked users were being redirected to a page hosted on an IFPI-owned server. I felt it unwise to report this without checking, and having carried out reverse IP and Whois checks on the IP address of the redirect page , I can confirm that this is the case.  I have already commented on  the changes to European law which have been voted through in the Telecoms Package, which reduce ISP liability for blocking content, contrary to existing European law. This judgement - with a redirect to IFPI -  only serves to confirm my view that this is a change demanded by the music industry and the politicians are giving in to such pressure without taking the trouble to understand the wider implications. Censorship doesn't have to be done by the State. And ISPs are capable of putting up their own redirect pages. If P2P sites can be blocked to support copyright, and traffic redirected to the rights-holders, what comes next? 

The story is covered by the International Herald Tribune, and by TorrentFreak .