To get their work done, some people simply have to make unauthorized digital copies. Including us, say European Internet service providers.
With the European Union preparing to take up the issue of digital copyright legislation, the continent's ISPs have gathered support for legislative language that would legally protect a technique used to speed up networks.
The legal affairs committee of the European Parliament adopted special text Monday that would prevent a ban on all "non-essential copying" used to speed up Internet access.
"We all recognize the need to give copyright holders the full protection of the law," said Michael Schneider, president of the European Internet Service Providers Association in a statement. "However, a measure which does little or nothing to protect copyright holders, but slows down Internet access, is bad for consumers and bad for the development of electronic commerce."
On Monday, EuroISPA said that support was growing among European Parliament representatives for text that would amend the proposed legislation to support caching.
Network providers often cache Web content to reduce the load on regional and local networks. The technique involves physically moving frequently accessed Web content closer to end users. ISPs consider the technique critical for efficient Internet access in Europe.
The text adopted by the legal affairs committee says that "transient and incidental acts of reproduction ... which are an integral and essential part of a technological process ... shall be exempted from the right set out in [in the Draft Report]. Such uses must be authorized by the rightsholders or permitted by law, and have no economic significance for the rightsholder."
Having depended on caching for years, providers were worried that as the EU hammers out limits on digital copying, forthcoming legislation could reduce network performance in Europe.
EuroISPA is made up of national Internet service providers' associations in 10 EU member states. Its membership represents over 500 ISPs across Europe.
