EuroISPA regrets plenary vote on EU Copyright Directive

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Brussels, 26 March 2019 – EuroISPA regrets that the majority of the European Parliament endorsed the Copyright Directive reform, with its Articles 11 and 13 featuring in the final agreement.

Innocenzo Genna, Chair of the Innovation and Growth Committee, commented: “A majority of policy-makers in the European Parliament ignored the concerns of more than 5 million users, civil society, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, creative SMEs and startups, innovative media and publishers,  and the Internet industry at large”.

EuroISPA members are concerned that upload filters necessary to comply with Article 13 will impact the competitiveness of European SMEs, while pushing overly cautious platforms to remove potentially legal content in order to avoid liability, with detriment for users’ rights. Furthermore, Article 11 on press publishers’ rights could limit European users’ ability to share snippets and hyperlinks online, due to unclear and partial carve-outs included in the text.

As the Copyright Directive will be transposed at the national level, EuroISPA’s national members will make concerted efforts to minimize the damage for the Internet ecosystem across Member States and address the lack of clarity in same areas of the proposal.

Industry and civil society share concerns on Regulation on terrorist content online with MEPs

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Brussels – 18 March 2019: EuroISPA and eight organisations representing civil society and industry sent a letter to the European Parliament highlighting concerns on the proposal for a Regulation on Preventing the Dissemination of Terrorist Content Online.

The co-signatories suggest several measures to improve the proposal, such as limiting the definition of “hosting service providers”, amending the extremely short one-hour deadline to comply with removal orders, and clearly aligning the proposal with the e-Commerce Directive.

You can read it here.

The letter has been signed by:

EuroISPA regrets Copyright trilogue outcome, urges MEPs to reject the reform

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Brussels, 14 February 2019 – EuroISPA regrets the outcome of yesterday’s trilogue, where the representatives of the European Parliament and the Council approved the Copyright Directive reform.

With this decision, the negotiators clearly showed that the concerns of civil society, users, academia, industry, founders of the Internet, and the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression continuously fell on deaf ears. Recently, even the music, audio-visual, broadcasting and sports sectors – originally strong proponents of this provision – joined the protest against Article 13.

Innocenzo Genna, Chair of the Innovation and Growth Committee, stated: “These rules will impose upload filters on platforms, impacting the competitiveness of European innovative SMEs, and leading to the over-blocking of legal content. Article 11, if adopted, would change the Internet as we know it:  an ancillary copyright would affect small platforms and innovative online publishers, while limiting  the ability of European users to use hyperlinks and share snippets online. Ultimately, this would have a significant negative impact on freedom of expression in Europe”.

Furthermore, the Copyright Directive reform would lead to further fragmentation of the Digital Single Market, instead of harmonisation, as Member States with different legal cultures will implement it differently and create legal uncertainty for the industry.

As the EU elections approach, the Members of the European Parliament should use this opportunity to vote this reform down – a vote closely watched by the EU electorate. As more than 4 million concerned citizens signed a petition to voice their concerns, EuroISPA calls on MEPs to reject the current text, in order to explore new constructive solutions during the next European legislature.

67 industry associations reiterate concerns on ePrivacy in letter to negotiators

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Brussels – 28 November 2018: Ahead of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council meeting of 4 December, 67 industry associations, including EuroISPA, reiterated their concerns about the proposal for an ePrivacy Regulation. Despite ongoing negotiations in the Council, the text remains far from addressing the many substantive issues that have been raised since the proposal was first put forward. The signatories therefore urge Member States to signal clearly that negotiations with the European Parliament should not be rushed on the basis of a flawed text, which would have profound repercussions for the European economy.

You can read the letter here

Copyright : EuroISPA co-signs industry letter addressed to EU negotiators 

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Brussels, 20 November 2018: EuroISPA and several European and national trade associations sent a letter on the Copyright Directive reform to the EU Institutions.

The letter supports the exclusion of hyperlinks and snippets from the scope of the proposal, as well as limiting the scope to active platforms which give access to phonograms, broadcasts, films or musical works.

EuroISPA urges the European Commission, the Council, and the European Parliament to strive towards a balanced approach in the remaining trilogue negotiations.

EuroISPA regrets Plenary vote on Copyright

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Strasbourg, 12 September 2018 – EuroISPA regrets the outcome of today’s vote of the European Parliament in favour of the Copyright Directive reform. A majority of MEPs have decided to impose upload filters on platforms, and to create an ancillary copyright which might ultimately restrict Europeans’ ability to freely share information online.

They have ignored pleas and warnings coming from hundreds of academics, founders of the Internet, one million of concerned citizens, trade associations, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and the protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

The proposal will be now discussed by the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council in the so-called trilogue negotiations. EuroISPA calls on the negotiators to strive towards a balanced approach in the upcoming months.

Terrorist Content Online: EuroISPA concerned as Commission privatises law enforcement

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Brussels, 12 September 2018- Less than one week after the transposition of the Directive on Combatting Terrorism, the European Commission has published its proposal on “preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online”. EuroISPA strongly criticises the steps towards the further privatisation of law enforcement, as the proposal would oblige hosting service providers to proactively decide on the legality of allegedly terrorist content, with profound implications for fundamental rights and freedoms. Malcolm Hutty, Intermediary Liability Chair, stated: “Handing off responsibility for detecting terrorist content to internet intermediaries is passing off one of the State’s most fundamental responsibilities. Internet companies can neither identify terrorist content reliably, nor act as guarantors for freedom speech. Only competent public authorities have the ability to protect both our safety and our freedoms. The proper role for Internet companies is simply to act swiftly to remove material that an independent authority has determined to be illegal by due process of law”.

