EU Parliament rejects file sharing ban
Three strikes and you're not out
THE EU PARLIAMENT narrowly threw out a vote that would have banned file sharing by private individuals and decided against banning copyright abusers from the Internet.
314 Members of the European Parliament voted for an amendment that killed off a bill that would have protected copyright over the Internet. 297 voted against the amendment.
A European Parliament spokeswoman told Information World that MEPs wanted to strike a balance between the rights of rights holders and those of consumers.
The move has been at the instigation of France, which already has similar laws in place. It wanted to have a three strikes law which means that offenders lose the right to an Internet account after being caught sharing copyright-protected music over the Internet for a third time.
It is expected to take advantage of its coming presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year to have another crack at creating the law.
Many observers, including the UK-based Open Rights Group, expect it to push for EU-wide rules similar to its own. µ
L'Inq
Infoworld
Comments
Why should they ban it?
File-sharing is just a program and ditto protocol.Why ban it?
If you ban that, then you better ban:
CD/DVD-R(W)'s
Copy-machines
Computers in total
Internet
DNA/Genes :-)
EU leading the charge
Wow, and to think I thought it'd be the US that would lead the charge towards draconian filesharing laws.RE: US influence
"I thought it'd be the US that would lead the charge towards draconian filesharing laws"I wouldn't dismiss American involvement so quickly, they've already threatened numerous countries (ie, WTO pressure on Russia for allofmp3.com), and since so many (all?) US officials have been bought off by lobbyists, off which the RIAA and MPAA have a few (ahem).
Nonetheless, it didn't pass, its not everyday Democracy works out the right decision, so lets just enjoy it :)
Liberty M.Yass
France is just as bad as the US is, they even banned smoking in cafes.France! banning smoking like the Americans and the Brits here......if you told anyone that'd happen not even 10 years ago, they'd have laughed in your face.
France is also a big pain the butt in the EU when it comes to drugs laws; they're always whining about banning herbs and happy pills too, and getting other nations (who had been way more sane about the issue) to follow their lead.
That's what happens when you eat horses.
Well-seeing also that they're one of the few EU nations with such a yoof problem - stupid vandals and other similar types of morons plague them; wheras in more liberal nations they don't have that kind of rioter problem.
Same as the UK there - the yoof problem got way worse after they banned mushrooms outright. There's a link between making good nice things illegal and there being an increase in f-ing morons roaming the streets & generally being a nusiance you know, govts.
Not the only link, but a major link.
P2P is good technology
Many of the larger Content Distribution Networks (CDN) are looking at or are using file sharing as another form of distribution for media streaming.Many have seen how a single TV program can be distributed to possibly 100K people in a 24 hour period the only cost being for the connection to the internet, no big bandwidth stuff.
The EU have voted correctly, this is a technology that can benefit and is energy efficient (green).
Very Good!
I strongly commend the people who disallowed the ban on filesharing.Filesharing banned is just taking us one step closer to internet censorship, and the destruction of our freedoms that is commonplace thesedays.
I suppose there will be many comments about 'protecting our children/selves' from the internet by banning things. Protect your own children - don't be so irresponsible.