The European Commission is consulting on blocking orders against websites, and on privacy rules which relate to graduated response / 3-strikes measures. Interested Internet users have just over 2 months left to respond.

 Just before Christmas, on 22 December,  the European Commission snuck out a  Report on    the IPR Enforcement directive (commonly known as IPRED).  This  is the Report from the Commission on the Application of Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of Intellectual Property rights. The Report is   the first shot in a Consultation process which ends on 31^st March.

The   main goal is to build   new measures for copyright enforcement on the Internet into EU law.  That is unmistakeably clear when you read the text of the Report. File-sharing is one target. Search engines are another. Anyone selling online  is a third target group.

 It is also very evident that the Commission proposes to use ISPs and

Read more: IPRED review: alarm bells for those who care about the 'Net

DG Markt has been secretly  working on a  file-sharing MoU for over a year.  According to available sources,  telecoms industry groups such as EuroISPA and ETNO have been sitting together with  the rights-holders such as IFPI and Vivendi, in meetings chaired by Commission staff.  But why did the Commission not reveal the MoU possibility  in answer to a  European Parliament question?

The European Commission is trying to get industry to agree to a "voluntary" MoU on file-sharing, and copyright enforcement. The  MoU has been discussed in non-public talks with industry lobbyist along with a parallel initiative to update and amend the IPR Enforcement directive. On the table  are blocking injunctions and privacy implications for 3-strikes, as well as so-called ‘legal offers'.

The existence of the talks was first revealed by

Read more: Secrets and lies and EU file-sharing talks

The European Parliament has reneged on its previous position to protect users rights against  3-strikes/graduated response for  copyright enforcement with a vote endorsing the Gallo report.

To make matters worse, the French media has exposed  how the European Parliament was informed by questionable  rights-holder lobbying which included the name of at least one dead person. 

The  European Parliament has taken a backwards step, an U-turned on its former position which protected Internet users' rights. Instead - unbelievably -  it has voted in favour of  the  hard-line Gallo  report which wants to see criminalisation of copyright infringements and ISP liability for copyright. These are the kind of policies which the European Parliament is opposing  in the ACTA (Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement) and which it has previously opposed on several occasions over the past two years.

 The Gallo report is an 'own-initiative' report written by the French, centre-right MEP Marielle Gallo. It is not

Read more: Gallo report: European Parliament U-turns on users rights