The Commission will launch a new consultation on 26 February to identify shortfalls in existing rules governing e-commerce, including a possible monitoring role to be assumed by Internet service providers (ISPs), such as BT or Belgacom.
The current directive does not foresee obligations for network managers to control Web traffic. But national authorities can oblige them to release stored information "in order to detect and prevent certain types of illegal activity".
The vagueness of present rules provoked a wave of different interpretations by national courts. In France, the online auctioneer eBay was condemned last year to pay conspicuous damages to the designer Louis Vuitton for selling fake luxury goods. But in Belgium, the court maintained a soft stance on accusations by Sabam, the Belgian association of authors, that the Internet service provider Scarlet had allowed illegal file-sharing.
"We want to clarify the directive to avoid different interpretations of the liability regime," a Commission official close to the dossier told EurActiv. He gave assurances that the EU executive will adopt a "balanced approach," presenting "neutral" questions to relevant stakeholders. After the consultation, the Commission will present a report in the second half of 2009, according to the procedure set up by the directive. A legislative proposal is expected later on.
A "new balance" in the management of online copyright protection is also sought in the current negotiations for the so-called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which involve the EU, Japan, the US, Switzerland and many other countries. According to a leaked draft text, the deal might involve "procedures enabling right holders who have given effective notifications of claimed infringements to expeditiously obtain information identifying the alleged infringer".
Some analysts in Brussels do not rule out the possibility that ongoing negotiations on the telecoms package could end up in a new attempt to introduce obligations for ISPs, which were left out of the current temporary agreement.
All these efforts aim to protect the content industry, which has been obliged to go through a significant restructuring process after the take-up of the Internet. Many think this could be beneficial in the long term, but the current players have been very reluctant to change traditional business models.
On the other hand, ISPs, which are often big telecoms companies, reject suggestions that they are controlling online traffic. "Who will pay the bill?", asked a lobbyist for the industry. Unusually, the ISPs have the backing of consumer organisations, which support free downloading and file-sharing.
