• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By Sarah Left, 22 December 1999 00:20

NEWS Silicon.com's Ban the Ban campaign reached a successful conclusion earlier this year, when the European Commission revised its copyright legislation to protect Web caching. MEPs had voted in February to make it illegal to copy any online material that has not been paid for, in response to concerns in the music industry that artists' materials are being copied illegally online. However, ISPs and IT industry experts criticised the move, saying it would effectively ban Web caching as well, potentially slowing down the Web to a crawl. Silicon.com then launched its Ban the Ban campaign, and joined Liberal Democrat MEP, Graham Watson, in his quest to improve the European Parliament's understanding of IT issues. "What this has shown is that MEPs are not generally very on top of the subject, and that there is a danger that something like this could creep through," Watson said. "It could have the effect of outlawing the whole development of the Internet." The issue was also debated in the UK when the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) minister, Kim Howells has added his support to calls for a clarification of Web copyright laws. Howells was responding to a question tabled in the House of Commons by Tory MP, Michael Fabricant, on behalf of Silicon.com. He called on the DTI to explain its position on the damage the proposed Web caching ban could do to European ecommerce. Howells admitted that Web caching is technically illegal in the UK as well, and that the situation will need to change. In May, the European Commission amended the copyright legislation, banning the ban on Web caching.