EU’s Anti-Piracy Enforcement Plan Leaked!

The European Union’s draft related to the enforcement of anti-piracy laws has been leaked. The anti-piracy law was set to be adopted in early 2016. The leak has come as a major blow to the efforts of the European Union with regards to promoting anti-piracy regime.  

Piracy Haunts International Community

Piracy has emerged out as one of the most debated issues in the current years. And the international community is very much concerned about the challenges anti-piracy poses to the security of information. That is the reason why governments in Australia, America, Portugal, Russia, and most importantly, the member states of the European Union has raised voice against online pirates.

Also Read: EU set to impose new net neutrality rules

The motive behind EU’s draft for the enforcement plan was to make life easier for common public, catching up with the evil designs of online pirates, and other bittorrent websites, suspected to be involved in copyright infringement. The draft also guarantees the protection of copyright owners.

The anti-piracy movement has gained impetus recently, as copyright owners had asked Google to completely ban illegal torrent websites. Google’s response however, was a blow for the champions of anti-piracy, as the search engine giant refused complete domain removal, citing the contradictions to the freedom of speech and access to information.

Anti-Piracy Draft Leaks! A Major Blow

The draft was to be made public early in December 2015, But as the situation stands, the draft has already been leaked. As per the available information, one of the major points of the draft reads:

“EU copyright rules need to be adapted so that all market players and citizens can seize the opportunities of this new environment. A more European framework is needed to overcome fragmentation and frictions within a functioning single market.”

What EU wants?

In all honesty, the European Commission wants a balanced-civil-enforcement of the draft that does help copyright owners to challenge and fight online infringement, within their own countries and across the borders as well.

With a decentralized ‘follow-the-money’ approach, the draft requires and appreciates the involvement of other parties in curbing the online infringement crime. This approach looks promising, as it will open doors to possible cross-border interactions between the players involved.

One of the major purposes of the draft is to deprive all the concerned parties, involved in commercial infringement through customer payments and advertisement.

The commission wants to take immediate action in order to get the draft approved into a law and implement it without any delay. But there are issues that need to be addressed before any final decision is made.

The European Commission is trying its level best to reach an agreement on the proposed anti-piracy law by the end of Spring. The commission wants to have a self-regulatory mechanism for all the EU member states.

According to the information available, the draft says, “The Commission is also carrying out a comprehensive assessment and a public consultation on online platforms, which also covers ‘notice and action’ mechanisms and the issue of action remaining effective over time (the ‘take down and stay down’ principle).”    

The need of the hour is to ensure the sanctity and spirit of the interpretation and implementation of the law, without breaking any rules that govern our common sense.

Let’s hope for the best.