[Free-sklyarov-uk] EUCD MEPs response

[gwintle at csc.com]

A few weeks ago I sent a of email to several MEPS for Walse
I pointed out my concerns over the UCD and alos asked that they look
at http://uk.eurorights.org/  for more info.

Of the 6 emails only one elisted a response, I am including below the text
of a
leter from Johathan Evans MEP.

---------------------------------------
Thank you for your note of 20th October 2001 expressing your concewrns in
relation to the
European Copyright Directive that is currently being transposed into UK
legislation.

The Conservative Group was at the forefront of the debate on this important
issue when it
was being considered by the European Parliament last year and at the
beginning of 2001.
The whole issue was one of attempting to find a reasonable balance between
the
understandable concerns of commercial intrest and those of actual users in
society as a
whole. It was essential that authors were given the protection they
require, that the rights
of the ordinary individual to access material for the personal use was also
protected and
that other particular issues, sutch as enabling cryptography research to
continue were
addressed. Furthermore, having been involved in the reports on Fraud and
Counterfeiting, I was also aware of the need to deal with major Financial
problem for
business caused by commercial copyright piracy.

Copyright is a difficult issue with many intrest groups affected, and this
Directive seeks
to make provision for the digital age. We believe the Directive has
generally achieved
this, abd has fairly balanced the intrests of diffrent sectors.

As regards the specific legal cases you mention in your note, I am not
aware of the
details, but it is worth bearing in mind that the Euopean Union cannot
intervene in
matters of national security. They are solely the concern of individual
member states so
the European Copyright Directive would not affect these national
competences in any
way.

I trust this goes some way to explaining the position. If I can be of any
further help,
please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,
Johnathan Evans MEP
---------------

Below is a copy of the texted of my original email

Hi I believe that you are one of my MEP representatives and I would like to call your attention to
the European Copyright Directive (EUCD). I would appreciate it if you would pass this letter on to
any one you think would be interested and if you know any one who wants to talk some more
about I would be happy to do so.

 The EU Council of Ministers has passed the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), which will be
 enacted in the UK within 16 months. This chilling piece of legislation threatens the academic
community's ability to conduct research into cryptography (the cornerstone of many protocols used
 to exchange information on the Internet).

Equivalent legislation was passed in the USA in 1998 as the "Digital Millenium Copyright Act" (DMCA).
The DMCA has already been used to:

* Arrest Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian programmer who visited the USA after writing (in Russia) a
 program allowing electronic books to be read aloud to the blind.
* Threaten an American Professor with a lawsuit if he published an academic paper describing
 the flaws in a particular digital watermarking scheme (a mechanism designed to prevent music being easily copied).
* Prevent programmers and journalists from publishing or referring to a computer program which
exposed the flaws in an encryption algorithm used on DVDs.

The mere threat of prosecution under the DMCA has caused European programmers and academics
 to demand that conferences be held outside the USA, so that they can attend in safety. Unfortunately,
 once the EUCD has been passed into law, it won't be safe for those involved in cryptographic research
 to remain in Europe, either.

The new law will enable the entertainment industry to charge more for CDs and DVDs, by making it illegal
to circumvent planned restrictions on the use of its products.

The intention is to lock playbacks of particular music or videos to particular people, and charge for each
 playback. I do not dispute that the people who make good music and films are entitled to be rewarded for
 their efforts. What they do not deserve is the artificial profits generated from sabotaging their own products
 so they can only be enjoyed by a single person, or a limited number of times, or in a particular region
 (this is already happening with DVDs).

See http://uk.eurorights.org/ for more information.