Graduated response in Europe

United Kingdom

In an interview with The Times, David Lammy, the Intellectual Property Minister, said that the Government had ruled out legislating to force ISPs to disconnect such users. Speaking ahead of the publication of a report on the future of Britain's digital industries, Mr Lammy said that there were very complex legal issues wrapped up in enforced disconnection. He added: “I'm not sure it's actually going to be possible.”

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5586761.ece

Since mid-2008, some ISP have agreed with the BPI to send warning letters to their customers who are supposed to have illegal file-sharing activities. There is no plan to have the warnings followed by a disconnection (the ISP are unlikely to voluntary do it).

Germany

According to Dutch law ISPs can only be ordered to provide personal subscriber data if it is plausible that an unlawful act occurred, and if it is shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the subscriber information will identify the person who committed the infringing act. In Germany court specifically considered the right to privacy and in March 2008 the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that ISPs could only give out IP address subscription information in case of a "serious criminal investigation". The court furthermore ruled that copyright infringement did not qualify as a serious enough offense. Subsequently, in April 2008, the Bundestag (German parliament) approved a new law requiring ISPs to divulge the identity of suspected infringers who infringe on a commercial scale.

The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs commissioned a study by research company TNO about how much Dutch Internet users download music, movies, and games, and what the social and economic effects of this downloading are. This resulted in a nearly 150-page report (http://www.ez.nl/Actueel/Pers_en_nieuwsberichten/Nieuwsberichten_2009/Januari_2009/Downloaden_en_delen_van_muziek_films_en_games_vertrouwd_verschijnsel/Ups_and_Downs (Dutch) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/01/dutch-government-study-net-effect-of-p2p-use-is-positive.ars Things get really interesting on page 116 as the report starts to dissect the societal effects of file sharing. The study concludes that the effects are strongly positive because consumers get to enjoy desirable content and also get to keep their cash to buy other things. Because the consumers save much more money than the producers lose, the net economic effects are positive. The report also reinforces the truth that unpaid downloads do not translate into lost sales in anything close to a one-to-one ratio. The report makes a number of recommendations that file sharers will be able to live with, such as supporting the development of new economic models for rights holders, not criminalizing file sharing for personal use, and so on. Big Content is likely to quibble with some of the report's conclusions, especially the ones about the economic effects. The music industry especially has laid the blame for the years-long decline in revenues at the feet of piracy, even though its own slowness to adapt to changing customer expectations and adopt new business in response is a major factor.

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/01/dutch-government-study-net-effect-of-p2p-use-is-positive.ars

Italy

After high-level discussions on the piracy situation in 2008, the Italian government has announced the signing of an agreement which will see it collaborate with the French on the issue. Of concern to those sharing files online, Minister of Culture Sandro Bondi says Italy will follow the “French model”. In 2003, Silvio Berlusconi’s government passed some of the most aggressive copyright laws in Europe, but ultimately the authorities didn’t give them the support demanded by the entertainment industries. Then in January 2007, Rome’s top criminal court announced that downloading films, music or software from the Internet should not be considered a crime if done for no profit, backing the likes of the IFPI and MPAA into a corner with fewer options. Today, in 2009, the situation is moving quickly. In common with situations in many countries around the world, the entertainment industries have all but given up chasing down individual file-sharers, declaring that their new focus will be on ISPs, who they will pressure to clamp down on pirates on their behalf. In October 2008 a technical roundtable got underway in Italy which promoted collaboration between the music, movie and ISPs. In basic terms, in part it was a discussion about the mechanics of implementing a ‘3 strikes’ or ‘graduated response’ to deal with piracy on P2P networks. France has one of the toughest approaches to the ‘problem’ in Europe, so it will be of concern to many Italian citizens that their country appears to be taking the lead from Sarkozy’s vision of copyright enforcement. According to a THR report, yesterday Italy’s Ministry of Culture signed an agreement with French officials to cooperate on anti-piracy issues. Furthermore, in an indication of how Italy sees its legislation progressing in the future, Minister of Culture Sandro Bondi said that Italian laws will “follow the French model” in providing strict protection and controls for copyright works. As we previously reported, plans for a “3 strikes” regime had already been touted in Italy by the movie industry during meetings in Venice, with the MPAA’s President Robert Pisano stating: “Maybe the first couple of times they get a warning e-mail, then perhaps the speed on their account is reduced, and if they keep doing it then maybe their account is closed.” With this announcement that Italy will follow the ‘French model’ and Sandro Bondi previously going on record saying that the fight against piracy is a priority for the government, it looks like the entertainment industries are getting closer to their aims, not just in Italy but in countries around Europe, and others across the world.

http://current.com/items/89739586/italy_to_follow_french_3_strikes_model_for_p2p.htm

Ireland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Rights_Ireland

Sweden

le communiqué conjoint de la Ministre de la Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth et de celle de la Justice Beatrice Ask dans une tribune publiée dans Svenska Dagbladet rejete totalement l’idée même de sanctions de coupure d’abonnement à internet (sans même parler de fichiers d’interdiction d’accès).

Les ministres suédoises méritent d’être citées in extenso :

"La proposition dans le rapport Renfors de donner aux FAI le droit et l’obligation de couper les abonnements à Internet des internautes dont la connexion a été utilisée de façon répétée pour des violations du copyright a été fortement critiquée. Beaucoup ont noté que la coupure d’un abonnement à Internet est un sanction aux effets puissants qui pourrait avoir des répercussions graves dans une société où l’accès à internet est un droit impératif pour l’inclusion sociale. Le gouvernement a donc décidé de ne pas suivre cette proposition.”

Les ministres ont également écrit que :

"les lois sur le copyright ne doivent pas être utilisées pour défendre de vieux modèles commerciaux"'

The Swedish government rejected the French model, but if France gets its way Sweden could be forced to implement these laws against the will of the parliament. It’s therefore of great significance that my party colleague Christofer Fjellner has tabled a proposal to stop Sarkozy’s internet ban and preserve file sharers’ online integrity. What Fjellner has done formally is proposing an amendment to the so called Bono Report. Representatives for all parties that are included in the Swedish parliamentary majority alliance have signed the amendment, worded like this: “Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise that the Internet is a vast platform for cultural expression, access to knowledge, and democratic participation in European creativity, bringing generations together through the information society; calls on the Commission and the Member States, therefore, to avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet access.”

http://sigfridinenglish.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/sweden-rejects-sarkozys-war-on-file-sharing/

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, only uploading copyrighted music and movies is against the law. "Unpaid downloads" include officially licensed promotional content.

Belgium

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/23/belgium_censorship/

Danemark

http://torrentfreak.com/largest-danish-isps-blocks-the-pirate-bay-090119/

Spain

The Spanish Supreme Court recently ruled that personal data associated with an IP address could only be disclosed in the course of a criminal investigation or for public safety reasons (Productores de Música de España v. Telefónica de España SAU)