[...] Imagine a time in the future. Imagine a government that no longer represents the voice of the people. A number of grassroots organizations begin to form to protest the people’s unfair treatment. They unfortunately cannot reach most other citizens because the county’s largest ISP supports the current administration and has blocked all of their Internet access. They are not able to get their Web sites viewed, exchange e-mails or any of the other Web-based activities that are so vital today. Net neutrality legislation would take steps to assure this scenario does not happen by assuring our right to freely give our opinion and to freely hear the opinions of others.

Net neutrality also benefits the economy because it stimulates innovation and competition. Without it, an ISP could block Web based services that compete with their own. Youtube.com might not have gotten so far if cable companies that provide Internet access blocked Youtube content as it competed with their cable product. The beauty of the Internet is that it is an even playing field. If you have a better idea, you can almost instantly compete with the established guys. As can be seen, the Internet needs to remain neutral for all for fair competition to occur for any Web-centric business.

[...] The only way we can have our rights preserved is through making our voice heard.

http://www.bradenton.com/technology/story/1918267.html

Consumer and civil rights organisations around the world have asked the European Parliament to oppose clauses in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) that permit authorities to bar internet users from sharing files.

European negotiators are due to present their response to a US proposal on policing the internet for illegal file-sharing on 17 December.

"It is now time for the European Union to firmly oppose the dangerous measures secretly being negotiated, such as 'three strikes' schemes and content filtering on the internet," said La Quadrature du Net, one of the signatories to an open letter sent to the European Parliament.

The letter said it appeared that Acta went far beyond current EU law. It said a recent analysis by the European Commission of the Acta chapter on the internet confirmed that the current proposals "would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy".

The signatories also objected to the fact that European Parliamentarians had been denied access to the negotiating documents, but commercial US firms had had access to them under non-disclosure rules.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/12/10/239676/anti-counterfei...

The U.S. government plans to propose broad new rules Monday that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, seeking to give consumers greater freedom to use their computers or cellphones to enjoy videos, music and other legal services that hog bandwith.
...
The proposed rules could change how operators manage their networks and profit from them, and the everyday online experience of individual users. Treating all Web traffic equally means carriers couldn't block or slow access to services or sites that are a drain on their networks or offered by rivals.
...
The rules will also escalate a long-running fight over how much control the government should have over Internet commerce. The Obama administration is taking the side of Google, Amazon.com Inc. and an array of smaller businesses that want to profit from offering consumers streaming video, graphics-rich games, movie and music downloads and other services.
...
"Any company or piece of software that becomes popular, generating a lot of traffic, would tend to benefit," said Jonathan Zittrain, the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
...
The FCC has four net neutrality principles, which call on Internet providers to avoid restricting or delaying access to legal Internet sites and services.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125329467451823485.html

PARIS — The highest constitutional body in France on Wednesday defanged the government’s plan to cut off the Internet connections of digital pirates, saying the authorities had no right to do so without obtaining court approval.

The decision, by the Constitutional Council, which reviews legislation approved by Parliament before it goes into effect, is a major setback for the music and movie industries, which had praised the French law as a model solution to the problem of illegal file-sharing.

The council rejected the core portion of the measure, [...]

“All we have now is a big tax-sponsored spam machine for the entertainment industries,” said Jérémie Zimmermann, director of La Quadrature du Net, a Paris-based group that has campaigned against the measure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/technology/internet/11net.html?_r=1&re...

French copyfighter Jeremie Zimmermann sez,

    Folks from La Quadrature du Net (big up to Peter K!) have translated the French HADOPI law [ed: the new French copyright law, rammed through by Sarko over howls of public protest], which includes the absurd "three strikes" scheme [ed: if you are accused of infringement three times, you lose your Internet access -- no proof needed, no trial, no judge, no jury], bound to fail and utterly dangerous.

    Curious archeo-legalists will enjoy its exotic stupidity, so impractical that everybody in France laughs at it with shame, including the members of Sarkozy's locked-down majority party who didn't dare to vote against it. [...]

