[pp.int.general] [Cafe] urgent: data retention and downloading

[Erik Josefsson]

Reinier Bakels wrote:
> NL parliament will vote next week about the Dutch law implementing
> the Data Retention Directive. Government proposes 24 months, the
> supporters of 6 and 24 months are roughly in balance. Many
> commentaries in newspapers.
> 
> None refers to a link with copyright enforcement. I know Erik
> Josefsson noticed a long time ago that there is probably a link
> between IPRED2 (thats makes copyright infringement "severe crimes")
> and Data Retention, that is about collecting data for the prosecution
> of "severe crimes" only.

It's not me, it's CMBA:

   The EU has put in place instruments aimed at improving the protection
   of intellectual property rights, such as the Copyright Directive
   (adopted in 2001) and the Enforcement Directive (adopted in 2004).
   The latter expressly recognizes the need to ensure that information
   concerning the origin of infringing activity, distribution channels
   and the identity of suspected infringers can be obtained from service
   providers (Article 8). For this legislation to be meaningful, it is
   essential that service providers retain the relevant data for a
   reasonable period and that the data can be disclosed for appropriate
   purposes. The proposed Directive on data retention should serve to
   facilitate this.
   [...]
   The position of the CMBA is that the scope of the proposal should be
   extended to all criminal offences. Limiting the proposal to “serious”
   offences would hamper the effectiveness of the Directive and the
   enforcement activities for other forms of criminal offences.

   http://ffii.se/erik/misc/CMBAletterITRE22Nov05.doc

IPRED1 (as referred to above) was concocted together with IPRED2 before
the package was split after the environmental verdict that introduced
the option of criminal law through co-decision.

> Could we claim convincingly that "Data Retention" only pays lip
> service to terrorism and (other) criminality, but actually is just
> another of the many measures covertly proposed by desparate record
> companies to turn the Internet into a police state for the purpose of
> winning a war against file sharers - that is already almost lost?
> 
> This is urgent - if true, I will send a reaction to the newspapers.

I'll dig up some more references.

//Erik