• paidContent.org, Friday, April 11, 2008 12:31 PM

The European Parliament on Friday voted to outlaw the kind of anti-piracy legislation introduced recently in the UK and France. The European Parliament bill, introduced, ironically, by a Frenchman, claims that "Criminalizing consumers so as to combat digital piracy is not the right solution", and that individual countries should "avoid adopting measures... such as the interruption of Internet access."

In France and the UK, recent proposals have placed the responsibility on users' shoulders. Last year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced a policy that warns consumers three times before disconnecting them for illegal downloading. The UK is mulling a similar policy that would hold ISPs accountable for warning and then disconnecting users.

The European Parliament proposal would protect consumers from these disconnection policies. "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," said Guy Bono, who drafted the proposal.

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