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/22/crazy-french-copyrig.html

You may have heard about the French Assembly passing Sarkozy's mad "three-strikes" bill, which will allow big media companies to force ISPs to disconnect you by accusing you of copyright infringement (without even having to produce proof). Jeremie Zimmermann, a leading French activist opposed to the bill, has a good analysis of the problems it will face, even having passed:

* HADOPI is legally dead because it opposes to fundamental principles of French and European law, [...]
* HADOPI is technically dead because it entirely relies on identifying users through their IP address that can be altered or high-jacked in many ways. [...]
* HADOPI is dead in the media because government's propaganda didn't stand for long under close scrutiny from citizens over the net6 and to the aware consideration of a few critical elected representatives. [...]
* Finally, HADOPI is dead politically, right in the middle of an "Hadopigate " revealing unhealthy collusion between Minister of culture and big media close to the president Sarkozy, everybody within the majority already understood that this text is a ball and chain they will have to drag along for a long time.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/12/french-three-strikes.html

The new "three strikes" rules means illegal downloaders will get three warnings from a new web police force, before having their connection cut off.

The creation and internet bill was passed by MPs yesterday and is due to come into force in the autumn. [...]

Film star Catherine Deneuve has joined the protest against the law, calling it "inapplicable and ignorant".

While a protest group called the Quadrature du Net said artists were wrong to back the law because it cast them as opponents of the young who are their main fans.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2427306.ece

France is set to introduce the world’s most draconian laws against internet piracy, after parliamentarians voted on Tuesday to give the government powers to cut off offenders’ internet access.

The controversial draft law would create an agency to police illegal downloading of copyright material. The bill still has to be voted on by the Senate but is widely expected to be approved in a final vote on Wednesday. [...]

Jérémie Zimmermann, director of La Quadrature du Net, a French internet advocacy group, said: “This is very harmful to the neutrality of the net. But [French president Nicolas] Sarkozy has already showed that he is willing to sit on the fundamental principles of European law.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2830123c-3f26-11de-ae4f-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=...

BERLIN — The European Parliament on Wednesday rejected a long-planned revision of the Continent’s telecommunications laws because of a controversial provision to punish Internet pirates.

In Strasbourg, the Parliament’s lower house, by a vote of 404 to 56, passed an amendment to the telecommunications package making it illegal for any E.U. country to sever Internet service unless a citizen is found guilty in court, effectively blocking the broad revision. [...]

The plan, called Création et Internet and known informally as the Three Strikes law, and backed by the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has already been rejected once by the National Assembly, in a vote last month.
Now, given the opposition from European lawmakers, its future is in doubt, said Jérémie Zimmermann, the director (ndqldn co-founder) of La Quadrature du Net, an advocacy group based in Paris opposed to the plan.
“This is a clear statement from European lawmakers that they consider access to the Internet to be a fundamental right in today's society,” Mr. Zimmermann said. [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/07iht-telecoms.html

After a long and hard fought battle, consumer rights advocates and activists in Europe have reason to celebrate today. The back door for a graduated response toward the French proposal of a Three Strikes law has officially been effectively voted down for a third and final time. The only thing left is technical details that could pave the way to other things that could be perceived as a threat to European citizens, but the major debate surrounding three strikes is over and advocates for such a proposal have officially lost. [...]

“A formidable campaign from the citizens put the issues of freedoms on the Internet at the centre of the debates of the Telecoms Package. This is a victory by itself. It started with the declaration of commissioner Viviane Reding considering access to Internet as a fundamental right. The massive re-adoption of amendment 138/46 rather than the softer compromise negotiated by rapporteur Trautmann with the Council is an even stronger statement. These two elements alone confirm that the French ‘three strikes’ scheme, HADOPI, is dead already.” explains Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net. [...]

“The strong statement for the access to the Internet as a fundamental right demonstrates that the Parliament can be courageous and reject the pressure to compromise when essential values are at stake. Unfortunately, on issues that appear more technical such as the absence of discrimination of services and contents on the Internet, the Parliament did not take the full measure of what it is at stake yet. Citizens must remain mobilized on these crucial questions.”, concludes Gérald Sédrati-Dinet, analyst for La Quadrature. [...]

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86171/european-parliament-shuts-the-door-on...

Dass die Vorgänge rund um das Telekompaket, über das das Europäische Parlament kommende Woche abstimmen soll, an eine breitere Öffentlichkeit gelangt sind, ist zu einem großen Teil der französischen Bürgerinitiative La Quadrature du Net zu verdanken. ORF.at sprach mit Jeremie Zimmermann, einem der Mitbegründer der Initiative, über die schwierige Arbeit einer NGO für Bürgerrechte im digitalen Zeitalter.

ORF.at: Die Bürger der EU haben oft den Eindruck, dass sie das alles nicht verstehen und ohnehin nichts dagegen machen können. Was würden Sie diesen Menschen empfehlen?

