Two Strikes in Germany?
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Deutsch: [Two Strikes für Deutschland? | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.3_Two_Strikes_fuer_Deutschland?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120221]
On 3 February 2012, the German Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi)
published a comparative study on graduated response systems in Europe which
have been established to fight against copyright infringements on the
Internet. The study looked at the situation in France, UK and Ireland.
Regarding the Hadopi system in France, the study found that one of the main
results and successes is the drop by 31% of peer-to-peer between April 2010
and April 2011, thus completely ignoring the rising use of streaming and VPN
in France.
Even though the study admits that illegal filesharing has “not caused any
serious collapse in the turnover of the industry” (p. 61), the Ministry
recommends the introduction of a “two strikes” or “pre-litigation” model for
Germany. According to the study, this model should be based on a combination
of “educational notifications” and the disclosure of information to
rightsholders. The Secretary of State Hans-Joachim Otto considered the study
a valuable basis for the future discussions regarding online piracy.
However, cutting off users from the Internet has been ruled out.
As significant grounds for concern were already well known (it is widely
understood to have been mainly written by media lobbyists and
rightsholders), EDRi-member Digitale Gesellschaft published a shadow report.
It pointed out that existing models raise significant and fundamental data
protection problems. For instance, the Irish voluntary three-strikes system
is currently experiencing legal difficulties due to such concern and
numerous complaints to the data protection authority. In Ireland, hundreds
of notifications were received by innocent users.
The shadow report also highlighted the high costs for the French state
compared to the almost non-existing benefits for the economy. The shadow
report concluded that all efforts and means should be focused on the
creation of attractive offers instead of repressive measures and recommended
a general reform of outdated copyright laws.
Shadow report of the Digital Gesellschaft (only in German, 02.2012)
http://digitalegesellschaft.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/schattenbericht-digiges.pdf
Long version of the BMWi study (only in German, 01.2012)
http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/PDF/Publikationen/Technologie-und-Innovation/warnhinweise-lang,property=pdf,bereich=bmwi,sprache=de,rwb=true.pdf
(Contribution by Kirsten Fielder – EDRi)