It hasn’t been looking good for the three strike policy in Europe to cut off file-sharers from the internet, but that isn’t stopping one politician from Germany from demanding that file-sharers should be banned from the internet.
Note: This is an article I wrote that was published elsewhere first. It has been republished here for archival purposes
In the same vain as the Irish music industry suing Internet Service Providers for copyright infringement. According to a German site netzpolitik.com (Google translation), the Minister for State Culture and Media is calling for a “sustainable fight against copyright infringement.”
The move is seen by some as the beginnings of a serious showdown between member states of the European Union. Earlier this month, a representative from Swedan moved to stop file-sharers from being disconnected from the internet – basically rejecting the French model of a ‘three strikes and you’re out’. The move was seen as a significant win for file-sharers in Europe, but it appears as though this won’t stop Germany from trying to disconnect file-sharers.
P2P-Blog offered a translation of what was said:
We should support initiatives that result in voluntary agreements between internet service providers and rights holders with the goal to fight copyright infringement. This issue has been addressed by the Olivennes process initiated by French president Sarkozy, and it has already been discussed by the European Commission as well.
Perhaps he missed the memo that said that an amendment rejected the idea of cutting file-sharers from the internet. It’s unclear whether or not this move is to simply ignore calls from the European Union and simply adopt the freshly rejected French model at the bidding of the music industry.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
