Skype customers, internet users and internet service providers
could lose their right to communicate and wander freely on the
internet if the European Parliament passes amendments to the
Telecoms Package being negotiated between the European
Commission, parliament and member states.
The vote, which will follow the second reading plenary in
Strasbourg on Wednesday 6 May, could give network operators the
right to "shape traffic", in effect strangling traffic between peer
to peer networks and so drive Skype, which depends on P2P file
sharing, out of business.
Last month Skype was named as the world's biggest cross-border
voice carrier by Telegeography. It has 405 million users who last
year spent 384 billion minutes talking to each other.
Netwatchers have described the amendments as selling out
European citizens. In a
statement, EuroISPA said, "Not only are the latest proposals
disproportionate and ill-advised, they also risk undermining the
comprehensive and collaborative approach to dealing with the
privacy issues envisaged by the institutions."
"Both rapporteurs of the main directives of the Telecoms
Package, Malcolm Harbour (IMCO report) and Catherine Trautmann
(ITRE report) sacrificed the effective protection of citizens'
fundamental rights," said La Quadrature du Net, a website that is
supported by French, European and international NGOs including the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society Institute and
Privacy International.
Monica Horten, who runs the
IPtegrity website, said the Package again opens the door to
three-strikes measures, the "graduated response" that would see
ISPs warning persistent file sharers to stop.
Malcolm Hutty, speaking for EuroISPA, the European association
of ISPs, said he hoped France would drop its "aggressive"
insistence on the three strikes issue, which is being strongly
promoted by the music and film industries.
"The right approach is to develop new business models that would
delight their customers by providing the products through the right
channels at the right price at the right time," he said.
Hutty's comments relate to secret government negotiations to
introduce a global anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA), that
would ban copying and trade in copyright goods. "It is very
disappointing that privileged access should be given to ACTA
negotiations, whereas the network industry, which is a large
stakeholder in this issue, has been totally excluded," he said.
Hutty said traffic shaping to give most users the best possible
quality of service was a legitimate right for ISPs.
Horten said earlier proposals related to users rights could be
either rejected or amended to remove rights, and ISPs will not get
reimbursed for sending warning messages to three-strikers.
Horten, a Westminster University PhD candidate who is
researching the political battle for control of online content in
the European Union, said an amendment to give users a guaranteed
right to a connection was rejected. This would appear to go against
separate moves to oblige network operators to provide broadband
services.
Another, to safeguard users rights, would be subject to
three-way negotiations between the Commission, Parliament and
member states. Texts already circulating would deprive users of
rights, she said.
The key text will give broadband providers the right to limit
users access to services and applications. Horten said Article 20.1
(b) and Article 21.3 compromise amendment CA5 of the Universal
Services directive.
Other amendments which sought to protect users rights by
strengthening the regulators' powers, were rejected earlier.
"A logical assumption is that peer-to-peer applications will be
targeted, as well as voice-over-IP (VoIP). Skype already says that
it is being blocked by some operators in Europe, so this would not
be an exaggerated interpretation," she said.
Hutty said he was unaware that Skype was being blocked by any
ISP.
It is understood some information technology companies,
including software houses, have been party to the discussions, but
sworn to secrecy.