Qbi's Weblog

Totgesagte leben länger. Es scheint so, als ob ACTA wieder auf dem Weg zurück ins Leben ist. Netzpolitik berichtet, dass es Vorschläge der MdEPs gibt, die eine Zusammenarbeit von Internetprovidern und Musikt-/Filmindustrie bei der Bekämpfung von Urheberrechtsverletzungen zum Inhalt haben. Damit sind wir wieder bei dem Thema Internetsperren und tiefgreifenden Kontrollen der übertragenen Inhalte. Wie schon damals, ist das auch heute inakzeptabel. Nehmt daher bitte Kontakt zu den Parlamentariern auf und überzeugt sie, die Finger davon zu lassen. Marion Goller hat in den Kommentaren zum obigen Netzpolitik-Artikel einen Musterbrief verfasst, den ich auch hier mit hinterlege:

Dear [name der/des Abgeordneten],

With great concern have I read the new draft report on the EU Action Plan for Enforcement of IP Rights (2014/2151(INI)) from Feb 2nd of this year.

According to the report, enforcement of copyright is so vitally important, that “all actors in the supply chain” should be involved in it. Meaning, access providers and service providers of all kinds should help the copyright industry in maintaining ever stricter control about there “intellectual property”. Such control requires knowledge. Hence, the plans would force both access providers and service providers to monitor user behaviour. Such an intrusion into user privacy is not acceptable.

Three years ago, the EU parliament has voted against such regulation when it refused to pass ACTA. Now the same plans are back. They are both unnecessary and harmful.

“Piracy” is already on the decline. The success of platforms such as such as iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify and Netflix shows that it has always been a lack of legal offers that drove people to “piracy”, not their unwillingness to pay for art.

Even if “piracy” can never be completely stifled, it is worth noting that the EU is a net importer of those types of media that are typically “pirated”, namely music and video files. The people who claim that piracy harms the EU economy therefore should get their facts straight. If anything, the EU economy benefits from piracy, because every cent that is not spent on songs sold by the US music industry or on Hollywood movies can be spent here at home.

(Joe Karaganis, vice president of the American Assembly at Columbia University, noted this a few months ago: http://piracy.americanassembly.org/a-note-on-teras-the-economic-contribution-of-the-creative-industries-to-eu-gdp-and-employment/ )

The real proponents of these plans are an oligopoly of US based media corporations. Three Major Labels now control 70% of the global music market while Hollywood serves up to 60% of the movie market. “Think small first” indeed…

Most likely, the new provisions would do nothing but stifle competition. The regulations would make it more cumbersome and expensive for new access providers, service providers and other kinds of start-ups to get their businesses off the ground. Meanwhile, in the creative sector, the plans would strengthen the oligopoly already in place, favouring Hollywood and the Major Labels even more. Small and medium sized businesses of all sectors, which the plan claims to protect, would in fact be harmed.

The European creative industry may suffer from many things. Lack of copyright enforcement is not one of them.

Sincerely,

[Name] (concernded EU citizen)