Persistent illegal downloaders will not be facing Three strikes rule says MEP

A Member of European Parliament recently advised that reforms proposed to European Union legislation that governs electronic communication have been put forward as a means to safeguard consumers and not penalise them.

The West Midlands conservative MEP, Malcolm Harbour, completely denied that there would be an inclusion of the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy in the reforms. Those found to be downloading illegal copyright material like films and music would face a termination of their internet connection if they continued should this scheme be put in place.

He stated “The reports are scaremongering and it is completely untrue that the proposals would lead to this; such a system has never been included in the proposals.”

Mr Harbour is currently running a four member team in the European Parliament who are involved in the drafting of the reforms and admitted that the introduction of such a system in the UK would not be completely ruled out. The release of a highly controversial law in France has seen the release of the scheme. It will mean that those caught a third time will have their internet disconnected by their Internet Service Provider (ISP) under the cross-industry agreement.

He also stated “Any decision to introduce these measures is down to national governments. However, my personal opinion is such a system is not workable.”

Mr Harbour mentioned that one of the amendments that they were looking to introduce were the reduction of mobile phone and broadband contract lengths to 24 month.. Also from this they were hoping to get clearer price plans for mobile phone contracts which will also push them to confirm how much ‘free’ handset will actually cost. This change in the industry would, he admitted, mean an end to free laptop offers with wireless broadband packages.

Clearer contract conditions were another change the amendment would ensure. The reforms, however, would appear not to help any users that were involved in a fight with their ISP but Mr Harbour insisted that Ofcom would have sufficient power if required to sanction ISPs. The ISPs would also have to give their customers clear speed and level of service information he said. A data breach disclosure rule would be another proposal introduced under the e-privacy directive.

He stated “Essentially if there is a serious data breach online, it will be mandatory to disclose this to customers who may be affected. It does not cover loses of CDs of data – that is hardly high tech.”