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So, it's a minor victory for piracy or it's at least a maintaining of the status quo as European politicians voted against booting file-sharers from the web. Last Friday, the Members of the European Parliament backed an amendment to a report that would put pressure on ISPs to block access to Internet pirates. But thankfully the amendment stating that such bans would violate "civil liberties and human rights." Unfortunately, the EU decision is not legally binding. Any European country can enact any kind of legislation regarding peer-to-peer file-sharing it wishes. The EU amendment merely exists as a guideline. So countries such as France and England will probably will just ignore it, much in the same way our prime minister ignores any passed legislation that doesn't come directly from him. Back in November, France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy promised to crack down on the illegal online trading on films and music. The legislation would partner up ISPs with a new Internet authority that would warn users of their "illegal" activities and eventually, if the warnings weren't heeded, cut off their access and delete their accounts. So basically, they plan to do exactly what the EU considers wrong. England has considered similar legislation. But it's unclear whether those laws would work there. As an article in The Guardian points out that such anti-file-sharing legislation would force amendments to current data protection laws and override others. More importantly, ISPs don't have the technical resources to monitor the users on the network. Therefore creating that type of anti-piracy law is largely pointless anyhow. So the EU ruling is only a symbolic victory. But it makes it clear that not all governments think Draconian, wide-scale measures are warranted to combat piracy. And that's a start. But the question becomes what will the EU suggest be done? The European parliament is by no means condoning illegal file-sharing. They are definitely going to discuss some other way to deal with them. Whether it's fines, jail-time or execution, the EU will have to deal with the P2P criminals somehow.

 

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About G4 in Canada
G4 Canada (formerly TechTV Canada) launched in September 2001. G4 is the one and only television station that is plugged into every dimension of games, gear, gadgets and gigabytes. Owned Rogers Media Inc., the channel airs more than 24 original series. G4 is available on digital cable and satellite. For more information, see www.g4tv.ca.