[Rumori] International Civil Liberties Coalition Urges Rejection of IP Enforcement Directive (fwd)

Mon Aug 11 09:02:39 PDT 2003

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 20:14:34 -0700
From: Robin Gross <robin at ipjustice.org>
To: robin at ipjustice.org
Subject: International Civil Liberties Coalition Urges Rejection of IP
    Enforcement Directive

IP Justice Media Release

August 11, 2003

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 38 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
M=FCller-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,=94 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=92s 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=92s rejection before the September 11, 2003 hearing on it=
s
merits in Brussels.

=93Major IP holders are highly organized to impose maximalist provisions in
transnational agreements,=94 said Robin D. Gross, Executive Director of IP
Justice, an international civil liberties organization.  =93The CODE campai=
gn
unites people from many different countries to defend civil rights against
the encroachment of overzealous intellectual property protection.=94

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 Jo=E3o
Miguel Neves, Vice-President of Portuguese National Association for Free
Software (ANSOL).

=93One can think of the EU IP Enforcement Directive as the =91DMCA on stero=
ids=92
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,=94 added Gross, an intellectual property attorney.

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

Andy M=FCller-Maguhn, Board Member, European Digital Rights (EDRi)
andy at edri.org
+ 49 (0) 30-3087 1710

Jo=E3o 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 (APRI=
L)
fcouchet at april.org

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:
http://www.europa.eu.int/cgi-bin/eur-lex/udl.pl?REQUEST=3DService-Search&LA=
NGUAGE=3Den&GUILANGUAGE=3Den&SERVICE=3Dall&COLLECTION=3Dcom&DOCID=3D503PC00=
46

Portuguese Translation of CODE Letter from ANSOL::
http://www.ipjustice.org/code/portcodeletter.html

French Translation of CODE Letter from AEL:
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/IPRProposalDirectiveLetterIPJusticeFr

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

IP JUSTICE
Robin D. Gross, Esq.
Executive Director     www.ipjustice.org
robin at ipjustice.org    +1 415.553.6261