EU Has A 'Public/Private' IP Observatory To Watch For Copyright Infringement Online

from the how's-that-work? dept

Bas Grasmayer points us to a blog post by Christian Engstrom, an EU Parliament member (yes, from the Pirate Party) who notes that while he was in a committee trying to address whether or not an "IP Observatory" should be created, he discovered it already existed. The Observatory appears to have been set up not to promote progress or even to make sure that intellectual property was a net benefit, but instead it appears to just start from the unproven premise that of course it's a net benefit, and thus it's only focus should be on stomping out infringement. And, of course, it appears that most participants are actually from industry, with a few "nominated representatives from Member States" along for the ride to give the Observatory a sheen of legitimacy as a quasi-gov't organization, even though it appears like just another industry association. Engstrom finds the whole thing baffling:
So much for the involvement of the European Parliament on this issue. We have been invited to hold an exchange of views in the JURI committee, and we are currently spending time on drafting a resolution on if and how the IP Observatory should be set up.

But before we (the parliament) were invited to join the discussion, the decision had already been taken, and the IP Observatory had already been set up and started working. It's just that the representative of the Commission forgot to mention this detail when she was presenting the initiative to the JURI committee.
Government for the people?
Hide this

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: christian engstrom, eu, europe, intellectual property, ip observatory


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Yogi, 12 Feb 2010 @ 4:31am

    Don't be ridiculous.

    Government for the people is not a European ideal and even when it was (200 hundred years ago)it was never even remotely implemented.

    In Europe, government is by the Elites, for the good of the people.After all, who, if not your betters, would know what is good for you?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      ethorad (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 5:01am

      Re: Don't be ridiculous.

      I would say Government for the people is a European ideal (in no way suggesting that it is not also an ideal in other parts of the world). Just to my knowledge no country anywhere has ever managed to effect it (massively sweeping statement I know). Seems that everywhere ends up being run by an elitist group of individuals who believe they know best and if you disagree you're dumb. Recently the UK had Tony "God" Blair, America currently has Obama's healthcare bill.

      Brings to mind Churchill's quote that "democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried"

      Have to say though that the EU parliament is a particularly good case study of goverment NOT for the people. Bunch of incompetent corrupt moneywasting buffoons in my not-so-humble opinion :P

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Overcast (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 8:00am

      Re: Don't be ridiculous.

      In Europe, government is by the Elites, for the good of the people.

      In Europe, government is by the Elites, for the good of the elites.

      Fixed.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        ethorad (profile), 16 Feb 2010 @ 4:59am

        Re: Re: Don't be ridiculous.

        In human civilisation, government is by the elites for the good of the elites.

        Fixed.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 4:55am

    "for the good of the people."

    Which people?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    vivaelamor (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 6:07am

    Liberties with the word piracy

    I love how they throw the word piracy in every chance they get while discussing counterfeiting. The email response posted to the comments section on Mr Engström's blog from the Observatory is very telling in their attitude, my summary:

    'Counterfeiting is bad, think of the harm done by counterfeited goods, oh and we also fight piracy because that obviously goes hand in hand with counterfeiting'

    Remind anyone of ACTA?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    mike allen (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 8:29am

    why doesnt this surprise me.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jesse, 12 Feb 2010 @ 9:03am

    Promote Progress

    Hey Mike,

    I agree that copyright, if it's going to exist, should have a net benefit. However, "promote the progress" is an American thing. It would be worthwhile to research the legal intentions for copyright in other countries before assuming that the "promote the progress" is universal. At the very least, I was reading a legal opinion piece that the aim of copyright in Canada is not at all clear.

    Cheers,
    Jesse

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 10:26am

      Re: Promote Progress

      It would be worthwhile to research the legal intentions for copyright in other countries before assuming that the "promote the progress" is universal.

      I thought Mike's point was to point out that it wasn't.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 12:00pm

    Instead of looking at the "glass half empty", why not look at the "glass half full". Who knows, maybe someone might be able to gather data relevant to the many legitimate uses of P2P.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 5:18pm

      Re:

      Instead of looking at the "glass half empty", why not look at the "glass half full". Who knows, maybe someone might be able to gather data relevant to the many legitimate uses of P2P.

      Do you really think they would release any data that showed that?

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.