European Parliament opposes Internet bans for pirates

Proposed anti-piracy legislation in the UK and France could fall foul of civil liberties, but businesses still need to strengthen their Internet policies.

By Stephen Pritchard, 21 Apr 2008 at 16:59

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Attempts by the UK and French governments to ban serial online pirates appear to be stalling, following action by members of the European Parliament.

The authorities in France and the UK are believed to be working on laws that would allow internet service providers - or a common regulator - to ban those who use their accounts for illegal file sharing. In France, three copyright infringements would lead to a ban.

However, MEPs have voted to amend the European Parliament's Bono Report on Cultural Industries, which would have provided the foundations for tougher sanctions against online pirates, including blocking individuals' access to internet services. "Criminalising consumers who are not seeking to make a profit is not the right solution to combat digital piracy," said MEPs.

The move has been condemned by a number of intellectual property groups. Recording industry body IFPI condemned it as a "rushed through amendment". A number of internet service providers have welcomed the text, however, as it releases them from the obligation to hand over customers' details, such as IP address records, to the authorities.

None the less, lawyers watching European intellectual property issues believe that governments will continue to move to tighten up anti-piracy laws, not least because a recent European Court judgement confirmed that individual member states would have to draft their own regulations.

"A group of parliamentarians has effectively said that there are civil liberties issues at stake [in the Bono report] and that Parliament cannot take such a one-sided view of the matter," said Quentin Archer, a partner at law firm Lovells. "But nor did they say what should be done to solve the problem."

Businesses, though, should continue to be wary of employees using company resources to distribute copyright material. Businesses are unlikely to be sued for intellectual property breaches if they can prove that staff were acting without permission, but companies will only be able to prove that if they have policies in place that set out acceptable internet usage.

"If a business did have problems with intellectual property, it would be a defence that that such behaviour was not authorised and was done outside the scope of the staff member's employment," said Archer. "But it has to be part of a policy for acceptable use of the Internet."

Digital content security vendor Verimatrix pointed out that techniques such as watermarking IP (internet protocol) TV signals could make it easier to track down online pirates.