Brussels, 07/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - After the famous “Article 138” which blocked the adoption of the “Telecoms package” last year, copyright is at the centre of a new battle at the European Parliament, with the own-initiative report by Marielle Gallo (EPP, France). The report on the “application of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the internal market”, which was adopted by the committee on legal affairs on 1 June (EUROPE 10150), did not make the plenary session held this Monday 5 July, as a small majority of MEPs (140 against 135) felt that the vote should be postponed until September, so that there would be time for a more in-depth debate. The MEPs remain divided on the best way to deal with the downloading of works protected by copyright. The S&D and Greens/EFA groups clearly indicated their opposition to the Gallo report at the vote of the parliamentary committee, proposing amendments which were not retained. The Greens/EFA took the view that the report is repressive and runs counter to the principle of access to culture on the Net, in the framework of a free and open internet. “I am pleased that the examination of the text has been put back until September, which will allow the debate to remain open to seek innovative solutions to the funding of culture in the digital era”, commented French member Karima Delli. The Socialists and Democrats, for their part, stressed the need for an “objective and independent” impact assessment to find ways to reconcile the demand expressed for increasingly broad access to the European cultural heritage in the digital environment with the protection of intellectual property and copyright. “The players in the sectors must work with the consumer associations to find fair solutions able to meet the challenges of creating in the digital era”, said the president of the S&D, French MEP Catherine Trautmann.
Stating that works protected by copyright are increasingly the subject of unauthorised sharing, the Gallo report looks at the issue of the balance to be reached between free access to the internet and the measures to be implemented to fight piracy effectively. It is these measures, as regards the exchange, downloading and uploading of works protected by copyright, which have caused the controversy. “Piracy today is the greatest obstacle to the development of legal online offers”, states the report, which stresses that all those involved with the internet, including access providers, must find adequate solutions by 2010. It is not a question of punishing the end user or of transposing the French Hadopi law at European level, in other words authorising the removal of internet access as a last resort in the case of users who have illegally downloaded protected works, Gallo explains. Particularly as it “would be positively naïve to consider that illegal file-sharing is anything other than piracy”. The report calls for the European Commission to propose a complete IPR strategy, which would remove the obstacles to the creation of an online market and adapt the European legislative framework for IPR to current societal trends and technological developments. The Commission is also urged to reflect upon multi-country licence systems and harmonising copyright legislation. (I.L./transl.fl)