Copyright term extension plans on hold. Czech Presidency proposal rejected by Council bureaucrats. British music industry unhappy with UK government. Signs of rift between Ministries.

Proposals to extend the term of copyright protection for performing artists  from 50  to 90 years got a serious setback last night in Brussels and they appear to be on hold until after the European elections at least.  The  British music industry has reacted sharply to the news - an unnamed executive is reported as saying it is "un-bloody- believable"!

 It is not entirely clear what has happened, but early  reports indicate that a meeting of COREPER - this is the group of  civil servants who work for the Council of Ministers - have thrown out a

Pro-copyright amendments to the  Lambrinidis report were rejected yesterday by the European Parliament by an overwhelming majority. The result is positive for the Parliament's support of fundamental freedoms on the Internet.

Today in the European Parliament, a  report on strengthening fundamental freedoms on the Internet was adopted by a massive majority of 481 to 25, with 21 abstentions. Six  amendments filed by MEPs known to favour the interests of the copyright industries were rejected.

The Lambrinidis report is concerned with security on the Internet and protecting fundamental freedoms, addressing concepts such as ‘digital identity'. It condemns censorship and  concludes with a request to the Council of Ministers, to take steps to align the laws of the 27 EU countries in respect of protection of fundamental rights on the Internet  and to undertake more policy dialogue between legislators, the courts, the network operators and the users.

The result is positive for the European Parliament, which is wrestling internally with

The Medina report has been indefinitely postponed, and may be shelved forever, according to reports emerging from the European Parliament.

The controversial Medina report, which attempted to get the European Parliament to vote in favour of graduated response, has been postponed. It is understood that it has been removed from the European Parliament's agenda,  at least until after the European elections and possibly forever. The sources for this information are apparently the administrative staff in the

The latest rumour on the E-commerce directive is that there will be a consultation announced this month on the implementation of it in the Member States. And there are lobbyists, notably those who represent the rights-holders, who have been pushing for a review and can be guaranteed to pile in with their demands.

One fundamental issue for whoever takes on this thorny review, is the status of webhosting companies. In a recent conversation with one of those said lobbyists, it became clear how certain media companies perceive YouTube as a

A rights-holder onslaught on the Medina report attempts to force the Parliament’s vote on graduated response and P2P filesharing issues...contrasted against  the Lambrinidis report calling for a the policy principles establishing a balance between privacy and surveillance...the two reports present MEPS with a dilemma on how to move forward on Internet policy for Europe.

The Medina report, from the 73-year old Spanish MEP Manuel Medina Ortega , contains the full rights-holder wish-list of graduated response, ISP “cooperation”, secondary liability for peer-to-peer filesharing sites and other websites, content liability for ISPs, and content filtering. It reads like an onslaught by the rights-holder lobby.

For example, it "Calls for cooperation from internet access providers in preventing and curbing electronic piracy"  and it "Supports the setting-up in the individual Member States of mecanisms, to be employed on instruction from rightholders and using a graduated approach, for the enforcement of copyright on the Internet". 

Several amendments can be traced directly to the former French culture minister MEP Jacques Toubon – responsible for the “cooperation” amendment in the Telecoms Package; as well as MEPs Janelly Fourtou and Arlene McCarthy. Mme Fourtou is the wife of Jean-René Fourtou, who is President of the French film and music conglomerate Vivendi.

The significance of the Medina report becomes clear in