This could put the cat amongst the pigeons. European Parliament members have voted in favour of outlawing the kind of ISP disconnection policy the French government introduced to fight illegal music downloads. French socialist Guy Bono’s proposed bill on safeguarding cultural products, drafted in September, had made clear: “Criminalising consumers so as to combat digital piracy is not the right solution” - but the music industry had lobbied to introduce an amend calling for ISP-level filtering.

The report was voted for by a large majority yesterday - but with a counter-amendment, adopted 314 to 297, calling on the European Commission and individual countries to ”avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights ... such as the interruption of internet access”. A jubilant Bono: “The repressive measures are measures dictated by industries that have been unable to change their business models to meet the needs imposed by the information society.” Much more detail and analysis at our sister site paidContent:UK...

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