EU gives governments green light to cut-off file sharers

Mike Halsey | Oct 23, 2009 | Comments

The European Parliament has today dropped an amendment from its Telecoms Package which makes it easier for member states to cut off file-sharers without court intervention.

EU governments have been placing pressure on the EU parliament in recent weeks to allow this, despite tough opposition from consumer groups.

Only last week, Talk Talk, one of the UKs biggest ISP proved how easy it was to hack into a neighbour’s net connection. They have opposed the move on the grounds that it could result in a great many innocent people being cut off from the internet.

This also follows the recent adoption of new laws in France that could see pirates and file sharers cut off from the net for up to a year.

How this sits with separate recent EU legislation that makes access to the internet a basic ‘human right’ remains to be seen, and we can expect the move to be challenged in the courts.

The dropped amendment said…

"Any such measures liable to restrict those fundamental rights or freedoms may only be taken in exceptional circumstances…and shall be subject to adequate procedural safeguards in conformity with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.. including effective judicial protection and due process."

Also today, file sharing website The Pirate Bay is back in court in the Netherlands and could face fines of up to £5.5m ($9m) in a row over the non-removal of copyrighted material.