Delusional EU ACTA negotiator claims that three strikes has never been proposed at ACTA

Michael Geist sez,

The European Commission hosted a fascinating consultation on ACTA [ed: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret, far-reaching copyright treaty] today. Luc Devigne, the lead European negotiator, opened with a brief presentation and proceeded to field questions for over an hour.

One of the big issues of the day was three strikes [ed: The idea that your whole family would have its internet connection severed if one person in your household was accused of copyright infringement] with Devigne repeatedly stating that the EU was bound by EU law and that it was not supporting any inclusion of three strikes in ACTA. In fact, Devigne went further in claiming that no one had even proposed the possibility of three strikes. This despite the fact that a memo produced by his own department stated: “EU understands that footnote 6 provides for an example of a reasonable policy to address the unauthorized storage or transmission of protected materials. However, the issue of termination of subscriptions and accounts has been subject to much debate in several Member States. Furthermore, the issue of whether a subscription or an account may be terminated without prior court decision is still subject to negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of Telecoms Ministers regarding the Telecoms Package.”

This refers to the footnote in the ACTA text proposed by the U.S. which states “an example of such a policy [ISP policy] is providing for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscriptions and/or accounts on the service provider’s system or network of repeat infringers.”

The EU ACTA Consultation: European Commission vs. European Parliament

(Thanks, Michael!)