Zimmermann: Schalten Sie Ihren Fernseher aus, setzen Sie sich ans Internet, gehen Sie auf Laquadrature.net, machen Sie Ihre Arbeit, denken Sie, schauen Sie, analysieren Sie - und sagen Sie, was Sie zu sagen haben.

http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1602918/

[...]
Nonetheless, Internet advocates call the French proposal legally unsound on the ground that there are inadequate the provisions for challenging an action, and because it gives industry groups the power to police the Internet. Others question whether the law would unfairly penalize those whose wireless broadband accounts are misused by others. The French law tries to anticipate this by making it a civil infraction for citizens to fail to “secure” their broadband accounts by using approved filtering technology.
[...]
Other critics say the law will not stop illegal downloads.

Jérémie Zimmermann, director of La Quadrature du Net, an Internet advocacy group based in Paris, said some computer users would turn to encrypted downloads and other methods to avoid detection. On Wednesday, a Swedish company, the Pirate Bay, began a service called Ipredator, which lets users use its virtual private network to make anonymous downloads for 5 euros a month.

“The French law will only drive people further underground,” Mr. Zimmermann said. “It will make the situation worse.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/business/global/09net.html

A measure allowing cut-off of Internet access to suspected peer-to-peer pirates passed France's Parliamentary Assembly (lower house) late last Thursday, said Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesman for civil liberties group La Quadrature du Net. The "graduated response" provision -- also called "three-strikes" -- is part of the "Creation and Internet" anti-piracy bill that won Senate approval last year. It allows a state agency to order termination of Internet service for up to one year for those caught infringing copyright, he said. However, lawmakers killed a provision that would have forced users whose service was terminated to continue paying their subscription fees, he said. International Federation for the Phonographic Industry Chairman John Kennedy said the legislation will result in "very sensible and achievable actions by ISPs" to cut piracy in ways that are preventative, not punitive. IFPI has lobbied hard for ISPs to shoulder more responsibility for Internet piracy, but France's three-strikes approach is deeply unpopular with the European Parliament (WID Feb 23 p1) and continues to roil negotiations on major reforms to EU e-communications rules (WID April 1 p1). The bill has been has been handled under an emergency procedure which allows only one debate in each house, Zimmermann told us. The Assembly version is slightly different from the Senate's, so they now go to a panel of lawmakers from each house for compromise before April 9, after which they'll be formally adopted, he said. The changes to the three-strikes article are minor, he said, and include shortening the minimum time for disconnection to two instead of three months. The amendment relieving users from having to pay for Internet services that have been shut off still requires them to pay for phone and TV services in triple-play packages, something likely to anger operators, Zimmermann said. The whole scheme remains "unacceptable," he said. The law can be challenged in the Constitutional Court, but it takes 60 MPs from one group to do it, he said. The Socialists have the numbers, but they must file the appeal before Parliament leaves for vacation April 11, he said. There are "hundreds of ways to challenge the law" if the appeal is done right, he said. Removing one piece of the legislation could cause the rest to crumble, he said. But even if the access-termination provision ultimately fails, countries considering a graduated approach to online piracy will likely look to other sanctions, such as fines or filtering, that create equally bad problems, he said. -- DS

Although a number of deputies, including some UMP members, sought to amend the bill, "None of the technical aberrations, economic nuisances or serious attacks on our rights were removed, even though they were all exposed in detail," Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesman for La Quadrature du Net, wrote in an e-mail.

http://www.cio.com/article/488216/French_three_Strikes_Antipiracy_Law_Pa...

Die französische Nationalversammlung hat den zentralen Aspekt des umstrittenen Netzsperrengesetzes Loi HADOPI verabschiedet. Demnach kann Urheberrechtsverletzern nach zweimaliger Warnung der Internet-Anschluss gekappt werden. Nur einige Details müssen noch im Vermittlungsprozess besprochen werden. Die französische Regierung versucht nun, "Three Strikes Out" in der ganzen EU salonfähig zu machen.

[...] Die französische Bürgerrechtsorganisation La Quadrature du Net hat am Donnerstag davor gewarnt, dass der EU-Ministerrat in den aktuellen Verhandlungen im Trilog unter dem Einfluss der französischen Regierung den Zusatzantrag zu sabotieren versucht. In der Fassung des Ministerrats gibt es eine subtile Änderung. Nun soll es reichen, dass nicht mehr ein Richter, sondern nur "eine rechtlich dazu befugte Behörde" - sprich: die HADOPI - einen Eingriff in die Grundrechte der User verfügen darf. Die Organisation bezeichnet das als "archaisch" und "unakzeptabel".