With this proposal the Commission mandates a large part of the Internet value chain to proactively decide on the legality and nature of content online, following a risk assessment of their service. Such requirements, combined with vaguely defined duty of care obligations are deeply worrying, raising issues of transparency, legal clarity, accountability and certainty. As a result, fundamental freedoms of expression as well as of sharing and receiving information are endangered.

The proposal’s provision for a one-hour timeframe poses risks to due process and legal clarity. This timeframe, combined with sanctions, is simply not feasible for SMEs, who do not have the resources to provide a 24/7 service. Therefore, an SME exemption should be included, in order not to disadvantage SMEs vis-à-vis larger platforms.

The included data retention obligation, running contrary to existing case-law, is equally concerning. The vast range of data covered by the scope of the Regulation will ultimately endanger European users’ privacy. Moreover, the possibility for competent authorities to renew the data retention obligations an unlimited number of times might prove extremely burdensome for SMEs.

While technological progress and service providers’ efforts have led to a higher rate of removal of terrorist content in recent months, filtering only constitutes a quick fix. It does not solve the root issues of dealing with the perpetrators or providing justice to victims.

Dedicated Single Points of Contact (SPOCs) and referral units, such as Europol’s Internet Referral Unit, work closely in collaboration with Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These existing procedures have dramatically accelerated the removal of terrorist content online. However, EuroISPA expresses its concerns over the tendency in privatising law enforcement activities, placing this responsibility in the hands of ISPs. EuroISPA calls for careful consideration of this proposal, to strive towards greater legal clarity, transparency and accountability in line with legal safeguards. Due consideration should be given to already existing voluntary processes, and the close cooperation between industry and law enforcement. This voluntary approach has proven thus far to be efficient and effective in tackling terrorist content online.

Copyright Vote – EuroISPA’s recommendations

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Brussels, 11 September 2018 – Tomorrow, the European Parliament will vote on the Copyright Directive reform. MEPs will choose whether to support an open and free Internet or to endorse upload filters, endangering Europeans’ ability to freely share information online.

Article 13 – protecting freedom of speech and creativity

Several amendments would render platforms directly liable for the infringements made by their users. They would be forced to install upload filters and to determine the legality of allegedly illegal content. This would result in over-blocking and the censorship of legal content, thus having a chilling effect on European users’ fundamental freedoms.

Instead, EuroISPA supports the amendments formulated by the IMCO Committee, which would oblige active platforms to conclude licenses with rightsholders, without implementing upload filters. In this way, the Internet will stay open and creators will be fairly remunerated.

Article 11 – a presumption of transfer of rights

The creation of an ancillary copyright would negatively impact the development of innovative business models necessary to advance the publishing industry. Moreover, its application to snippets would constitute a dire danger to the free Internet.

Rather, EuroISPA supports compromises formulating a “presumption of transfer of rights” to news publishers, which would empower them to address copyright infringements on behalf of their authors and to conclude new licensing agreements.

As the representative of the Internet infrastructure, EuroISPA urges MEPs to support rules fostering an open Internet, respecting users’ fundamental rights and promoting creativity. 

Copyright Directive: European Parliament listens to civil society and industry and rejects JURI report

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Brussels, 5 July 2018 – Today, the European Parliament rejected the Legal Affairs’ Committee (JURI) draft report on the Copyright Directive reform, deeming it premature to enter into negotiations with the Council. EuroISPA welcomes this decision, as the current text would hurt the European Internet ecosystem and its users. We call on the European Parliament to improve the text ahead of the next Plenary session in September, by adopting a more proportionate and targeted approach.

Innocenzo Genna, Chair of EuroISPA’s Innovation and Growth Committee, stated: “Today, MEPs rightly rejected the introduction of additional press publishers’ rights and upload filters. In so doing, they listened to the concerns of hundreds of academics, internet pioneers, civil rights groups and the online sector”.

EuroISPA has consistently argued that Article 11 on press publishers’ rights would present a danger for the free and open internet and would hinder innovation, adding another layer of licensing complexity. Article 13 would mandate platforms to install incredibly expensive upload filters. This would lead to over-blocking and censorship of lawful content, thus endangering European users’ fundamental freedoms.

Therefore, we call on MEPs to amend the draft report ahead of the next Plenary session in September, to formulate copyright rules which are proportionate and targeted, to support the development of the European Internet industry and respect users’ fundamental freedoms.

E-Evidence: EuroISPA adopts Position Paper

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Brussels, 3 July 2018-  EuroISPA is the voice of the European Internet industry, representing over 2500 Internet Services Providers from across Europe and all along the Internet value chain.EuroISPA’s members have long worked with judicial authorities in their countries of operation, and thus have valuable insights on the functioning of existing cooperation. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of EuroISPA’s members are SMEs, and as such, face novel challenges from any new legal regime. EuroISPA has long been engaged on the e-evidence file, having been very active in the proposal’s preparatory stages.

EuroISPA has been a longstanding interlocuter in policy discussions on how to improve cooperation procedures, using its representative role at, for example, Europol’s EC3 communications providers advisory group, the European Commission DG JUST/DG HOME taskforce on e-evidence, and the former European Commission expert group on data retention, to advance such discussions.

EuroISPA and its members feel compelled to stress the negative consequences that will arise from any framework that privatises law enforcement and does not provide clear safeguards for ISPs. Furthermore, EuroISPA emphasises the need for SME exemptions to offset the considerable administrative, legal and financial burden incurred by the cooperation set out by the e-evidence proposal.

The position paper in full can be read here: 1806_EuroISPA_e-evidence_position_paper

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