[p2p-research] Fwd: [opennetcoalition] EU liberals join Sarkozysts in online repression

Thu Sep 16 23:19:25 CEST 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: La Quadrature du Net <jz at laquadrature.net>
Date: Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 6:50 PM
Subject: [opennetcoalition] EU liberals join Sarkozysts in online repression
To: opennetcoalition at laquadrature.net

La Quadrature du Net - For immediate release

Permanent link:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/eu-liberals-join-sarkozysts-in-online-repression

EU liberals join Sarkozysts in online repression

*** Paris, September 16th 2010 - The Gallo report on copyright enforcement
-from the pro-Sarkozy MEP, Marielle Gallo- will be voted on Wednesday,
September 22nd in the European Parliament. Surprisingly, the Liberal ALDE
group has tabled its own alternative resolution, a bad and almost equally
repressive text. Under blatant influence of the producers and publishers'
lobbies, this political move from the liberals actually aims at facilitating
the vote of the original Gallo report. ***

The Gallo report  is a harsh call for more repression of online filesharing,
going against all recent scientific data, against fundamental freedoms, and
even against artists' interests. It calls for the creation of private
copyright police of the Net, as favored by the Commission [1] and the ACTA
agreement [2].

An alternative resolution was tabled by S&D, Greens and other Members of the
European Parliament in order to be voted in place of the original,
repressive text. It is a neutral text, quite consensual, which breaks with
repression and instead calls for an open-ended reflection on the adaptation
of intellectual property to the new technological developments.

Quite shockingly, the liberal ALDE group just tabled its own alternative
resolution under the influence of its "shadow rapporteur", Toine Manders,
who unfortunately backs the claims of the producers and publishers lobbies.
The resolution is full of smokescreens but it welcomes, for instance, the
Commission proposal for ISPs to act as a police for enforcement against
users. It is quite disappointing to see that a group usually keen on
defending fundamental freedoms is now siding with those who support absurd
repressive schemes.

"Through this political artifice, the ALDE group is trying to capture votes
that would logically go to the alternative resolution. It helps the French
pro-Sarkozy rapporteur Marielle Gallo to pass her resolution and impose
repressive schemes to deter online file-sharing. The initiative of the
Liberals shows how influential producers and publishers' can be, since they
successfully convinced a major political group to support repressive
policies based on wind.", declares Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for
citizen initiative La Quadrature du Net

"This badly written, inconsistent and contradictory ALDE text opens the door
wide open for private copyright police of the Net [3]. This is a blatant
contradiction to the group's previous position, notably during the vote of
the Telecoms Package, when -before the elections- it stood strong to protect
citizens' fundamental rights against arbitrary justice and blind
enforcement. Citizens should not tolerate these maneuvers and must react by
getting in touch with their elected representatives", concludes Zimmermann.

EU citizens must urgently contact ALDE Members and advise them to step aside
from their group's position. All Members of the European Parliament should
be advised [4] to vote for the alternative resolution tabled by S&D, Greens
and reject the original Gallo report as well as similarly dangerous
resolutions.

 * Press release - Red Alert on Net Freeoms - MEPs shall reject the Gallo
Report:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/red-alert-on-net-freedoms-meps-shall-reje...

 * Dedicated campaign page:
     http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Gallo_report_plenary_vote_campaign

 * Commented original Gallo report:
     https://lqdn.co-ment.com/text/Gq4N8gUR9UB/view/

 * Commented ALDE alternative resolution:
     https://lqdn.co-ment.com/text/dL4m68i9cvB/view/

 * Commented S&D+Greens+others alternative resolution:
     https://lqdn.co-ment.com/text/3udZkkPgzAS/view/

* Références *

1. The Gallo report calls for "extra-legislative measures", it recalls the
"voluntary agreements" praised by the EU Commission in its communication
from Sept. 11th, 2009  which Internet service providers would be encouraged
to cooperate with the rights holders for copyright enforcement: access
restrictions, targeted filtering or bandwidth capping... all these measures
requested by the entertainment industries could be implemented through
contracts, without a judge and a fair trial.

2. Article 2.18.3 of the draft leaked from the Washington DC round

3. Points 1 and 18 of the ALDE resolution

4. Dedicated campaign page:
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Gallo_report_plenary_vote_campaign

** About la Quadrature du Net **

La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that promotes the rights and
freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for
the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding
principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better
understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and
pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage
citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the
digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international NGOs
including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society Institute and
Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations :
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-squaring-net-la-quadrature-du-net

** Press contact and press room **

Jérémie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room

_______________________________________________
Opennetcoalition mailing list
Opennetcoalition at laquadrature.net
http://laquadrature.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/opennetcoalition

-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20100917/984ccffe/attachment-0001.html>