Yesterday, I blogged about the upcoming vote in the EU's CULT committee on a proposal to extend copyright for sound recordings for another 45 years, and to force ISPs to block sites that "infringe copyright," to spy on their customers to block suspicious traffic.
Today I have good news -- thanks to your phone calls and emails to the right MEPs, the proposal was defeated! The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Danny O'Brien sez,
Just got word from the European Parliament all three of the filtering/copyright extension amendments were defeated or withdrawn in the committee vote. We're still waiting on the official record, but if that's true, it's an amazing victory -- one was originally proposed by the original author of the report, Guy Bono himself, one was voted in by the powerful industry committee, and one was drafted by an EPP-ED member, the largest bloc in the parliament.LinkWe're sure copyright extension, ISP snooping, and any number of foolish policies will pop up again in the EU process or national governments: but together we'll kick them out every time.
Glad my e-mail to my MEPs wasn’t wasted!
I wrote to one of our MEPs, Tom Wise, and he sent me back this great email:
“Dear Huw
I am proud to have been the proposer of an amendment in July 2005 which scrapped the proposal for an EU software patent. What worried me then, and still does, was the response from an EU Commission official at the time. I quote, “Colleagues, we are disappointed, WE will just have to bring this back before a more acquiescent Parliament”
I guess that this is part of that process.
Please believe me, YES, I will vote against this and collaborate with whomsoever wants to join me to defeat it.
Best wishes
Tom Wise MEP”
It’s very refreshing to feel proud of your representatives! Good for Tom Wise. He also emailed me back to let me know the whole fiasco had been torpedoed, so he gets double points for responsiveness as well as being a sensible and upright chap.
Now it’s time to defeat the telecom immunity bill in the US Congress. Senator Chris Dodd (former Democratic presidential candidate) has promised to filibuster, but he needs all the support he can get.
I don’t have links and numbers handy, unfortunately – I’m on my Blackberry. Just putting this out there, though. Anyone else have links/numbers/etc. and can post them, that would be great!
Corey, I’ve been noticing a trend in your headlines.
Just quietly, have you been lurking on /b/ for a wee bit too long? Just curious…
I also got several personal replies from Tom Wise (an appropriate moniker, non?); he’s clearly (actually can we access voting records anywhere?).
He was the only UK MEP I emailed that replied…
I wrote to Nikolaos Sifounakis and Manolis Mavrommatis who happen to be the Chairman and Vice Chairman. I got no answer though. Wasn’t expecting one.I actually voted for Manolis Mavrommatis :)
I am a little confused as I can read in my local newspapers online editions (dated 24 January) that France already passed a law making it possible for ISP’s to block internet access to consumers (http://ekstrabladet.dk/kup/elektronik/article967998.ece – in Danish) and that EU are ready to spy on internet traffic (http://comon.dk/index.php/news/show/id=34492 – in Danish). Are these high traffic sites just mistaken or am I missing something?
Why do we need to keep fighting this? I mean, we say no to this now. Is that not clear enough? Is it not clear that we don’t want that? Then why do they want to put it back on the table at a later date?
I really don’t get it…
How is this epic fail? Isn’t it, rather, EPIC WIN!?
you have to keep a close watch on them… they’ll try and sneak it through the fisheries committee or somesuch…
Are both links supposed to go back to the BB article? Do we have Danny’s report online yet?
#2 – current media industry lobbyists are made of fail, though. We are all teh winnar.
#3 – tell me about it: having headed off government oversight of home ed in the UK, they’ve just tried sneaking it in again under cover of health education…
#3 and #4: And then they are surprised that the public has no trust for politicians…
Danny’s report is reproduced in the body — it was an email to me!