Begian Senator proposes Hadopi-like law

From @pendrift: Belgian Senator Monfils plans to submit proposals for a three-strikes copyright law. [English translation]

• [pKp]

  In other news, the HADOPI (yeah, it takes an article, the HA stands for “High Authority”) is a huge joke that will probably send two emails and maybe cut off the Internet from one poor sucker before getting lost into Bureaucracy Hell. It will never, ever, ever work as a mass-repression unit, thanks to our Conseil Constitutionnel who had the balls to apply European law and impose that cutting off someone’s Internet connection meant going in front of a judge.

  (Of course, it probably helped that the former president sits in the Conseil, and that he hates the current president’s guts).

• [zapan]

  Belgium is France’s Canada.
  Expect every stages of hypocrisy and denial of any pressure from french music lobbies by the belgian government, just as it occured in Canada when they voted their copyright infrigement law under US pressure.

• [Pendrift]

  The machine translation is pretty terrible, so here’s a very quick draft.

  Senator Philippe Monfils (MR) has announced plans to file a “graduated response” law against illegal downloading, in a statement made during the InterMédias program (RTBF).

  Pirates beware! During Monday’s InterMédias program, Philippe Monfils announced that he planned to introduce a proposal for a law on illegal downloading that would take the form of a graduated response similar to France’s Hadopi law. “The idea is to change the behavior of Internet users by focusing on prevention.”

  In concrete terms, the MR senator would propose a three-strikes response: a warning followed by a fine, then a referral to a judge who may decide to suspend the user’s high-speed Internet access. “The law would not cut off an illegal downloader’s Internet access, but limit the connection speed.”

  The senator opposed the idea of a “blanket license” (“who will pay?”), while claiming that 95% of all the music downloaded online is done so illegally. But “there’s no such thing as free culture,” he said. “We’re either heading towards the end of artistic creation, or towards a culture that would be wholly financed by public coffers.”
  Asked after the program if he was proposing a Belgian-style Hadopi, Monfils answered “Yes, conceptually speaking, but the concrete measures are different, particularly for aspects such as the right to privacy in particular”, as well as for sanctions “which would be applied only for repeat offenders.”

  Greens in favor of a global licensing flat rate

  Meanwhile, Senators Benoît Hellings (Ecolo) and Freya Piryns (Groen!) have drafted a law that would introduce a “blanket licence” for Internet downloads. This would take the form of a contribution worth several euros that would be automatically integrated into monthly broadband fees which would remain fixed.

  The amount of the contribution will need to be determined by copyright management bodies and Internet service providers. By blocking fees when the contributions come into effect, the costs will not be passed on to users.
  Ecolo and Groen! also support the creation of an Internet observatory, an independent administrative body that would monitor actual downloading practices. This would allow royalties from the blanket licence to be distributed properly.

  In France, the Hadopi law is designed to fight illegal downloading and finance artists. It was adopted after a long and heated debate. The Greens believe that “this criminalization of so-called “illegal” downloading is a failure,” because it violates the privacy of users and has not led to the transfer of Internet users to “legal” platforms, leaving the issue of proper compensation for artists unresolved.

• [Anonymous]

  uh, remember, this is Belgium. If this law ever makes it through bureaucracy, it’ll be 2041 and the internet will be replaced by something else…

• [mongolito404]

  Belgians have to pay a levy on blank CDs, DVDs and tape, audio and video-recorder, hard-drive, USB storage and MP3 players.

  This levy also applies when your are making your copies of Free Softwares, CC-licensed works. Or anything ”free” but not accepted as reimbursable by Auvibel. The provide company collecting the money from this tax. The list of reimbursement cases on its website is ridiculously short.

  This levy does not legalize copying copyrighted works. According to Auvibel: “The remuneration for private copying came into being with the aim of allocating a levy to rightful claimants for copying their works and performances at home.”.

  http://www.auvibel.be/en/