[Ecommerce] IP Directive off the European parliament agenda

[Manon Ress]

Thanks to Cedric Laurant for this message:

http://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/cgint.exe/1?204&OIDN=1507135&-tt=


Date: 10/02/2004 08:00
*Intellectual property directive taken off Parliament's agenda*
*In short:*
In order to buy the Irish Presidency more time to secure a majority
within a divided Council, the Parliament has decided to withdraw the
intellectual property directive from its 9 February plenary agenda.


*Brief news:*
The controversial intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement
directive has been withdrawn from the Parliament's 9 February plenary
agenda because of fears that the Council might reject it, EU sources
told EurActiv.

The proposed directive, which was initially designed to prevent piracy
and counterfeiting in the EU, had attracted much criticism from consumer
organisations, telecoms operators and Internet service providers. They
claimed the directive would force them into endless legal proceedings
with rights-holders, generally coming from the music and film industry,
who are eager to limit downloads from the Internet.

With European competitiveness on top of its agenda, the Irish Presidency
is anxious to strike a deal on the IPR directive before its term ends on
1 July 2004. But the Council is reportedly divided over some key aspects
of the directive such as its scope and the criminal sanctions that are
to be imposed to infringers of IP rights.
In order to make sure a majority of Member States will support the
directive within the Council of Ministers, the presidency has pressed
for the Parliament to postpone its adoption and will seek a mandate from
the Council (COREPER) on Wednesday 11 February to start negotiating with
Parliament. It hopes an agreement can be found quickly so to that the
competitiveness Council can vote on it on 11 March, two weeks ahead of
the Spring summit.
*Links:* Time-saving overview:

*   LinksDossier:_ IPR - Intellectual Property Rights_ (fully updated
with the current proposal, background, main issues and positions from
industry, NGO's and think tanks)

Official documents:

*      EUR-Lex:_ Proposal for a Directive on measures and procedures to
ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights, COM(2003)0046_
[_FR_] [_DE_] (30 January 2003)
*      Parliament:_ Report on measures and procedures to ensure the
enforcement of intellectual property rights_ [_FR_] [_DE_], Janelly
FOURTOU, (5 December 2003)

/*EU Actors'*/ positions:

*     International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI):_ EU
Enforcement Directive falls far short of providing urgently needed tools
to tackle piracy_ (30 January 2003)
*   BEUC (European Consumers' Organisation):_ Usually consumers are not
criminal!_ [_FR_] (Press release, 26 November 2003)

Press articles:_ InfoWorld_


--

Cedric Laurant - Policy Counsel
Electronic Privacy Information Center
1718 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 200
Washington, DC 20009  -  U.S.A.
Tel: +1 (202) 483-1140 (x114)
Fax: +1 (202) 483-1248
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
epic.org - privacy.org - thepublicvoice.org
gilc.org  - observingsurveillance.org

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176