• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By Felicity Ussher, 7 May 1999 14:45

NEWS MEPs angered the IT industry yesterday by voting to make Internet service providers (ISPs) liable for anything published on the Web. The draft ecommerce directive now obliges ISPs to block all illegal content, at their own expense. The measure is unlikely to become law, as the European Commission has the right to veto, but the MEP's vote has increased calls for more tech-friendly candidates at next month's European Parliament elections. Technology suppliers had high hopes for the ecommerce directive. The European Commission's DGXV, which handles copyright issues, first included ISP liability in the draft directive in an attempt to clarify a confusing array of case studies. It wanted ISPs to be liable for content only after an injunction from a recognised authority. But amendments tabled by MEPs Roberto Barzanti and Willi Rothley, and voted on by MEPs yesterday, oblige ISPs to act as censors of any content they suspect to be illegal. A lack of distinction between access providers and host providers means that ISPs are responsible not just for the content on their own servers - but right across the Internet. This could prove technically difficult and expensive for ISPs. Technology suppliers are complaining that it turns them into a permanent police force and could slow down the Internet. Tilman Kupfer, BT's European representative in Brussels, told Silicon.com: "The revised directive goes against free speech and privacy. If implemented strictly, it could affect email." He said the IT industry felt a sense of betrayal. It had wanted the issue of ISP liability to be addressed in the EC copyright directive earlier this year, but copyright holders had assured them it be clarified in the ecommerce directive. However, a spokesman for EuroISPA - the European ISP Association - added: "Advance reaction from the European Commission does give confidence that this directive will - hopefully - not run the course and become law." The European Commission will form a written opinion on the revised directive, and send it to the Council of Ministers. Ministers led by Mario Monti will then make a common position and will put it before MEPs again for a second vote. BT's Kupfer added: "We're hoping for a big change in the European Parliamentary elections on 10 June. We want MEPs with a better understanding of technology."