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------ [[http://www.ipred.org/MainPage Introduction]] [[http://www.ipred.org/analysis Analysis]] [[http://www.ipred.org/howto How To]] [[http://www.ipred.org/factsheet Fact sheet]] [[http://www.ipred.org/download Downloading]] ------



= Official Journal of the European Union publishes corrupted text =

The Official Journal of the European Union published the [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:074E:0527:0533:EN:PDF corrupted text], the one with amendment 15 rewritten after the vote. See below.


= Consolidated text manipulated =

Adopted amendment 15, excluding parallel importation, is not incorporated in the consolidated text. MEP Eva Lichtenberger wrote the President of the European Parliament a letter.

[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/100175 Heise has the story.]

[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Mistake_in_EP_provisional_consolidated_text_Criminal_Measures_IP_directive The FFII has the analysis]





= Legal certainty, the young generation and innovation at stake in the European Union =


Wednesday 25 April 2005. The European Parliament voted on the Criminal Measures IP directive.

[http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/European_Parliament_Criminalises_Businesses%2C_Consumers%2C_Innovators FFII press release]

[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Report_on_EP_vote FFII/BEUC/EBLIDA/EFF Coalition report on the vote]
------
 [[[http://www.ipred.org/MainPage|Introduction]]] [[[http://www.ipred.org/analysis|Analysis]]] [[[http://www.ipred.org/howto|How To]]] [[[http://www.ipred.org/factsheet|Fact sheet]]] [[[http://www.ipred.org/download|Downloading]]]
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= Carte Blanche Criminal Law = = The Criminal Measures IP Directive: Criminalizing the industry =
''The European Commission has proposed a [[http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/532&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en|directive]] to combat piracy and other infringements of "intellectual property rights" (IP-rights), such as patents, copyright and trade marks. While it does make sense to combat clear cases of piracy, it is nonsense to combat other infringements than such clear cases, with criminal measures. These other infringements occur during normal commercial business conduct, civil courts decide on them. The Commission criminalises the industry, inhibits the desired freedom to act in the market. Decent people can be treated as organised criminals.''
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Wednesday 25 April 2007 the European Parliament will vote on the Criminal Measures IP directive. A badly drafted Commission proposal was matched by badly drafted European Parliament amendments, and an amendment changed after the vote. The proposal is now in the hands of the Council.
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Take action: [http://www.copycrime.org www.copycrime.org] Behind closed doors the EU, US and Japan negociate an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), with much the same content, or even worse. See our [[acta|ACTA]] page.

----------

=== Commission withholds key study on criminal measures from European Parliament ===
 * [[http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Commission_withholds_key_study_on_criminal_measures_from_European_Parliament|Commission withholds key study on criminal measures from European Parliament]]
=== Official Journal of the European Union publishes corrupted text ===
==== Update: In a letter to MEP Eva Lichtenberger, the President of the European Parliament admitted a mistake was made. The text will be corrected. ====
Adopted amendment 15, excluding parallel importation, is not incorporated in the consolidated text. MEP Eva Lichtenberger wrote the President of the European Parliament a letter.

[[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/100175|Heise has the story.]]

[[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Mistake_in_EP_provisional_consolidated_text_Criminal_Measures_IP_directive|The FFII has the analysis]]

Despite formal objections raised on 4 December 2007 by MEP and shadow rapporteur Eva Lichtenberger the Official Journal of the European Union published the [[http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Commission_withholds_key_study_on_criminal_measures_from_European_Parliament|controversial and contested version]]. See the second part of the PR.

[[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:074E:0527:0533:EN:PDF|The Official Journal of the European Union]]

=== Coalition report on the European Parliament vote ===
Wednesday 25 April 2005. The European Parliament voted on the Criminal Measures IP directive.

[[http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/European_Parliament_Criminalises_Businesses,_Consumers,_Innovators|FFII press release]]

[[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Report_on_EP_vote|FFII/BEUC/EBLIDA/EFF Coalition report on the vote]]

=== Carte Blanche Criminal Law ===
Wednesday 25 April 2007 the European Parliament will vote on the Criminal Measures IP directive.

