Brussels
– The European Commission has issued a statement indicating that it will take
steps to ensure an international intellectual property treaty currently being
negotiated does not include a "three-strikes" provision that would
sever the Internet connections of copyright infringers on file-sharing
networks, ZDNet reported. "We are not supporting and will not accept that
an eventual Acta agreement creates an obligation to disconnect people from the
internet because of illegal downloads," John Clancy, a spokesman for EU
trade commissioner Karel De Gucht, told ZDNet.
"The ‘three-strike rule’ or
graduated response systems are not compulsory in Europe.
Different EU countries have different approaches, and we want to keep this
flexibility."
Several reports on a leaked draft of the ACTA
(Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) in question indicate that it does contain
three-strikes provisions.
More recent reports question this assertion, and
further indicate that the ACTA appeared very similar to the U.S. Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in its scope.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uj8y0
(ZDNet)
http://snipurl.com/uj942
(DMW previous coverage)
http://snipurl.com/uhhjt
(DMW previous coverage)
