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Deutsch: Roadmap der Kommission für die Überprüfung der Urheberrechtsrichtli...

The European Commission recently published a "roadmap" to the review of the Directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement (2004/48/EC). As it is becoming traditional, the Commission neatly mixes up all kinds of infringements, from dangerous fake medicines to illegal downloads and seeks a "one size fits all" solution. In addition, the previously published implementation report graphically describes the breakdown in the credibility and perceived legitimacy of copyright in the digital environment (referring, for example, to "ubiquitous" infringements).

Faced with the unquestionable failure (hence the calls for a review) of the existing "one size fits" all legal framework and the seemingly obvious need to reform the legal framework for copyright, the approach is to plough forward with increased enforcement, as well as increased involvement of the private sector in practical law enforcement. A non-committal statement that "measures aimed at promoting the legal offer" is made but not expanded upon.

Interestingly, the "road map" explains that the current Directive's definition of "commercial scale" needs to be clarified, in order to ensure that individual consumers are not targeted. This is quite significant, because the definition is significantly narrower than the one in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). This raises a fundamental question - how can the EU be so confident that ACTA's definition of "commercial scale" will not lead to disproportionate criminalisation of end-users, when it believes that a more precise definition risks leading to disproportionate measures against citizens in civil law?

It is also somewhat surprising to note that no problem has been identified regarding the provision of personal data by Internet intermediaries - despite the widespread of abuse of both process and data, particularly in the UK and Germany. The focus instead is on developing the tools for obtaining "evidence" from intermediaries.

It must be pointed out, of course, that much of what is in the IPR Enforcement Directive is proposed in ACTA. As a result, as long as the European Commission harbours hopes of being able to ratify that agreement, it will consider itself to be prevented from making or even considering any significant changes or improvements to this Directive.

Roadmap on IPRED (01.2012)
http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/planned_ia/docs/2011_markt_006_r...

ACTA
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st12/st12196.en11.pdf

IPR Enforcement Directive Implementation Report (22.12.2010)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0779:FI...

(Contribution by Joe McNamee - EDRi)