IPRED (Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive) is an EU directive organizing the repression of infringements of copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc. Because of its overreaching nature, IPRED harms access to culture, and hampers new cultural practices such as remixing, but also the development of new technologies and innovation in general.
In 2011, the EU Commission proposed a revision of IPRED to “adapt” it to the digital environment, and to step up the war on online sharing, in line with the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement ACTA. IPRED would push Internet actors –search engines, hosting services, access providers– to automatically censor communications in order to combat online sharing of cultural works.
The IPRED revision must be the opportunity for a public debate answering the following questions: should we keep on harming fundamental freedoms and the free Internet to protect the entertainment industry’s outdated business models? Or should we legalise sharing and focus repression only on infringements carried out for profit?
In 2013 the European Commission launched a public consultation on copyright reform. For more information on this and the copy of La Quadrature’s reply to it, visit the wiki page on copyright.
Gallo Report
The Gallo report is a report on enhancing the enforcement of “intellectual property” rights in the internal market, adopted by the European Parliament in September 2010. It calls on the Commission to focus on the Internet when revising IPRED.
The report is a long series of mixups and misconceptions, mixing up online non-commercial file sharing with the counterfeiting of physical goods, confusing drug patent and trademark infringement with the trade of fake drugs, among other things.
Analysis
- LQDN’s response to the IPRED Consultation
- Commented original Gallo report
- La Quadrature’s response to the European Commission’s consultation regarding “Online Creative Content“
- La Quadrature’s response to the European Commission’s communication on “Enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market“.