‘Right to internet’ dies quietly in Brussels back room

November 5, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

The deal is a major reversal of the parliament's position for much of the last year

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Early Thursday (5 November) morning the European Parliament and EU member states reached a deal over a long-delayed telecoms package when MEPs dropped their opposition to French-style ‘three-strikes’ laws aimed at illegal internet downloaders, ending for now the Brussels debate on a fundamental ‘right’ to internet access.

In a major reversal of the parliament’s position for much of the last year, MEPs in behind-closed-doors negotiations with the Council of Ministers, representing the member states, embraced new language in a compromise text that no longer requires that only judicial authorities be allowed to cut off internet access.

The overall package had little to do with internet piracy originally, focussing on improving competition in the sector.

But twice in the past year, MEPs with strong majorities inserted an amendment to the telecoms package that would have forbidden member states from restricting internet access without judicial authorisation and only in exceptional circumstances.

The move was in reaction to France’s ‘three strikes’ or ‘Hadopi’ law, named for the new government agency charged with hunting down the pirates, backed by a series of special piracy judges, to cut off internet access and even jail repeat offenders after the third offence.

The UK has in the past week announced it too is to introduce a similar three-strikes bill and the Dutch parliament has called on the government to come forward with its own version of the law.

MEPs from all parties, but mainly from the centre, left and the Green Party, strongly argued ahead of the European elections in June that three-strikes legislation is draconian and, with an eye to young voters, vowed to continue their opposition to such laws, maintaining that access to the internet had now essentially become a fundamental right as vital as access to water or electricity.

The deputies maintained that so many aspects of a citizen’s participation in society – from paying bills to dealing with local government to reading the news – now required access to the internet that cutting off access from the digital world was depriving someone of a host of other rights. Read more…