Somiatruites, Ciberderechos en la Red

Fijaos en este nombre bien: Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, porque va a dar que hablar en los próximos meses y porque amenaza con acabar con la creatividad distribuida que ha proliferado en la Red. A cambio, eso sí, de reforzar la protección de los derechos de autor. Al menos ese es el análisis que se hace en el artículo del diario neoyorquino de referencia titulado 'Europe's Antipiracy Proposal Draws Criticism', cito del artículo:

"In an effort to fight product counterfeiting and piracy, the European Union is preparing to enact a sweeping intellectual property law that critics say is ill-conceived and tilted heavily in favor of copyright and patent holders.

The proposal would go far beyond existing laws in Europe and the United States by classifying copyright violations and patent infringements, even some unwitting ones, as crimes punishable by prison terms...

Opposition to the new law was slow to develop but is gaining momentum. Companies like Nokia, the BT Group, and even Microsoft, itself a major victim of software piracy, have called the proposed law excessive and have warned that it could crush technical innovation."

Algunas de las medidas que la nueva directiva persigue es la de reforzar la cobertura legal de todos los sistemas de protección anticopia. Puede leerse un análisis de la Foundation for Information Policy Research, The Draft IPR Enforcement Directive — A Threat to Competition and to Liberty donde se deja claro el impacto que la directiva tendrá en diferentes ámbitos como la privacidad, la cultura, la competitividad del software. etc.

"The EU's draft Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights sets out to make it dramatically easier to enforce copyrights, patents, and trademarks in Europe, and to punish people who tamper with technical mechanisms designed to prevent copying or counterfeiting. The directive has been welcomed by the music and film industries. But it divides the computer industry - Microsoft is for, while Sun is against - and the telecomms industry is strongly opposed. Supermarkets also stand to lose. Resistance is building, for example in the European press. Online liberties are also at risk, as well as commercial interests."

Este es un tema que habrá que seguir. Hay una campaña lanzada contra ella por diversas asociaciones denominada Campaign for an Open Digital Environment (CODE).