[AktiviX] EU Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive.

Mon Sep 29 08:52:17 UTC 2003

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http://www.ipjustice.org/081103codepress.shtml

International Civil Liberties Coalition Urges Rejection of
IP Enforcement Directive
Campaign for an Open Digital Environment (CODE) Sends
Letter to EU to Protect Consumer Rights and Competition

An international coalition of 48 civil liberties groups
and consumer rights campaigns sent a letter to the
European Union today urging rejection of the proposed
Intellectual property Enforcement Directive. The coalition
warns that the proposed Directive is overbroad and
threatens civil liberties, innovation, and competition
policy. The proposal requires EU Member States to
criminalize all violations of any intellectual property
right that can be tied to any commercial purpose, with
penalties to include imprisonment.

"If this proposal becomes a reality, major companies from
abroad can use 'intellectual property' regulations to gain
control over the lives of ordinary European citizens and
threaten digital freedoms", said Andy Müller-Maguhn, a
board member of European Digital Rights and speaker for
the Chaos Computer Club. "Under this proposal, a person's
individual liberty to use his own property is replaced
with a limited license that can be revoked or its terms
changed at any time and for any reason," added the German
civil rights activist.

"Currently EU-Member states are implementing the EU
Copyright Directive and the EU Software Patent Directive
is next in the line. We should really wait and see what
effect these new laws have before adding any new
legislation, " said Ville Oksanen, a lawyer and Vice
Chairman of Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFi), a
signatory on the organizational letter. "Contrary to what
the Enforcement Directive claims, Member States are
already obliged by international treaties like TRIPS to
protect intellectual property rights,? Oksanen continued.

In conjunction with the publication of the letter, the
international group of activists launched the Campaign for
an Open Digital Environment (CODE) to raise awareness
about the IP Enforcement proposal?s threat to consumer
rights and market competition. CODE encourages European
citizens to contact the EUROPARL Committee on Legal
Affairs and Internal Market and urge the proposal?s
rejection before the September 11, 2003 hearing on its
merits in Brussels.

?Major IP holders are highly organized to impose
maximalist provisions in transnational agreements,? said
Robin D. Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice, an
international civil liberties organization. ?The CODE
campaign unites people from many different countries to
defend civil rights against the encroachment of
overzealous intellectual property protection.?

In its letter to EU members, the coalition expressed
particular concern over Article 9 of the proposal, which
gives intellectual property holders broad new subpoena
powers to obtain personal information about any European
citizen that is alleged to be connected to an
infringement. Similar subpoena powers created by the US
Digital Millennium Copyright Act are abused by the
Recording Industry Association of America to obtain
personal information about thousands of users of
file-sharing software. The proposed IP Enforcement
Directive would extend the ability to abuse this power to
Europe.

The international coalition also urged rejection of
Article 21 of the proposal, which requires Member States
to forbid technology including software that is capable of
bypassing technical restrictions imposed by intellectual
property holders. This provision threatens market
competition by permitting foreign IP owners to restrict
parallel imports and impose price discrimination within
the EU. Article 21 would also forbid Europeans from
deactivating or removing technical devices such as Radio
Frequency ID (RFID) tags that are embedded into clothing
and other consumer goods to prevent counterfeiting but can
also be used to track people.

"Forbiding tools that are required for the exercise of
legally protected rights, like private use, preservation
of works by libraries, and reverse engineering, means
giving a complete monopoly to right-holders on the basic
infrastructure needed to communicate in the digital
world," said João Miguel Neves, Vice-President of
Portuguese National Association for Free Software (ANSOL).

?One can think of the EU IP Enforcement Directive as the
?DMCA on steroids? since any industrial property right
that can be licensed will be enforced through technical
devices that it will be absolutely illegal to circumvent
throughout Europe,? added Gross, an intellectual property
attorney.

Media Contacts:

Robin Gross, Executive Director, IP Justice
robin at ipjustice.org +1 415.553.6261

Andy Müller-Maguhn, Board Member, European Digital Rights
(EDRi)
andy at edri.org + 49 (0) 30-3087 1715

João Miguel Neves, President, Portuguese National
Association for Free Software (ANSOL)
joao.neves at ansol.org +351 933 252 302

Ville Oksanen, Vice-Chairman, Electronic Frontier Finland
ville.oksanen at effi.org +358 40 5368583

Frederic Couchet, Association Pour la Recherche en
Informatique Libre (APRIL)
fcouchet at april.org +33 6 60 68 89 31

Alexandre Dulaunoy, President, NGO/ASBL Association
Electronique Libre (AEL)
alexandre.dulaunoy at ael.be +352091303303

Martin Keegan, Deputy Leader, UK Campaign for Digital
Rights
mk at ukcdr.org +44 7779 296469

Links for More Information:

CODE Organizational Letter Urging Rejection of EU IP
Enforcement Directive:
http://www.ipjustice.org/codeletter.shtml

Campaign for an Open Digital Environment (CODE) Website:
http://www.ipjustice.org/code.shtml

IP Justice White Paper on EU IP Enforcement Directive:
http://www.ipjustice.org/ipenforcewhitepaper.shtml

Foundation for Information Policy Research Analysis on
Directive:
http://www.fipr.org/copyright/draft-ipr-enforce.html

Association Electronique Libre Webpage on IP Enforcement
Directive:
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/IPRProposalDirectiveInfoPage

Electronic Frontier Finland Statement on Enforcement
Proposal:
http://www.effi.org/julkaisut/lausunnot/ipr_enforcement_lausunto.en.html

Text of Proposed European Union IP Enforcement Directive

Language Translations of Media Release and CODE Letter
Opposing IP Enforcement Directive:
Finnish Translation of CODE Media Release from EFFi
French Translation of CODE Letter from AEL
Italian Translation of CODE Letter from ADISI
Swedish Translation of CODE Letter from EFS
Portuguese Translation of CODE Letter from ANSOL

IP Justice is an international civil liberties
organization that promotes balanced intellectual property
law. IP Justice defends individual rights to use digital
media worldwide and is a registered California non-profit
organization. IP Justice was founded in 2002 by Robin D.
Gross, who serves as its Executive Director. To learn more
about IP Justice, visit the website at
http://www.ipjustice.org

http://www.ipjustice.org/081103codepress.shtml
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