Nach einer Umfrage des französischen Wirtschaftsblatts "Les Echos" wird die Umsetzung der "Three Strikes Out"-Regeln einen großen Internet-Provider rund zehn Millionen Euro pro Jahr kosten. Wenn nun auch die für die Nutzer drakonische Bestimmung wegfällt, dass sie auch nach der Sperre noch für ihren Anschluss zahlen müssen, wird das Vorhaben der Sarkozy-Partei für die Provider noch teurer.

http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1503778/

BERLIN — As European lawmakers debate how to keep access to the Internet free and equal — so-called network neutrality — they are inundated, not unsurprisingly, by lobbyists.

[...]

“The U.S. companies see the outcome of the fight in Europe as key,” said Jeremie Zimmermann, a lobbyist for La Quadrature du Net, an Internet advocacy group based in Paris. “Each side is hoping to score points on the issue here so they can take it back to the States to influence the outcome there.”

Net neutrality, which La Quadrature supports, is a proposal backed by some free-speech advocates and Internet businesses that would bar network operators from filtering Internet traffic. Internet service providers, however, say that basic traffic management is necessary to balance the soaring demand for bandwidth from video and popular sites.

[...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/technology/internet/09neutral.html?ref...

In France, a dispute grows over the bill 'Creation and Internet', which aims to control the downloading of cultural works on the net. The bill is under consideration in the National Assembly, and provoking a protest from net users.

The main grievance: disproportionate penalties for offences committed, such as suspension of an internet connection. The user group 'Quadrature du Net' has called for a "blackout" on the net.
http://www.laquadrature.net/fr/guide-du-blackout-HADOPI
http://www.laquadrature.net/HADOPI
http://blog.ookook.fr/2009/02/27/hadopi-a-french-law-to-threat-internet-...

An action inspired by net users in New Zealand who recently managed to prevent their government from applying similar measures, following their complaints.
http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

A parody site was also created. “I like internautes.com” makes reference to the site “I love the artists” that is supported by the government. It offers questions and answers and also videos, with a list of associations or members of parliament who reject the bill.
http://www.jaimelesinternautes.com/
http://www.jaimelesartistes.fr/
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x78ve5_la-farceillaise_news?from=rss

Another notable initiative on the net came from the consumer protection association UFC “Que Choisir”. The site " ça va couper " shows a crazy policeman who delivers a reprisal step by step, punishing net users who download.
http://www.ca-va-couper.fr/

http://www.france24.com/en/20090312-web-dispute-internet-blogs-french-pi...

Markus Beckdahl from Netzpolitik interviewed Philippe Aigrain, co-founder of la Quadrature about the future of the culture in the digital environment. Philippe Aigrain answers questions on the proposals developed in his book "Internet & Creation" (presently only in French, extended English edition in the works).

For more info, see the article on netzpolitik.org (article in German, interview in English).

Direct links :
mp3 podcast
ogg/vorbis podcast

http://netzpolitik.org/2009/netzpolitik-podcast-073-philippe-aigrain-ueb...

The French European Council Presidency no longer wants to deal with the especially thorny issue of fighting internet copyright infringement within the framework of the revised telecoms package. The Presidency made its views known in a draftPDF of a Council position paper expected to be finalised on Thursday by the Telecommunications Council, which has the lead on the issue. With its suggested compromise, France is hoping to speed up the legislative process and, at the same time, reach a consensus amongst all of the EU councils without a second reading in the European Parliament.

[...]

The French draft of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive revision also contains a simplified version of European Parliament Amendment 181 regarding processing of connection and location data. Civil-rights activists had been up in arms about the amendment in its original form because it permitted "voluntary data storage". The German government had also voiced reservations about the amendment. The new version now simply states that traffic may only be stored to the extent that it is "strictly necessary" for maintaining the functionality and security of the network.
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/France-wants-to-remove-intellectual-p...

The European Commission has turned down French President Sarkozy's request that it reject the last minute Amendment 138 to the Telecoms Package, introduced and passed at the end of last month by the plenary session of the European Parliament to protect European citizens from arbitrary Internet disconnection, and supported by TelecomTV and digital and citizens' rights groups throughout Europe.