Take action: [[http://www.copycrime.org|www.copycrime.org]]
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Since when does the music industry care about subsidiarity? Earlier they had asked for deletion of the commercial scale condition (as an element of the crime). They would love to see not for profit filesharers in prison.  Since when does the music industry care about subsidiarity? Earlier they had asked for deletion of the commercial scale condition (as an element of the crime). They would love to see not for profit filesharers in prison.
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[http://www.ipred.org/april2007 read more] [[http://www.ipred.org/april2007|read more]]
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= Legal Affairs Committee washes hands in innocence = === Legal Affairs Committee washes hands in innocence ===
The European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee [[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/JURI_Tabled_Amendments|voted]] on the Criminal Measures IP directive. Overall impression: the experts kept the definitions vague. The experts leave it to the European Court of Justice to clarify the directive. If they want to leave it to the Court, why do they want to be involved in the first place?
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The European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee [http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/JURI_Tabled_Amendments voted] on the Criminal Measures IP directive. Overall impression: the experts kept the definitions vague. The experts leave it to the European Court of Justice to clarify the directive. If they want to leave it to the Court, why do they want to be involved in the first place? [[http://www.ipred.org/legalaffairs07|read more]]
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[http://www.ipred.org/legalaffairs07 read more]



= The Prosecution Paradise Directive =

All over Europe piracy and counterfeiting of copyright and trademark rights are already prosecutable (TRIPS art 61). The Criminal Measures IP Directive adds disproportionality. The European Commission proposal is not limited to piracy. All commercial scale infringements will be crimes, the proposal criminalises IPR disputes that are essentially of a civil nature and occur between legitimate commercial enterprises. Even untested rights, which may soon evaporate in a civil court cases, become grounds for prosecution. And the rights holders may assist the police.

Some Members of the European Parliament even proposed in amendments to remove the "commercial scale" condition or to weaken it, to remove "intentional", to involve consumers, to criminalise the young generation.
=== The Prosecution Paradise Directive ===
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In a knowledge economy, owning information is a certain win. But you still have to fight it out in civil courts sometimes. It is easier and cheaper if the state (the prosecutor) takes care of eliminating competitors, however weak your rights may be, however justified your competitors acts may be. Criminal courts are inexperienced with IP, they will readily provide court orders, criminal law gives wide competences. Litigation companies (trolls) will be able to put maximum pressure on companies that create products and extort disproportional license fees. The current proposals create huge privacy risks when "IP owners" can direct investigation into anyone they accuse of "piracy". [[http://www.ipred.org/prosecutionparadise|read more]]
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=== We do not want our kids to be criminals - just for enjoying a videoclip on YouTube ===
==== Legal Affairs committee votes on criminalising downloading ====
Monday Februari 26 and Tuesday Februari 27, 2007, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs committee will discuss and vote on a proposal by Mr Manders, MEP, to [[http://www.ipred.org/download|criminalise downloading]].
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The eighties of the last century were characterised with "get rich fast", it was a poker game. This is worse. Winner takes all, and the others can go to jail, kids included. It's jeopardizing Europe's future. [[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/JURI_Tabled_Amendments|The proposal was rejected.]]
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We assume nobody deliberately wants to create a Prosecution Paradise.

=== Measures to take ===

1 Amendments making the directive broader in scope have to be rejected.

2 The crime has to be defined as proposed by the [http://www.ipred.org/art3 Max Planck Institute].

3 Weak rights have to be taken out of the scope. In fact, only the rights known to be pirated can stay in: copyright and trademark right.

4 Art 7, which allows the rights holders to assist the police, has to be deleted.

5 The criminal measures to combat piracy and counterfeiting are already available. At best, a directive will only have symbolic meaning. A far more realistic approach was suggested by the Dutch Parliament. Its [http://europapoort.eerstekamer.nl/9310000/1/j9tvgajcovz8izf_j9vvgbwoimqf9iv/vg7slw5im1tl?key=vhc0fvdga1qw letter] should be reconsidered. There should be no hesitation to reject the directive.


