Hi there.
This is a post to try to get the ball rolling again on our IPRED2 work. We need to write either a letter or a position document on this issue. We had one mostly written:
http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/IPRED2
but, in a committee post, Ciaran observed that it had problems:
"One problem with the letter we were working on is that many EU member states already have criminal sanctions for intentional, commercial-scale copyright infringement. This means our SCO example will be met with: 'Yeh, but that's the USA. EU member states already have these provisions and I see no harm done'."
We have two good sources to work from: FIPR: http://www.fipr.org/copyright/ipred2.html FSFE: http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/ipred2.en.html
and Teresa has given us a useful overview of the Irish angle: "There are no plans for a consultation on the implementation of IPRED1. The responsible for IPRED2 is Anne Coleman-Dunne. [...] she's the person to whom any letters or statements should be addressed (maybe copied to Michael English)."
Note that we may need to work at both the Irish and European level.
The "What we can do" section of our wiki page lists: * Ammend the directive to not be so broad * Get the Council to throw out the Framework Decision (which requires unanimitiy) * Get the Framework Decision amended * Get some nice enforcement exceptions into the directive (writing/using/distributing software cannot constitute a patent infringement, or whatever)
Ciaran, can you offer an opinion on whether the letter on our wiki page is a suitable starting point, or whether we should start from scratch.
Good luck,
Malcolm.
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