Position Paper on Fight against Illegal File Sharing in Europe

In the light of the upcoming revision of the Telecoms Package, the vote of the French National Assembly on the French law on Creation and Internet and since each EU nation is currently trying to implement different sanctioning schemes, the EPAA would like to communicate its position in the fight against illegal file sharing.

The reassessment of the Telecoms Package including the likely reintroduction of Amendment 138 by the European Parliament is planned for April 2009. The Telecoms Package is a set of five European Directives regulating electronic communication networks, and which are currently being modified. Would the Amendment 138 become part of the Telecoms Package, any measure taken against end-users illegally offering copyrighted content to the Internet community on P2P networks or anywhere else over the Internet would require a prior ruling by a judicial authority, making the whole sanctioning process costly for rights-holders and much more difficult to implement. Nonetheless, the EPAA strongly supports the Amendment 138’s objective of respecting the end-users’ fundamental rights and freedoms.

The Amendment 138 would thus require national governments, such as France, to rethink their schemes to fight against Internet piracy. The French law on Creation and Internet is scheduled to be voted by the National Assembly in March 2009. This law will bring in graduated response measures, sanctioning users by terminating their Internet access after receiving warnings via their ISPs, if they are alleged to have repeatedly downloaded copyrighted content. The EPAA regards this approach as a milestone for effectively fighting against Internet piracy and feels that the Amendment 138 should in no event have the impact of being capable of overruling national jurisdiction.

The EPAA believes that the European Commission should take a strong lead in fighting Internet piracy and should encourage Member States in adopting efficient regulations. Furthermore, we strongly support the rights holders in undertaking effective schemes to fight piracy on a national level, with each Member State being responsible for ensuring the respect of their Internet consumers’ fundamental rights. As a matter of fact, a 2008 ruling of the European Court of Justice with regards to the obligations of the ISPs, clearly stated that each European Union member could introduce laws which could oblige the ISPs to hand over their users’ personal data.

Besides the legal framework, the EPAA also supports initiatives on a voluntary basis between rights holders and ISPs in order to establish a close collaboration, to ensure traceability of illegal online content distribution and the identification of illegal file sharers, and to urge the ISPs to block the websites which business consists of illegal offering of copyrighted content.

Last but not least, the EPAA considers that any form of illegal file sharing, be it for commercial or personal use, should be forbidden by law.

Paris, 27.03.09

Signatories:

AUSTRIA
FAFO – Fachverband der Audiovisions und Filmindustrie Osterreichs

BELGIUM
UPFF – Union des Producteurs de Films Francophones
VFPB – Vlaamse Film Producentenbond

FRANCE
API - Associations des Producteurs Indépendants
Eurocinéma
UPF - Union des Producteurs de Films
APC – Association des Producteurs de Cinéma

GERMANY
Allianz Deutscher Produzenten – Film und Fernsehen

GREECE
SAPOE – Union of Greek Producers

HUNGARY
Hungarian Independent Producers Association

ICELAND
SIK – Association of Icelandic Film Producers

ITALY
ANICA – Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive e Multimediali

LUXEMBOURG
ULPA – Union Luxembourgeoise pour la Production Audiovisuelle

PORTUGAL
APC – Associaçao of Produtores de Cinema

SLOVAKIA
SAPA – Association of Slovak Audiovisual Producers

SLOVENIA
GIZ – Slovenskih Filmskih Producentov

SPAIN
FAPAE – Federacion de Asociaciones de Productores Audiovisuales Espanoles

UNITED KINGDOM
PACT – Producers Alliance for Cinema & Television