EU: media lobby's monitoring proposal rejected

The Telecommunications Package will not prescribe uninterrupted monitoring of the internet as demanded by the Conservatives on behalf of the media and entertainment industry. On Monday evening, the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) and the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) of the European Parliament voted on around 1,000 changes to the EU Telecom rules, consolidated into over 30 amendments. The compromise proposal put forward by the rapporteur for the draft framework directive, Catherine Trautmann, was accepted. The Conservatives are said to have become more sceptical about "internet monitoring".

This compromise cancels the amendments previously adopted in other committees. At the same time, however, it introduces the wording "lawful content" into the telecommunications package. This wording creates a copyright regulation component within the law. Member states can also add their own regulations. France could include its own "Three Strikes" model in the directive. Civil liberties campaigners are now calling for the term "lawful content" to be removed.

Admittedly, things might change before the European Parliament plenary vote after the summer. All amendments may have to assume the position that it is not possible to monitor internet activity to prevent copyright-protected content being copied. There has already been some softening in the ECON committee, with British Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour removing the word "protection" from his amendment proposal. As soon as there is more voting on the Telecommunications Package, we will publish the results here at heise online.

(Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti)

(trk)