[Algemeen] Fwd: European Commission / Institute of International and European Affairs Internet Project

[Sven Olaf Kamphuis]

Hi,

We received your email by forward from another isp/telco, and yes, we 
can help you with some aspects of your Request For Comments document.

We do have certain remarks tho :P

1: regarding article 8 of your RFC

Why is this fictional "copyright" thing even mentioned (it lacks any 
democratic base), and politicians work for the EU population, not for
some american kartells. (if i'm not mistaken ;)
the concept of copyright law lacks:

- A democratic base (noone would be in favour of a law that can put 99% of 
the population in prison  or imposed fines upon if enforced 100%

- Legal feasability from both "sides" (my computer can and has generated 
all possible musical patterns a few years ago allready, so it can just as 
well be used to stop anyone from publishing anything in the future)..

- An economic base (isps and telcos generate a lot of VAT for the EU, the 
copyright industry does not.)

- Copyright only seems to find application to some "forms" of art, 
computer programmers for example, hardy ever obtain royalties,
and frankly, don't care about it as their business model isn't
such an utter failure that it needs such to stay "profitable".

- It's kinda funny that your RFC mentions "injunctions on service 
providers that provide services to third parties that infringe copyright" 
in chapter 8, this causes additional costs and loss of profit for the 
internet industry and facilitate easy censorship with lacking legal arguments 
i'd say they have to get a valid court verdict -first-...

The MPAA/RIAA's arguments don't hold any factual base in most cases 
anyway. claiming "copyright" on movies filmed in a cinema, with added or 
removed parts, compressed, all constitute a "derivative work" by any countries 
copyright law. (even the copyright act of the USA)

With regards to copyright, its better to just drop the whole thing as its 
not a working concept. get rid of the berne convention so companies like 
the MPAA/RIAA members can adjust their business model and simply sell 
their stuff worldwide directly. (if done properly, they may even be 
motivated to move -their- offices to the EU so they can pay taxes here..)

In the end everyone has to make money, but we isps are definately not 
gonna clean up their mess caused by their lacking business model for them.

The RIAA/MPAA have pushed the laws that now prevent them from selling 
"their" content to a worldwide market (berne convention, various other 
treaties) by corruption, and refuse to adapt to the new global market.
-their problem-, stop covering their ass, they're a lost case.

also take into consideration that ISPs and telcos OWN the internet.
all the wires, switches, routers belong to us, the internet industry.
governments piggyback their economy on it (atm machines, online banking, 
etc) and that's fine with us, but by no means an absolute -right-.

It would by the way be appreciated if net-neutrality would be legally 
enforced, so that not only the state(s) obtain a right to have their 
packets relayed unmodified, but anyone else too, at this moment, this is 
purely done based on "it's in everyone's interest"...

I must however admit we have frequently considered it no longer to be in 
our interest to relay packets to and from let's say Disney or SonyBMG or 
Paramount Pictures "unmodified", as they clearly are attacking isps and 
the concept of net neutrality as a whole... some regulation in that aspect 
would be appreciated.

So whose interest would the EU rather represent, and do keep in mind, ISPs 
in the content industry can conduct business (and pay taxes) in any of the 
countries around the globe (we, for example, have had offers...)

The internet industry provides a critical infrastructure, pretty much free 
of charge, and will route anyones packets anywere, unmodified, no questions
asked, however, we do demand that countries we pay taxes to cover our ass, 
not the asses of some american companies that merely provide lousy 
"entertainment", which is of no interest to the european economy whatsoever.

Artists are by no means "poor", they can work for their money like 
everyone else. (live performances, ordered works, and simply selling 
online directly, or including the advertisment into the work, skipping the 
"tv station" step ;), however fixing their business model isn't a task 
of the government(s), they simply have to come up with something that 
works without undemocratic corrupt laws by themselves.

people have made music and books and sung songs since they lived in cages.
no copyright was ever needed to "make" them do that.

2:

Why is this content-related only, and doesn't it mention -real- 
threats to the services based EU economy, such as ddos attacks and how
to have them dealth with legally. (currently this is cumbersome process).

Easily accessible and competent law enforcement is missing in most EU 
countries

Most of the ISPs/Telcos just consider this "part of the game" and live 
with it, however it must be noted that it does cause significant 
economical damage, and in my opinion, should not be "just part of the 
game" as its actually serious crime, that simply lacks enforcement 
options at this time.

(we have lists and lists and lists of hacked botnet nodes, for example, 
and getting them shut down and analysed is a pain in the ass.)

3: regarding your "other forms of censorship"

In case a valid and applicable court order is present, we surely will 
disconnect those, and as those cases are not as controversial as some
american firms claiming they  would make a loss (which they can't prove
anyway) as in the copyright cases, we usually would not make a problem of 
it.

Now as for "fictional" child porn, we consider banning this a breach of 
the sexual freedom of "pedophiles", which are a segment of the population
too which  cannot be discriminated against, furthermore no factual 
damage is inflicted upon anyone or the state, so this lacks any legal 
basis, its more of opening a door to censorship.

So, time to make laws that actually represent what -our- population and 
industry wants, rather than a bunch of kartels from one of our 
ex-colonies.

-- 
greetings,
Sven Olaf Kamphuis

On behalf of
CB3ROB Ltd. & Co. KG

AS34109
CBSK1-RIPE

Member of Piratenpartei Deutschland
Member of Piratenpartij Nederland


>
>
>
> -------- Originele bericht --------
>
>
> The European Commission has invited us, the Institute of International and
> European Affairs (IIEA) (www.iiea.com) to undertake a very important
> project. We have been commissioned to study current practices against
> illegal internet content in the EU to determine whether any should be
> adopted to prevent the spread of illegal violent radical content online.
>
> This survey is an excellent opportunity for leading EU ISP's to directly
> influence the course of European policy in this area. Your input and
> participation is of critical importance.
>
> Our objective is to understand ISPs' efforts to tackle illegal content, how
> they interact with hotlines and law enforcement, and what are the strengths
> and weaknesses of existing approaches to illegal content. I am wondering
> would your organisation be able to please forward this short survey to your
> three or four four largest members and ask them to complete or complete it
> yourself? Any assistance you could offer would be grately appreciated.
>
>
> For further information on this study please see
> http://www.iiea.com/staff?workingGroupUrlKey=violent-radicalisation. We very
> much look forward to receiving your input and bringing it to the attention
> of the European Commission. We are contacting the major ISps across the EU
> territory for their input as this is a superb chance for ISps to voice their
> opinions on what future policy should look like in this area.
>
> *NOTE*: I appreciate ISPs are extremely busy but we would be extremely
> appreciative if the ISPs could answer ALL questions enclosed and if you they
> respond to us with requisite survey results ideally no later than *TEN
> DAYS*of receipt of this email.
>
> 1. Is this something your organisation can help us with?
>
> 2. On our website there is an RFC document
> http://www.iiea.com/blogosphere/rfc2 We would greatly appreciate it if you
> could look at our section on your country and see if it is accurate. For
> example have we included all the relevant information, is there anything
> missing that we can add, is the information accurate?
>
> Kind regards,
>
>
> Adrian Bannon
>
> Digital Policy Researcher
> Institute of International and European Affairs
> 8 North Great George's Street
> Dublin 1
> Ireland
>
> www.iiea.com
>
> email: adrian.bannon op iiea.com
> Tel: +353 (0) 18 74 90 02
> Fax: +353 (0) 18 78 68 80
>