--------------------
[[BR]]



= We do not want our kids to be criminals - just for enjoying a videoclip on YouTube =


== Legal Affairs committee votes on criminalising downloading ==

Monday Februari 26 and Tuesday Februari 27, 2007, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs committee will discuss and vote on a proposal by Mr Manders, MEP, to [http://www.ipred.org/download criminalise downloading].

[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/JURI_Tabled_Amendments The proposal was rejected.]

-----------------------------------
[[BR]]
----------
 <<BR>>
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''The European Commission has proposed a [[http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/532&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en|directive]] to combat piracy and other infringements of "intellectual property rights" (IP-rights), such as patents, copyright and trade marks. While it does make sense to combat clear cases of piracy, it is nonsense to combat other infringements than such clear cases, with criminal measures. These other infringements occur during normal commercial business conduct, civil courts decide on them. The Commission criminalises the industry, inhibits the desired freedom to act in the market. Decent people can be treated as organised criminals.''
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''The European Commission has proposed a [http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/532&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en directive] to combat piracy and other infringements of "intellectual property rights" (IP-rights), such as patents, copyright and trade marks. While it does make sense to combat clear cases of piracy, it is nonsense to combat other infringements than such clear cases, with criminal measures. These other infringements occur during normal commercial business conduct, civil courts decide on them. The Commission criminalises the industry, inhibits the desired freedom to act in the market. Decent people can be treated as organised criminals.''

== Commercial infringements ==
=== Commercial infringements ===
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== Bizarre consequences ==
=== Bizarre consequences ===
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== Superfluous ==
=== Superfluous ===
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== Carte blanche ==
=== Carte blanche ===
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== No competence == === No competence ===
Interestingly enough, it is the first time the European Union proposes criminal measures, without the member states having a veto. In our opinion, only countries have enough legitimacy to make criminal laws. The Dutch Parliament unanimously concluded the [[http://wiki.ffii.org/IpredNlParl060629En|Commission exceeds its competence]] with this directive.
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Interestingly enough, it is the first time the European Union proposes criminal measures, without the member states having a veto. In our opinion, only countries have enough legitimacy to make criminal laws. The Dutch Parliament unanimously concluded the [http://wiki.ffii.org/IpredNlParl060629En Commission exceeds its competence] with this directive.


--------------------------------------------------
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The directive has to be rejected:
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The directive has to be rejected:
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For conclusion and analysis see our [[http:analysis|analysis page]].
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For conclusion and analysis see our [http:analysis analysis page].

-------------------
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 * [[http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st08/st08866.en06.pdf|English]]
More translations will be available later on. Change "en" twice in the link for translations.
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 * [http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st08/st08866.en06.pdf English]
More translations will be available later on. Change "en" twice in the link for translations.
 * [h
ttp://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/fr/06/st08/st08866.fr06.pdf French]
 * [http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/de/06/st08/st08866.de06.pdf German]
 *
[http://tinyurl.com/9djqm Council documents on the subject]
 * [http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=193131#381074 Commission]
 * [http://preview.tinyurl.com/ytfdrd Council Substantive Criminal Law Working Groups' agenda]
 * [http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/driver?page=Result&lang=EN&ssf=DATE_DOCUMENT+DESC&fc=REGAISEN&srm=25&md=400&typ=Simple&cmsid=638&ff_TITRE=&ff_FT_TEXT=&ff_SOUS_COTE_MATIERE=COPEN&dd_DATE_REUNION=  COPEN]
 * [http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/driver?page=Result&lang=EN&ssf=DATE_DOCUMENT+DESC&fc=REGAISEN&srm=25&md=400&typ=Simple&cmsid=638&ff_TITRE=&ff_FT_TEXT=&ff_SOUS_COTE_MATIERE=JAI&dd_DATE_REUNION= JAI]
 * [http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/driver?page=Result&lang=EN&ssf=DATE_DOCUMENT+DESC&fc=REGAISEN&srm=25&md=400&typ=Simple&cmsid=638&ff_TITRE=&ff_FT_TEXT=&ff_SOUS_COTE_MATIERE=DROIPEN&dd_DATE_REUNION= DROIPEN]



