Letter – The European Parliament must reject the Gallo report

La Quadrature du Net just sent this letter to the Members of the European Parliament, as well as a 3-page-memo and a comparison of the Gallo report, the ALDE resolution, and the S&D+Greens+Others resolution.

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

On Wednesday, you will vote upon tabled resolutions regarding the enforcement of intellectual property rights. We want to stress how important it is for the Parliament to take a reasonable and evidenced-based approach to trademark, copyright and patent enforcement.

The main resolution, of which Mrs. Marielle Gallo is rapporteur, proposes a very repressive approach regarding the enforcement of IPR in the digital environment. In the recent days, the ALDE group, led by Mr. Toine Manders, has tabled an alternative resolution which unfortunately falls into some of the same pitfalls as the Gallo report, as you can see in the attached commented version of the three resolutions.

As we outline in the attached policy brief, both resolutions:
– support non-legislative and extra-judicial measures to repress online file-sharing of copyrighted works, and thereby undermine fundamental freedoms;
– take a worryingly biased view on the socio-economic impact of file-sharing;
– call for a new IPR strategy in the absence of any assessment of past legislation.

Consequently, the Gallo report and similar ALDE resolutions must be rejected as dangerous and disproportionate attempts to repress online file-sharing, when much more pressing issues, such as the counterfeiting of physical goods, should be addressed.

We are confident in your commitment to protecting the public interest and the rule of Law, and remain at your disposal to answer your questions.

Yours sincerely,

Philippe Aigrain, Gérald Sédrati-Dinet, Benjamin Sonntag, Jérémie Zimmermann
Co-founders of the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.