[...]

Sarkozy's government is also part way through introducing a raft of Internet-clamping measures in France and Amendment 138 might prove a roadblock to that process by bolstering any legal challenges sure to mounted by digital rights and citizens' groups there. Amendment 138 requires telecoms regulators to apply the principle that "no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, notably in accordance with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, save when public security is threatened where the ruling may be subsequent." In effect, any disconnection has to have judicial authority - as an ISP, you can't just go cutting users off willy-nilly. In the end the amendment was passed in an open vote with a large majority of 573 votes in favour to 74 votes against, a fact acknowledged by the Commission as a strong democratic mandate to have it stand. So digital rights advocates can claim a small victory in a long, hard fight. Continues after advertisement. Without amending the thrust of the telecom package through 138, national governments would have been more able to oversee the establishment of extra-judicial (kangaroo court) procedures to disconnect users suspected of downloading copyright material.

[...]

Those supporting repressive measures in the European Parliament's Telecoms Package had long argued that they were nothing to do with copyright and three strikes, but were in fact all about chasing down paedophiles and terrorists. In fact the opponents of the measures had got it all wrong, they claimed to television reporters and in newspaper articles, and it was all a fuss about nothing. Now Sarkozy's letter to the commission has blown that argument right out of the water.

http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43957&id=e9381817-0593-417a-863...

France's much talked about "three strikes" law receive a spirited non! from the European Parliament this week, but French and EU officials are already claiming that the vote won't ultimately impact so-called "graduated response" schemes.

The EU Parliament voted Wednesday to pass the "Telecom Package," [...]

Hundreds of amendments were tabled, making the entire legislative process difficult to follow, but two of the key changes proposed were Amendments 133 and 138. As the UK's Open Rights Group points out, 133 would have prevented EU countries from requiring local ISPs to filter content.

138, introduced by a French Socialist MEP Guy Bono (who gets extra points in our book for that moustache) would have prevented any action against Internet users without prior judicial intervention. In other words, Bono insisted that courts need to be involved in any disconnection procedure--exactly the sort of slow process backers of graduated response plans hope to avoid.

It was only a matter of hours before the spin began. Interest in this question is obviously keen in France, and papers like Libration went to the French government for a response. The Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, told the paper that amendment 138 would probably turn out to have no real bearing on France's proposed three strikes rule.

Why not? The answer became clear when EU Commissioner Viviane Reding, who spearheaded the telecom reforms, announced her hope to force the removal of the amendment by the Commission. Advocacy group La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) called this unacceptable, saying that it was "a completely unsuitable request from Mrs. Reding, under the basic democratic principle recalled in the amendment (i.e. the separation of powers), but also under the parliamentary plebiscite it collected (574 MEPs for, 73 against)."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080928-eu-parliament-judges-must-...

Il Parlamento Europeo sta discutendo una nuova normativa di "armonizzazione" tra i paesi europei delle regole sulle telecomunicazioni che darebbe un giro di vite sul file-sharing

Un documento della UE, nel promuovere il pacchetto di proposte, recita che "L'attuale frammentazione scoraggia gli investimenti e danneggia sia i consumatori che gli operatori". Il cosiddetto Telecom Packet propone, tra l'altro, che i navigatori "pescati" per tre volte a scambiare materiale protetto da copyright sui network di file-sharing siano esclusi dall'accesso a Internet. Altri emendamenti riguarderebbero quali software possono essere usati sul web. In quest'ultimo caso sarebbero i governi dei singoli stati a poter decidere. Potremmo arrivare al punto che programmi come Skype o Firefox potrebbero essere fuori legge se non certificati dalle autorit. Gli attivisti hanno gi detto che queste leggi sono contro la privacy e fanno dei provider Internet dei guardiani del copyright.

[...]

Secondo Christophe Espern, cofondatore del gruppo per i diritti digitali La Quadrature du Net, si tratta addirittura di misure orwelliane.

http://www.techup.it/news/al_voto_le_leggi_europee_antipirateria-0729

Gestern Abend gabe es im EU-Parlament in Strassburg einen Abstimmungs-Marathon über das Telekom-Paket. Der Binnenausschuss [IMCO] musste 300 Änderungsanträge (Amendments) behandeln, der Industrieausschuss [ITRE] gar ca. 800. Aus diesen Gründen gibt es bisher auch kaum verlässliche detaillierte Informationen, welche Kompromisse durchgekommen sind. Die Futurezone berichtet als erstes mit Verweis auf Eva Lichtenberger von den Österreichischen Grünen, dass zumindest die Eu-weiten Internet-Sperrungen nach dem französischen Modell keine Mehrheiten gefunden haben: Entscheidung über “Telekompaket“. Mal schauen, was im Laufe des Tages noch analysiert wird und was konkret in etwa 30 Kompromissen zusammengefasst wurde. Ich hab schon Positionspapiere dazu gesehen, wo ich aber nicht wirklich von der verwendeten Sprache überzeugt war.