-------------------------------------------------------
 * [[http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/fr/06/st08/st08866.fr06.pdf|French]]
 * [[http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/de/06/st08/st08866.de06.pdf|German]]
 * [[http://tinyurl.com/9djqm|Council documents on the subject]]
 * [[http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=193131#381074|Commission]]
 * [[http://preview.tinyurl.com/ytfdrd|Council Substantive Criminal Law Working Groups' agenda]]
 * [[http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/driver?page=Result&lang=EN&ssf=DATE_DOCUMENT+DESC&fc=REGAISEN&srm=25&md=400&typ=Simple&cmsid=638&ff_TITRE=&ff_FT_TEXT=&ff_SOUS_COTE_MATIERE=COPEN&dd_DATE_REUNION=|COPEN]]
 * [[http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/driver?page=Result&lang=EN&ssf=DATE_DOCUMENT+DESC&fc=REGAISEN&srm=25&md=400&typ=Simple&cmsid=638&ff_TITRE=&ff_FT_TEXT=&ff_SOUS_COTE_MATIERE=JAI&dd_DATE_REUNION=|JAI]]
 * [[http://register.consilium.europa.eu/servlet/driver?page=Result&lang=EN&ssf=DATE_DOCUMENT+DESC&fc=REGAISEN&srm=25&md=400&typ=Simple&cmsid=638&ff_TITRE=&ff_FT_TEXT=&ff_SOUS_COTE_MATIERE=DROIPEN&dd_DATE_REUNION=|DROIPEN]]
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 * [[http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/532&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en|Commission announcement]]
 * The directive is an amended version, [[http://www.ipred.org/history|see the History]]
 * [[http://www.ip.mpg.de/shared/data/pdf/directive_of_the_european_parliament_and_of_the_council_on_criminal_measures_aimed_at_ensuring_the_enforcement_of_intellectual_property_rights.pdf|Max Planck Institute: Statement on Directive on Criminal Measures Aimed at Ensuring the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights]] ([[http://tinyurl.com/y7yfvh|as tinyurl]])
 * [[http://action.ffii.org/ipred2|FFII action page]]
 * [[http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/secure/file/157008/e:/teamsite-deployed/documents//templatedata/Internet%20Documents/Non-government%20proposals/Documents/ipcriminalsanctions310806.pdf|Comments by the Law Society of Engeland and Wales]] [[http://tinyurl.com/y79cfk|(tinyurl)]]
 * [[http://europapoort.eerstekamer.nl/9310000/1/j9tvgajcovz8izf_j9vvgbwoimqf9iv/vg7slw5im1tl?key=vhc0fvdga1qw|Dutch Parliament]]
 * [[http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.9/ipcriminal|EDRI]]
 * [[http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/ipred2.en.html|FSF Europe]]
 * [[http://c-176-03.blogspot.com/2006/11/european-court-of-justice-crosses.html|European Court of Justice crosses the Rubicon]]
 * Reinier Bakels presentation for SANE: ISO Open Document Format [[attachment:RBB060517.odp]] PDF [[attachment:RBB060517.pdf]] !PowerPoint [[attachment:RBB060517.ppt]] !OpenOffice.org [[attachment:RBB060517.sxi]]
 * [[http://www.ipred.org/nl|NL: Gevangenisstraf voor octrooiinbreuk]]
 * EU News [[http://press.jrc.it/NewsBrief/alertedition/en/JudicialCooperationCriminal.html|Criminal law]] | [[http://press.jrc.it/NewsBrief/alertedition/en/EuropeanConstitution.html|Constitution]]
 * [[http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cms_data/docs/2004/6/21/Councils%20rules%20of%20procedure.pdf|Council rules of procedure]]
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 * [http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/532&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en Commission announcement]
 * The directive is an amended version, [http://www.ipred.org/history see the History]
 * [http://www.ip.mpg.de/shared/data/pdf/directive_of_the_european_parliament_and_of_the_council_on_criminal_measures_aimed_at_ensuring_the_enforcement_of_intellectual_property_rights.pdf Max Planck Institute: Statement on Directive on Criminal Measures Aimed at Ensuring the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights] ([http://tinyurl.com/y7yfvh as tinyurl])
 * [http://action.ffii.org/ipred2 FFII action page]

