Music-biz wants in on EU data retention laws
The music and entertainment industry is demanding that the European Parliament extend the scope of EU anti-terror laws, to help them prosecute illegal internet pirates.
A proposed EU directive on data retention, which aims to tackle organised crime and terrorism by monitoring internet and telephone use, could be used to prosecute people who download songs, films and other copyright-protected media, if the entertainment industry gets its way.
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The Creative and Media Business Alliance (CMBA) - representing companies such as Sony BMG, Disney, EMI, IFPI, Universal and MPA - wrote a letter to all MEPs last week, asking them to support amendments that would broaden the scope of the legislation.
"We would appreciate your support in ensuring that this becomes an effective instrument in the fight against piracy", they wrote.
The group wants to see the directive extended to cover all criminal offences, including piracy, and not just "serious" crimes, as the original proposal states.
While the UK government, one of the driving forces behind the data retention proposal, has signalled it is sympathetic to the plan to use the powers for tackling internet piracy, human rights campaigners call it "an example of the mission creep of draconian new anti-terror powers."
"Even the Bush administration is not proposing such a ludicrous policy, despite lobbying from Hollywood", Gus Hosein, a senior fellow at Privacy International, told The Guardian.
Data retention law on thin ice
However, civil rights lobbyists may be reassured by reports on Monday that EU member states are not likely to agree on data retention, as disputes continue over what kind of data should be stored, for how long and whether telecom firms should be paid to store the information.
"We are not sure to reach an agreement", a UK presidency diplomat said on Monday (28 November), adding that EU member states were opposed to nearly all of the changes requested by the MEPs in a parliament vote from last week.
EU justice and home affairs ministers are meeting in Brussels on Thursday to finalise their position, and if the member states do not agree, the data-retention directive may boil down to nothing.
Member states would then decide to turn the deal over to the Austrian presidency, or scrap it and continue with 25 separate models.