The European Parliament’s vote on the ultra-sensitive issue of counterfeiting and illegal downloading has been postponed until September at the request of the Greens, with support from the Socialists. At stake is the peer-to-peer sharing of files by internet users through downloading platforms. The EPP Conservatives, the largest group in the Parliament, insist that practices that infringe copyright must be made a criminal act. The left, on the other hand, argues that the use of a law-enforcement approach alone is outmoded.

“An ultra-law enforcement approach,” “unacceptable,” “an archaic view,” “infringement of users’ fundamental rights”: these are some of the criticisms heard on the own-initiative report by French Conservative Marielle Gallo on protection of intellectual property in Europe. The stakes are not legislative, but the vote on the report – adopted by the Legal Affairs Committee in June – will determine the EP’s position on this controversial societal issue: what to do about the situation of illegal downloading of works protected by copyright. The cultural, music and audiovisual/cinema industries are demanding responses at EU level. The European Commission is being pressed to act. The EP has asked it to present a study containing estimates on the economic and social impact of illegal downloading and counterfeiting in the EU.

Under these circumstances, reaching a single position is not obvious. That was nevertheless the appeal issued by Greens Co-President Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who called for postponement of the Gallo report, a request approved by 140 to 135. “Whether Mrs Gallo likes it or not, a majority of the European Parliament wished to express the fact that over and above pointless peremptory arguments, an in-depth debate is needed on this subject. Now that we have voted to postpone the report, the EP has two months to find a majority,” said the member of Europe Ecologie.

This debate is particularly important for French MEPs, after the French Hadopi bill on online piracy played havoc with the reform of EU telecoms rules, completed in late 2009. “Like Hadopi, the Gallo report proposes no real solution – such as the development of instruments like a global license – for the reform of copyright and its enforcement to serve the development of a creative and innovative economy and society,” said Sandrine Bélier (Greens).

For Socialist Françoise Castex, “this postponement is proof that Mrs Gallo does not have as large a majority behind her as she claims”. “Before adopting new legislation in this area, we need an objective and independent impact study,” added fellow Socialist Catherine Trautmann. That demand is addressed in a compromise amendment adopted by the Legal Affairs Committee, the only one backed by the Socialists. The MEP from Alsace added: “We will then necessarily have to reconcile demand for ever wider access to our cultural heritage with the necessary evolution of modes of distribution and production of works in the context of digital reality.”

COMPROMISE OR ALTERNATIVE REPORT?

Gallo’s backers say they are willing to negotiate a joint resolution but remain opposed to the option of financial compensation for artists (in the form of flat fees paid by internet users). Their opposition is based on at least two reasons: not all internet users download files illegally and this would not be a permanent solution to finance the cultural sector.

Castex has already announced that she will table with the Socialists, Greens, a majority of the Liberals and the far left, a “more balanced report that will allow balanced regulation of file-sharing matched with support for new economic models for financing and distributing the works of creative artists”. For Trautmann, there are still issues to be addressed, in particular the definition of online piracy and the concept of peer-to-peer, whether used for commercial purposes or not.