 * [http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/secure/file/157008/e:/teamsite-deployed/documents//templatedata/Internet%20Documents/Non-government%20proposals/Documents/ipcriminalsanctions310806.pdf Comments by the Law Society of Engeland and Wales] [http://tinyurl.com/y79cfk (tinyurl)]
 * [http://europapoort.eerstekamer.nl/9310000/1/j9tvgajcovz8izf_j9vvgbwoimqf9iv/vg7slw5im1tl?key=vhc0fvdga1qw Dutch Parliament]
 * [http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.9/ipcriminal EDRI]
 * [http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/ipred2.en.html FSF Europe]
 * [http://c-176-03.blogspot.com/2006/11/european-court-of-justice-crosses.html European Court of Justice crosses the Rubicon]
 * Reinier Bakels presentation for SANE: ISO Open Document Format attachment:RBB060517.odp PDF attachment:RBB060517.pdf !PowerPoint attachment:RBB060517.ppt !OpenOffice.org attachment:RBB060517.sxi
 * [http://www.ipred.org/nl NL: Gevangenisstraf voor octrooiinbreuk]


 * EU News [http://press.jrc.it/NewsBrief/alertedition/en/JudicialCooperationCriminal.html Criminal law] | [http://press.jrc.it/NewsBrief/alertedition/en/EuropeanConstitution.html Constitution]

 * [http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cms_data/docs/2004/6/21/Councils%20rules%20of%20procedure.pdf Council rules of procedure]
 
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ipred.org is set up by [http://www.vrijschrift.org Vrijschrift.org] ipred.org is set up by [[http://www.vrijschrift.org|Vrijschrift.org]]



The Criminal Measures IP Directive: Criminalizing the industry

The European Commission has proposed a directive to combat piracy and other infringements of "intellectual property rights" (IP-rights), such as patents, copyright and trade marks. While it does make sense to combat clear cases of piracy, it is nonsense to combat other infringements than such clear cases, with criminal measures. These other infringements occur during normal commercial business conduct, civil courts decide on them. The Commission criminalises the industry, inhibits the desired freedom to act in the market. Decent people can be treated as organised criminals.

A badly drafted Commission proposal was matched by badly drafted European Parliament amendments, and an amendment changed after the vote. The proposal is now in the hands of the Council.

Behind closed doors the EU, US and Japan negociate an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), with much the same content, or even worse. See our ACTA page.


Commission withholds key study on criminal measures from European Parliament

Official Journal of the European Union publishes corrupted text

Update: In a letter to MEP Eva Lichtenberger, the President of the European Parliament admitted a mistake was made. The text will be corrected.

Adopted amendment 15, excluding parallel importation, is not incorporated in the consolidated text. MEP Eva Lichtenberger wrote the President of the European Parliament a letter.

Heise has the story.

The FFII has the analysis

Despite formal objections raised on 4 December 2007 by MEP and shadow rapporteur Eva Lichtenberger the Official Journal of the European Union published the controversial and contested version. See the second part of the PR.

The Official Journal of the European Union

Coalition report on the European Parliament vote

Wednesday 25 April 2005. The European Parliament voted on the Criminal Measures IP directive.

FFII press release

FFII/BEUC/EBLIDA/EFF Coalition report on the vote

Carte Blanche Criminal Law

Wednesday 25 April 2007 the European Parliament will vote on the Criminal Measures IP directive.

Take action: www.copycrime.org

Just prior to the Legal Affairs Committee vote the music industry asked to keep "commercial scale" undefined. They claimed it would be better for reasons of subsidiarity (in this case: leave it to the member states).