...

Unklar ist, was jetzt mit den “rechtmässigen Inhalten” ist (”lawful content”). Die Verwendung dieses Begriffes in den Kompromissen muss da noch bis Plenums-Abstimmung im September raus. Weil es unklar ist, wie die Provider denn ermitteln sollen, was “rechtmässige” und im Umkehrschluss “unrechtmässige” Inhalte sind. Dies würde einen Eingriff in die Netzinfrastruktur bedeuten und stellt eine ähnliche Herausforderung dar,w ie beispielsweise die chinesische Netzzensur. Wahlweise kann man direkt bestimmte (P2P-)Dienste blocken oder mit Deep-Packet-Inspection einfach mal den kompletten Datenverkehr analysieren, bewerten und sonstwas damit machen. Das ist nicht akzeptabel und verletzt die Netzneutralität.

http://netzpolitik.org/2008/eu-ausschuss-abstimmungen-zum-telekom-paket/

Internet-Provider sollen generell überwachen, wer Raubkopien ins Netz hochlädt und die beltäter einer Copyright-Behörde melden. Das wollen EU-Parlamentarier in ein Gesetz schreiben. Bürgerrechtler protestieren, im europäischen Parlament formiert sich nun Widerstand.

Harte Worte: "Das EU-Parlament drängt auf ein Sowjet-Internet" betitelt die Bürgerrechtsorganisation "Förderverein für eine Freie Informationelle Infrastruktur" (FFII) einen Protestaufruf. FFII-Präsident Alberto Barrionuevo beschreibt darin aktuelle EU-Gesetzesvorhaben als Vorhaben, "alle Bürger auszuspionieren, um das Urheberrecht zu schützen".

...

Auf dem Programm stehen nderungsvorschläge wie dieser des rumänischen Abgeordneten Cristian Silviu Buoi, der Internet-Provider verpflichten will, das Surfverhalten ihrer Kunden zu kontrollieren. Aus seinem nderungsvorschlag zitiert die französische Bürgerrechtsgruppe "La Quadrature du Net":

"Mitgliedsstaaten sollen sicherstellen, dass Kundenverträge ein System von Warnungen und Sanktionen beinhalten, das Kunden sanktioniert, deren Internetverbindung für illegale Zwecke verwendet wird."

MEHR BER...

Urheberrecht Copyright Peer- to- Peer Tauschbörse berwachung "Förderverein für eine Freie Informationelle Infrastruktur" zu SPIEGEL WISSEN hnlich wie in Frankreich zielen viele der von "La Quadrature du Net" und dem FFII veröffentlichten nderungsanträge für EU-Gesetze darauf ab, Provider stärker in die Kontrollpflicht zu nehmen. Die Flut an nderungsanträgen ist kaum zu überblicken, EU-Abgeordnete und Industrie-Ausschussmitglied Erika Mann (SPD) schätzt: "In unserem und dem Binnenmarktsausschuss stehen derzeit mehr als hundert nderungsanträge an, die eine verschärfte Internetkontrolle durch die Provider erzwingen sollen."

Viele dieser Vorschläge, so die Abgeordnete im Gespräch mit SPIEGEL ONLINE, würden von EU-Parlamentariern aus Frankreich und Grobritannien kommen: "Diese nderungen drängen auf eine verdachtsunabhängige berwachung des Datenverkehrs durch die Internet-Provider."

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,564227,00.html

Mr. President,

I am writing you on my very own behalf.

I have a bone to pick with you, and the readers of my blog should know my opinion in regards to what you and your government are trying to do to the Internet in the name of the so-called French culture. So in respect of the international audience of this blog, I am compelled to address you in English.

...

Culture, and more precisely French culture, strikes me today as being something you and I have come to disagree on. Your " Three Strikes" approach to what is referred to as the " Internet Piracy" appears to me and many others as failing to address today's challenges of our connected world while depriving citizens and businesses alike from the most elementary rights. Is this your solution to preserving the French culture?

