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Telecoms Package 2nd Reading

This section of iptegrity.com is devoted to analysing the Telecoms Package Second Reading in the European Parliament in 2008-2009.  It contains articles, papers and analysis notes which took a critical look at the proposed texts and what they might have meant for European citizens and users, with a particular focus on the Internet and content issues. If you are student, you should check my books for citation and referencing. 

The Telecoms Package was the review of European telecommunications framework legislation, (for full details please see the other section on iptegrity.com labelled Telecoms Package). Over 800 amendments were originally tabled to the two main directives involved - the so-called Better Regulation directive which incorporates the Framework, Access and Authorisation directives - and the so-called Citizens Rights directive - which incorporates the Universal Services directive and the e-Privacy directive.

With so many amendments, covering such a broad scope of legislation, it is almost impossible for anyone, even specialists, to have a grasp of their meaning in real life. Let alone members of the European Parliament, for whom this is just one of many subjects, and where they are reliant on their assistants, who in turn rely on lobbyists. This is especially true since the real meaning of many amendments depends on how they are inter-linked with others. Following the chain of links, to figure out, is a complex task. However, when one does so, some serious consequences are being revealed.

The over-arching problem is that this is policy being made by changes in the law. The scope of the telecoms framework is being altered via often subtle wording changes in the amendments. The changing scope is de facto establishing policy, and by-passing the correct policy processes which have been established in the European Union.

To give an idea of the scale of the problem, one telecoms lawyer complained to me that he had 250 pages of documents to read through, in order to analyse the Package and do the job properly. What did he have? The Council compromise documents for the two main bundles in the Package - Better Regulation and Citizens rights - plus the Common position for reference. For those of us who have been with the Telecoms Package since the beginning, trawling through this amount of documentation is strangely normal. It also puts into perspective the enormity of the job for the European Parliament, and begs the question whether MEPs can really do it justice in the time allowed.

If you like the articles in this section and you are interested in Eu telecoms policy and the 2009 Telecoms Package, especially with regard to copyright enforcement policy, you may like my booksA Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms and The Copyright Enforcement Enigma

You may like my book The Closing of the Net   which positions the story of the 2009 Telecoms Package in the wider policy context. 

 

 

 

Busting ghosts in the Telecoms Package

Monica Horten
Catetory: Telecoms Package 2nd Reading
Published: 05 August 2009

The ghost of measures yet to come... Like a cyber version of Mr Scrooge, a Swedish MEP has been telling people they are seeing ghosts in the Telecoms Package. Are there ghosts in the Package? Or who has been misled?

'Ghosts in the Package' is  a quaint way of telling people they have been misled.   So, like any haunted house, the question is, do the  ghosts exist and what do they really tell us?

 

Ghost number one:  does the Package address the Internet?

The current ( 2002) Framework did not, but the 2009 Telecoms Package does, although it is an extension of the scope of the law, and arguably is unclear. However, the Framework Directive Article 8.2 does explicitly say:

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Mrs Reding reveals her card on Amendment 138

Monica Horten
Catetory: Telecoms Package 2nd Reading
Published: 03 August 2009

The European Commission has sneaked out its position on the Telecoms Package second reading. Decoded, it calls for the Package to seal in the right of governments and broadband providers to restrict the Internet.

DG Information Society has quietly released its position on the Telecoms Package Second Reading, just as everyone is heading off for the summer holidays. No doubt Commissioner Viviane Reding was hoping no-one would see it. Why? It calls for a "compromise" text which the Council of Ministers was trying to push onto the European Parliament, which could have the effect of giving permission to governments to block access to Internet services and applications.

The so-called "compromise" is the replacement of Amendment 138 ( which seeks to protect users rights on the Internet) with an alternative which was drafted by the Council (sometimes known as the 'fake 138'). The replacement, when considered in context with other Amendments in the Package, will seal in to the Telecoms Framework a right for

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EU Internet restrictions in 9 languages

Monica Horten
Catetory: Telecoms Package 2nd Reading
Published: 24 July 2009

Do the amendments which would impose ‘conditions limiting'  access to Internet services and applications say the same thing in all languages? And what do they mean? The European Parliment's German translation of the Telecoms Package could clarify the matter.

 

When I recently presented in Germany, and showed the text of the key  Telecoms Package amendments  in German, there was a comment that the German translation might have got a slightly different interpretation from the English.

So here is the text in eight of the other EU  languages, where I was able to distinguish ( I hope correctly) two of the relevant articles.  The key text in the Telecoms Package is that which refers to ‘conditions limiting access to'  Internet services and applications. This is the text which will permit broadband providers to restrict or block access to services such as

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EU and Net censorship: do as I say, not as I do

Monica Horten
Catetory: Telecoms Package 2nd Reading
Published: 16 July 2009

When it comes to China, the European Commission understands perfectly that Internet filters are about censorship and limiting freedom of expression. So why are they  blind, deaf and dumb to it in the Telecoms Package?

 

My attention has just been drawn to comments by Martin Selmayr,  European Commission press spokesman  for DG Information Society,  regarding the Chinese government's Green Dam initiative to censor the Internet in order to ‘protect the children'.

 Mr Selmayr accused the Chinese of using the ruse of protecting children in order to limit freedom of expression via Internet filtering technology. What is really interesting is that when it comes to the EU Telecoms Package, Mr Selmayr's excellent

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Viviane Reding's wake-up call

Monica Horten
Catetory: Telecoms Package 2nd Reading
Published: 13 July 2009

Viviane Reding says she will tackle the collecting societies on pan-European licencing and she will back projects for cloud computing. That should be good news.  But Our Lady of the U-turns has done it again. Because in the same speech she calls for the Telecoms Package to come into force, ignoring that it is about restricting innovative Internet services, and tries to belittle the importance of Amendment 138 which seeks to safeguard users' rights.

 

In a speech to the Lisbon council in Brussels last week, European Commissioner for Information Society, Viviane Reding, has vowed to tackle the biggest obstacle to so-called legal online content services  - the collecting societies and their resistance to a pan-European licence for Internet music and film rights.

 "In my view,growing internet piracy is a vote of

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About Iptegrity

Iptegrity.com is the website of Dr Monica Horten, independent policy advisor: online safety, technology and human rights. Advocating to protect the rights of the majority of law abiding citizens online. Independent expert on the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on online safety and empowerment of content creators and users.  Published author, and post-doctoral scholar, with a PhD from the University of Westminster, and a DipM from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.  Former telecoms journalist,  experienced panelist and Chair, cited in the media eg  BBC, iNews, Times, Guardian and Politico.