Since when does the music industry care about subsidiarity? Earlier they had asked for deletion of the commercial scale condition (as an element of the crime). They would love to see not for profit filesharers in prison.

read more

The European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee voted on the Criminal Measures IP directive. Overall impression: the experts kept the definitions vague. The experts leave it to the European Court of Justice to clarify the directive. If they want to leave it to the Court, why do they want to be involved in the first place?

read more

The Prosecution Paradise Directive

A disproportional directive will cause a Prosecution Paradise, with ample opportunities for trolls.

read more

We do not want our kids to be criminals - just for enjoying a videoclip on YouTube

Monday Februari 26 and Tuesday Februari 27, 2007, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs committee will discuss and vote on a proposal by Mr Manders, MEP, to criminalise downloading.

The proposal was rejected.



The Criminal Measures IP Directive: European Commission criminalises the industry

The European Commission has proposed a directive to combat piracy and other infringements of "intellectual property rights" (IP-rights), such as patents, copyright and trade marks. While it does make sense to combat clear cases of piracy, it is nonsense to combat other infringements than such clear cases, with criminal measures. These other infringements occur during normal commercial business conduct, civil courts decide on them. The Commission criminalises the industry, inhibits the desired freedom to act in the market. Decent people can be treated as organised criminals.

Commercial infringements

Beyond clear cases of piracy, it is impossible to tell in advance whether an act is an infringement or fair competition. On a daily basis companies try out the boundaries of "IP-rights". Is this product a look alike? Is this copycat or will the patent be invalidated? Is this work an independent recreation? Companies reach agreements or fight it out in civil courts. If a right was indeed infringed, damages are paid. This is a fair process. Adding criminal sanctions to this fair process creates a big threat potential that inhibits the desired freedom to act in the market.

Bizarre consequences

By not making a distinction between piracy and other infringements, the Commission creates bizarre consequences. It is impossible to write software without violating patents. A whole industry will be criminalised. Microsoft has been violating many patents, and had to pay huge damages. With this directive, we could see Bill Gates in prison. Even companies which merely use properly licensed software are criminalised, since such use is intentional, commercial scale and can infringe on software patents. And people who share files on the internet, on a not-for-profit basis, can be treated as organised criminals. You better watch what your kids are doing with your computer.

Superfluous

To combat piracy the legal means are already installed. What is actually needed is better coordination between countries. Copyright "piracy" and trade mark counterfeiting are already crimes throughout the EU, the TRIPS-treaty sees to that. Unlike the directive, the national laws are carefully balanced. With its weak definitions, the directive distorts carefully balanced national procedural law systems.

Carte blanche

An other bizarre aspect of the proposal is that is has an open end: all existing and future "IP-rights" are covered. It is a carte blanche. Seen this misguided, superfluous and outrageous directive, is there anyone who wants to give the Commission carte blanche?

No competence

Interestingly enough, it is the first time the European Union proposes criminal measures, without the member states having a veto. In our opinion, only countries have enough legitimacy to make criminal laws. The Dutch Parliament unanimously concluded the Commission exceeds its competence with this directive.


Conclusion and analysis

The directive has to be rejected:

  • it is misguided, superfluous and outrageous
  • the Community lacks legitimacy and competence

If not rejected, member states should take the directive to the European Court of Justice.

A complete rewrite could be contemplated. This would result in a directive that does not go any further than the TRIPS treaty. Since we already have the TRIPS treaty, it would not make much sense. While this approach would take away the gross aspects of the directive, it would not solve the competence question.

For conclusion and analysis see our analysis page.


Full name

Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights

COM(2006)0168

C6‑0233/2005

2005/0127(COD)

More translations will be available later on. Change "en" twice in the link for translations.



ipred.org

In 2004 the Council and European Parliament adopted an Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED). To make fast adoption possible (before 10 new members joined the EU), criminal penalties were taken out.

The criminal measures are back in the Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights (DCMEIPR ?). This new directive is often called IPRED 2.

ipred.org is set up by Vrijschrift.org

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