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Nicola Zingaretti, Socialist Member of the European Parliament (MEP) asked the EU member states to speed up the plan to criminalise copyright infringement that was first proposed in 2005 and agreed upon in 2007. The implementation of the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2) creating new rules on copyright protection would require the Member States to pass laws that would penalise the infringement of intellectual property rights.
At the beginning of February, Nicola Zingaretti, who was in charge of the adoption of the new rules and a supporter of IPRED2, sent a letter to the European Council asking member states to take "urgent action" to address the "increasingly systematic violation of copyright by some Internet users" and to "provide a timeframe for discussion" of the directive which has in view the criminalisation of offences ranging from illegal downloading to the sale of counterfeit medicines.
The new directive would criminalise illegal downloading but only if done with a commercial purpose or with a commercial profit. Zingaretti wanted to emphasize that: "It is about punishing mafia-style criminals, not about jailing kids who download music from the internet."
The matter has dragged for two years now as there has been certain reluctance and opposition from several member states. The original Commission proposal has been greatly criticized, being considered as disproportional and failing to make adequate distinctions between legal activities and commercial piracy enterprises and even common activities of ordinary individuals. IPRED2 draft was amended by the European Parliament but even so, it has raised concerns as key concepts and definitions are left unacceptably vague. One reason of concern was the fact that a European Parliament adopted amendment was not included in the final text that was passed by the Parliament in April 2007.
Ante Wessels, an analyst of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure stated: "We have always warned that the definitions in this criminal law are badly drafted. And indeed, now the directive has passed parliament, the Rapporteur admits that the law is actually much broader than he has always claimed it is. (...) The Commission proposal is disproportional and the European Parliament left key concepts and definitions unacceptably vague. On top of that, democratic procedure is violated by leaving out an adopted amendment."
EU Parliament demands action on criminal IP penalties (21.02.2008)
http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=8883
EU states urged to adopt tougher copyright protection rules (20.02.2008)
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/eu-states-urged-adopt-tougher-c...
Parliamentary questions - Written Question by Nicola Zingaretti (PSE) to the
Council Subject: Criminal measures to enforce intellectual property rights
(5.02.2008)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+P-...
EP Rapporteur wants to crack down on internet users (19.02.2008)
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/EP_Rapporteur_wants_to_crack_down...
EDRi-gram: IPRED2 voted in first reading by the European Parliament
(25.04.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.8/ipred2