...

This calls for three major objections:

First, "killing the artistic creation" does not mean what it initially seems to. ...

Second, this " Internet Piracy" as some call it, is a vague concept. ...

Third and last, I would like to point out what I believe to be a lack of coherence with the rationale put forth in this project. ...

http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2008/07/06/an-open-letter-to-th...

DEFENDAMOS NUESTROS CIBERDERECHOS
Eurodiputados quieren torpedear la libertad en Internet el 7 de Julio

Una semana antes de un voto crucial en la reforma de la ley europea de comunicaciones electrónicas, La Quadrature du Net (La Cuadratura de la Red) denuncia una serie de enmiendas dirigidas a cerrar la arquitectura abierta de Internet para un mayor control y vigilancia de los usuarios.

03-07-2008 - Nota traducida de la Quadrature du net

Bruselas, 1 de julio de 2008 , actualizado el 2 de julio de 2008-07-02

A los usuarios de Internet de Europa se les podría impedir realizar actividades lícitas por medio de spyware obligatorio, en aras a su seguridad. Por tanto, el derecho a usar software libre para acceder a Internet no estaría asegurado nunca más. La neutralidad de la Red también está directamente atacada, al ser el principio de que los intermediarios técnicos no tienen la obligación de la vigilancia previa de los contenidos. Otras enmiendas permitirán de facto a las autoridades administrativas a que obliguen a los ISPs a trabajar conjuntamente con la policía privada de los productores de contenidos y de los gestores de derechos de autor, incluído el envío de mensajes intimidatorios, sin supervisión judicial.

http://www.internautas.org/html/5039.html

An appeal from three European NGOs - La Quadrature du Net, netzpolitik.org and EDRi-member Open Rights Group - reveal some disturbing MEPs amendments to the draft directives to reform the EU framework on electronic communications (telecom package).

The review of the telecom package was merely focusing on telecom-related issues (except for discussions on the ePrivacy directive, which is the subject of another EDRi-gram article in the current issue), but some of the 800 amendments on the 5 directives that form the current package might go further than just establishing the rules for a functioning electronic communications market and could endanger the principle of the neutrality of the Internet.

...

"The politicians who engage in these summer manoeuvres dishonour Europe and their mandate. They rely on the fact that nobody watches them few days before Parliamentary holiday, to divert the Telecom package from its primary objectives of consumer protection. They pave the way for the monitoring and filtering of the Internet by private companies, exceptional courts and Orwellian technical measures. It is inconceivable for freedom but also for European economic development. We call on all MEPs to oppose what they have already rejected." said Christophe Espern, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net).

http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.13/telecom-package-internet

Französische Musikindustrie macht Druck bei Internetsperren Meldung vorlesen

Der Verband der Musikindustrie in Frankreich, das Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique (SNEP), hat die Regierung unter Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy aufgefordert, den Gesetzentwurf zum Kappen von Netzzugängen bei Urheberrechtsverletzungen noch vor der Sommerpause ins Parlament einzubringen. "Es wäre nicht akzeptabel", erklärte ein SNEP-Specher, falls die Abgeordneten in diesem Halbjahr nicht mehr über das Vorhaben beraten könnten. Die im November angeköndigte Initiative ist noch nicht weit gekommen, und ihre Verabschiedung verzögert sich derzeit weiter.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Franzoesische-Musikindustrie-macht-Druck-...

PARIS: Prodded by the music industry and government, some Internet service providers are reluctantly exploring the adoption of an old-fashioned shunning ritual as the ultimate 21st century punishment: banishing errant online users.

(...)

Lawmakers in the European Parliament, in a symbolic vote Thursday, expressed their opposition to the three-strikes approach, which has been championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and explored by governments of other countries, from Britain to Japan to Australia. Many consumer groups are also fighting such proposals, and at least one British service provider is promising a rebellion.

"It's a breach of our civil liberties," said Christofer Fjellner, a Swedish legislator in the European Parliament who sponsored the measure, an amendment to a report on cultural industries in Europe. "When government limits access to the Internet it's like limiting freedom of speech. It's like banning people from printing books."

(...)

"We believe it's a threat, particularly to public liberties," said Christophe Espem, co-founder of a French group, Squaring the Net, formed to challenge proposed Internet restrictions. He noted that the new administrative authority that would rule on offenses would be outside the legal system.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/13/business/ISP14.php?page=1