Press release
There will be a review of European telecoms law in the European Parliament today. France has suggested an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package, which would bar broadband access to anyone who persists in illegally downloading music or films.Nicolas Sarkozy insisted on a similar "three-strikes-and-you're-out" scheme for France last month and now, as European President he is suggesting that European law follows suit. Under a cross-industry agreement, ISPs would have to cut off access for up to a year for third-time offenders. Sarkozy believes "there is no reason that the internet should be a lawless zone" however the legislation is facing fierce criticism.
The law would transform ISPs from technical intermediaries into law enforcers.
Susan Hall, ICT and media partner at Cobbetts LLP comments: “There is a high likelihood that these amendments to the pan- European Telecoms Package will come through today. I shall be watching its progress very closely as having already been defeated once this time the amendments are being slipped in the back door and ISP’s will have to deal with the outcome.
“The amendment will cause several problems, firstly, many broadband users routinely transfer large files which are encrypted. Many of these are acting quite legitimately and in order to determine whether or not such large files are or are not the produce of illicit file sharing the ISP will have to carry out an unprecedented degree of analysis of its customers' traffic.
“Furthermore, computers are frequently shared - within offices, within homes, within educational institutions and inadvertently, where wrong-doers "piggy back" on an inadequately secured Wi-Fi connection. All this raises the spectre of people losing internet access - for reasons which are no fault of their own.
“Finally, given the business and social importance of loss of internet access, this seems wholly disproportionate to the scope of the offence - there are civil and criminal sanctions available to rights' holders who can prove illegal downloading, but they do not include forbidding the convicted party access to the internet at all, a remedy rather akin to banning someone from driving following serious motoring offences. If the EU presidency were to suggest that car companies could ban from driving people whom they suspected, without conclusive proof, of defaulting on vehicle finance arrangements with some car company (not necessarily the one seeking the banning) or at least of having shared a postal address with someone suspected of such an act then there would rightly be an outcry. But the proposal to ban people from what used to be known as the information superhighway seems to be treated as a trivial matter.”
