Part of the EU Telecommunications Package, agreed by MEPs on Monday,
could be interpreted to endorse cutting off P2P users after a written
warning or two, even though the author claims that was not the
intention.
The disputed text, which some are claiming is deliberately concealed
within impenetrable legalese, states that national regulators - such as
the UK's Ofcom - must promote "cooperation" between access providers
and those "interested in the protection and promotion of lawful
content".
This would seem to be beyond the provision of basic information, and
could be interpreted to mean regulators have a responsibility to turn
ISPs into law enforcement bodies policing the internet for copyright
holders.
Arguments about the technical feasibility of such an action are
irrelevant. It's not the law-maker's job to know how a law can be
enforced, it would be up to the ISPs and copyright holders to work out
who to accuse and what action to take, and up to the courts to decide
if action was taken inappropriately.
More fundamentally, the question is if ISPs should take responsibility for the traffic they carry.
But one of the MEPs responsible for the text, Malcolm Harbour, was
quick to explain that this is not the intended meaning at all:
"The interpretation ... is alarmist and scare-mongering and deflects
from the intention which was to improve consumers' rights," he told the BBC. Harbour also found time to debate the text on Radio 5 (mp3
- first item), where he reiterated that the legislation has more
innocent intentions, and promised to amend the text before the final
vote in September if enough people found it misleading.
EU accidentally orders ISPs to become copyright police