EU Parliament Pressured By France, Removes Clause That Bans Kicking People Off The Internet
from the ah,-regulatory-capture-at-work dept
With France passing its new law to kick accused file sharers off the internet based on accusations rather than due process, you may wonder how that could possibly square with the EU Parliament's position from earlier this year that no one should be kicked off the internet without due process, and should only be allowed in "exceptional circumstances." Well, it looks like the lobbyists and the French gov't put enough pressure on the EU Parliament that it's now ditched that clause, even though 88% of Parliament agreed to it the first time around. Forget gov't for the people, the EU Parliament has shown that it's now the gov't for an entertainment industry that doesn't want to innovate. Sad. In the meantime, we're back to asking the basic question that no one in the industry ever answers: how will kicking fans of your content offline make them want to buy anything? It may get some to stop file sharing, but it won't make them buy. It seems the industry has become so confused that it actually thinks stopping file sharing is more important than making money.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: eu parliament, europe, human rights, internet access, three strikes
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Seriously, it's all good and dandy we have ways to keep government in line, but no one really have enough money or time to fight the lobbyists in court. That's why once they set up a "law" it's basically game over.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Like the one in France, eh? Maybe you should read the story.
the European convention on human rights which should provide the enough checks and balances to over rule this nonsense.
Did you read anything before you started blathering? Here's what's being dropped:
Amendment 138 read: "Any such measures liable to restrict those fundamental rights or freedoms may only be taken in exceptional circumstances...and shall be subject to adequate procedural safeguards in conformity with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.. including effective judicial protection and due process."
So what's being dropped IS the Human Rights protection in regards to this issue. Apparently Human Rights are now optional in the EU and can be dropped when they're inconvenient. Europeans must be so proud.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I hate to say this, but could the middle ages be coming back? Banning people's access to the internet is EXACTLY like banning books: information is made artificially scarce to keep some status quo that favors the few in power.
No doubt about it, we HAVE achieved a lot since the renaissance, like the Greeks and Romans did 2500 years before us, but it all seems to be going downhill again; history is repeating itself. Has civilization really reached another saturation point? I'm actually visualizing Nero lying on a couch eating grapes while the city is burning around him...
Anyways, I apologize for the pessimistic views in this comment. I do fear that our politicians are making a big mistake by even contemplating these laws and are endangering the very foundations that modern society was built on by our forefathers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And besides, the french government never was pro european, according to todays EU standards, and who knows maybe it's because of the nazi bull shit and the stokholm syndrome.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The list
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm confused
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
And yes, keeping those freeloaders out of the intertubes is definitely more important than making money. Giving money to IP lawyers is more important than making money.
What, you say you didn't vote for it ? If you live in a modern "democracy" there's a good chance you didn't vote anyway...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The saddest part
Seriously though, this is a horrible outcome - I can see it start to become more prevalent, that other countries will pass similar laws.
I sit here at the moment with one always-on unsecured wireless somewhere nearby, and an occasional other one - this isn't in a high rise area either. Anyone could use either of them when they're on.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its all over...
setting aside the illegality of the whole thing... the main question is... WTF?!
i have had one disturbing thought (amongst the 'find the lobbyists and slaughter them' day-dreams)... if someone uses your connection, you get all 3 strikes and you get kicked off... the argument "well, someone else must have been on my unsecured connection" will not wash.
we will receive a response along the lines of "well, you should have secured your network so other people cant use it". I can see this becoming the stock phrase used against us when we protest our innocence.
to all freedom lovers out there... watch our freedom disappear along with our basic human rights and all common sense within our goverment bodies.
the entertainment industry is taking over. brainwashing our politicians to do their own dirty work because they cant keep up with tech developments and user attitude changes. as consumers we are conditioned to do as the media and adverts tell us. however there are a hell of a lot of us out there who feel we are being abused by the system and choose to avoid TV and web ads and think for ourselves. of course, this does not conform to the rich minorities vision of a subservient world where consumers buy because they are "programmed" to and not because our individual desires lead us to want things we ACTUALLY want!
I would say lets fight for our rights, but honestly speaking... even if we put all of our money and time together into making a stand aginst these obvious breaches of rights and freedoms. we would NEVER EVER have enough resources to compete with the finance and resources held by our opponents.
However, lets not go down quietly! F*CK 'em, the greedy, selfish, no-good, facist, patronizing, shareholder-satisfying, government buying, freedom quashing bullies!
oooh the rant! necessary and relieving!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
never work
It won't even get them to stop file sharing for long. Soon as they get a new service provider they'll be right back at it as if nothing had happened. Actually, it will be worse.
Before, they were infringing as an un-monetized customer. Just a neutrally-aligned under-served market. After restoring connectivity, they will be stealing content out of spite. Now your potential customer base is actively subverting you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]