By Philippe Aigrain.

Joint press release of April and La Quadrature du Net

Paris, June 26th 2010 - Spokespersons for La Quadrature du Net and April met the French negotiators of ACTA a few days ahead of the next negotiation round of this anti-counterfeiting agreement. No satisfactory answer was given on crucial questions of interoperability and provisions aiming at transforming the technical intermediaries of the Net in a private copyright police. Do the negotiators of this illegitimate agreement, bound by the negotiation and power game with the United States, really have breathing space to protect our freedoms?

Paris, Apr. 13th 2010 - The Gallo report on "IPR enforcement"1 is currently under heavy political pressure in the European Parliament. Some constructive amendments have been tabled, proposing to reconsider the ongoing "war on sharing" led by the cultural industries.

• 1. An initiative report of the JURI committee of the European Parliament: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=2&procnum=INI/2009/2178

Strasbourg, March 8th, 2010 - Tonight, the JURI committee of the European Parliament will discuss the amendments tabled on the Gallo report1. This initiative report2 is a response to a communication of the Commission on "intellectual property rights" enforcement, which La Quadrature has already strongly criticized. To make sure that the Parliament promote the interest of European citizens, the report must be profoundly revised.

• 1. Update, March 10th: At the last minute, the meeting was postponed to a future date. The reasons for this delay remain undetermined.
• 2. A non-legislative position of the European Parliament preparing or encouraging a legislative initiative

Paris, January 8th, 2010 - Nicolas Sarkozy just announced that his government will seek to implement some of the recommandations of the Zelnik report. The report's main author is Patrick Zelnik, a producer and lobbyist for the music industry. The goal of these tailored provisions is to serve the interests of the President's friends. Although laughable, they reveal an alarming dogmatism in which the rights of the public and the general interest are denied in favor of a few helpless industries.... Mates come first!

« As already stated on 6 October, the Commission can accept this amendment (138), which was voted by a nine-tenths majority in the European Parliament plenary (MEMO/08/681). The Commission considers this amendment to be an important restatement of key legal principles of the Community legal order, especially of citizens' fundamental rights.

« I don't think that (Three Strikes) is a fitting model for Germany or even Europe. Preventing someone from accessing the Internet seems like a completely unreasonable punishment to me. It would be highly problematic due to both constitutional and political aspects. I'm sure that once the first disconnects are going to happen in France, we will be hearing the outcry all the way to Berlin. »

« It was extremely helpful in raising awareness to have President Sarkozy say the Internet is not the Wild West and that ISPs must take steps in connection with piracy. That has been the catalyst for other governments to look at this more closely. »

Jo Oliver, in charge of the IFPI's litigation activities - NYtimes.com, april 13th, 2008

« It's a breach of our civil liberties, when government limits access to the Internet it's like limiting freedom of speech. It's like banning people from printing books. »

Christofer Fjellner, Swedish legislator in the European Parliament who sponsored the banning of the "graduated response" in an adopted amendment.

« Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise that the Internet is a vast platform for cultural expression, access to knowledge, and democratic participation in European creativity, bringing generations together through the information society; calls on the Commission and the Member States, therefore, to avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet access. »

The European Commission has launched a consultation regarding the future of creative content online.

This move is a first step towards legislative action at the EU level, and the consultation could shape the nature of the upcoming debate on copyright reform.

The European Parliament is in the process of writing an own-initiative report in response to the Commission's communication on "enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights".

The Spanish government just announced a new bill that would grant an administrative body –the Commission for Intellectual Property– the power to order the take down or blocking of websites that “allow or facilitate” copyright infringements. Even more dangerous for civil liberties and freedom of expression, the Commission would be allowed to determine on its own whether judicial intervention is necessary.

La Quadrature du Net's response to the European Commission's communication on “Enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market”
COM(2009) 467

Here is a comparison chart of the different versions of "amendment 138" along the whole co-decision procedure.