Blocking The Net 'Not The European Option' -- EU Commissioner Reding

from the quick,-get-that-in-writing dept

One of the useful side-effects of the groundswell of protest against SOPA and PIPA is that a surprising number of people in positions of power have come out against their approach, notably in Europe. First, we had Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda for Europe, who tweeted:

Glad tide is turning on #SOPA: don't need bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net.
And now she's been joined by her colleague, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship:
"The protection of creators must never be used as pretext to intervene in the freedom of the Internet," Reding told an international Internet conference in the southern German city of Munich, noting the "heated debate" surrounding the issue.
That's an interesting comment to make when the European Commission-supported ACTA is arguably doing precisely that. For example, the academics Douwe Korff and Ian Brown prepared a report on ACTA in October last year at the request of the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament. Here's what they wrote in on the topic of ACTA and fundamental rights in their conclusion:
Overall, ACTA tilts the balance of IPR protection manifestly unfairly towards one group of beneficiaries of the right to property, IP right holders, and unfairly against others. It equally disproportionately interferes with a range of other fundamental rights, and provides or allows for the determination of such rights in procedures that fail to allow for the taking into account of the different, competing interests, but rather, stack all the weight at one end. This makes the entire Agreement, in our opinion, incompatible with fundamental European human rights instruments and standards.
In her comments at the German conference, Reding went on to make an even more interesting statement:
"You'll never have from Europe a blocking of the Internet -- that's not the European option," she said.
If she meant it, then that's an extremely important line in the sand given that the blocking of sites has already started in Finland, the Netherlands, and the UK. It will be interesting to see if she and her colleagues back those words up with any action.

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Filed Under: blocking, eu, free speech, viviane reding


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2012 @ 4:44am

    perhaps she needs reminding of these facts. it's no good saying that something is not going to happen, when, in the position she is obviously in, she knows full well all that is already happening. website blocking, internet disconnections, human rights violations, law suits by an industry that refuses to adapt, increases in copyright terms, laws introduced (eg, ACTA) to protect those same industries whilst being detrimental to citizens.

    talk is cheap, let's see what action comes from her talk! i bet very little, if anything at all! member countries still do their own thing anyway, ignoring what the EU commission says!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Violated (profile), 24 Jan 2012 @ 4:59am

    DNSSEC

    I will be glad when Europe implements DNSSEC. Then my local ISPs can ditch the NewzBin2 block. Not that I have ever used NewzBin2, or even have an issue by-passing this block, but I will be damned if I let my connection be censored.

    It light of the nature of DNSSEC is it unlikely that the Court would still require a block when that would trash the security of DNSSEC.

    We stand no hope getting ACTA stopped without Civil War when that is one bill that has rejected all public debate and then was sneaked into Europe disguised as a fish.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2012 @ 6:08am

      Re: DNSSEC

      'ACTA was sneaked into Europe disguised as a fish.'

      anyone surprised at the lengths gone to to get this in? proves how bad a Bill it is when it cant be brought up under it's own heading. perhaps Viviane Reding would like to make a comment on that, given her statements above?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2012 @ 5:19am

    Copyright Enforcement Debate Misses Big Picture

    January 24, 2012
    Copyright Enforcement Debate Misses Big Picture
    By Cathy Young
    Real Clear Politics
    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/24/copyright_debate_misses_big_picture_1 12884.html

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    DannyB (profile), 24 Jan 2012 @ 6:04am

    The Wild West days are over

    The Wild West days of bribing and corrupting officials and ramrodding bad legislation through the system are over.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    argh, 24 Jan 2012 @ 6:37am

    hi from .fi

    and just today, http://www.valtioneuvosto.fi/ajankohtaista/tiedotteet/tiedote/en.jsp?oid=349485
    (English version may or may not appear on their pages tomorrow or the day after)

    they're pondering about MORE censorship in finland.
    Google translation of the chapter:

    The committee also proposes provisions for telecommunications carrier-targeted prevention provision. The court could order the telecommunications carrier (network provider) to prevent their clients access to the infringement of copyright for the website, unless it can be regarded as excessive, taking into account the evidence available to the public for the person, agent, or the author's rights. The need for such a provision is added the fact that more and more Finnish market network operates abroad. The proposal aims to contribute to reducing the unauthorized online distribution of the negative effects of right holders and consumers, as well as to control the use of legal services.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    anonymous, 24 Jan 2012 @ 7:11am

    kinda goes against what Viviane Reding said in the article a couple of topics ago, doesn't it? goes to show that it's not just the US that's full of shit, more interested in corporations than citizens, unwilling to admit to where the problem really is or how to combat it. all politicians are the same. a bunch of corrupted, self-interested, money grabbing arse holes that dont give a flying fuck about the people they are supposed to be representing. until, that is, it's close to re/election time!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2012 @ 7:47am

    Have anybody read the IFPI Digital Music Report 2012(aka DMR2012.pdf).

    They don't want just to block the internet they want to spy on you on it even when you are in your cellphone, they want cellphone carriers to monitor people for them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2012 @ 7:57am

    Viviane Reding playing possum?

    Because some European countries already are blocking websites.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2012 @ 8:03am

    Quote:
    "You'll never have from Europe a blocking of the Internet -- that's not the European option,"


    No we will just allow Finland, UK, Netherlands and Italy to do it and punish people who didn't even comit the crime like in Germany that made an old woman pay for it, or like in France where people must now become network wiz to not let others do anything wrong with their connection, they also should not buy any Wii consoles or any other electronic that doesn't use the latest WiFi encryption which is soon to become obsolette and people will be forced to buy new equipment or ditch WiFi altogether because of the cost to keep it up to date.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2012 @ 8:15am

    i wonder if the Pirate Party is aware of what Reding said? i would like to read the comments from them.

    oh to live in Utopia, where politicians did the job they were elected to do and actually told the truth! one day, perhaps!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ., 26 Jan 2012 @ 11:39am

    2011 etymology tophats created top 2 buzzwords for the year: "occupy" and "piracy", both entirely deflective from their most prevalent and critical occurances, Palestine, and the Palestinian Territorial Coastline.

    the OCCUPATION of Palestine is a crime against humanity and common decency---------------------the occupy protest movements did nothing to impede banker(corporate) moves on the Continent of Europe.

    the PIRACY in international waters near the Palestinian Coast and the murders commited in the course of the acts of PIRACY by the Israellys was also a crime against humanity.-----------------------------the furore over file sharing and internet freedoms and the occupy protest movements have virtually erased google search results for the two terms which in 2010 would have certainly brought the user to the Palestinian Human Rights/Apartheid debate.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    adam16 (profile), 11 Feb 2012 @ 9:50am

    dd

    Markelov`s simulator is designed for! anticellulite massage, muscle pain, joint pain, prostatitis. The Markelov`s simulator in accordance with the recommendations of doctors. The product is in demand around the world already.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    denalisian, 26 Apr 2012 @ 12:15pm

    thanks

    Bu güzel yazı için teşekkür ederim. Türkiye'de çok kaliteli masaj salonu, spa otel merkezleri bulunmaktadır. Özellikle Termal kaplıcalar konusunda ülkemizde sayısız doğal kaynaklar mevcuttur. Herkesin ülkemizdeki doğal kaynaklardan faydalanmasını diliyorum.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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