EP: No Internet Ban

Today the European Parliament voted about banning people envolved in File Sharing from the Internet.

Yesterday, the French government made an last minute appeal to the Parliament to accept such a ban. (It is no doubt something they would like to introduce in France. And in the EU, during the French Presidency.)

But with 314 votes to 298, the European Parliament decided with MEP Fjellners motion not to ban people from the Internet.

MEP: Don't ban people from the Internet!

The Bono Report presented to the European Parliament suggests that people engaged in activities like file sharing should be banned from the Internet. (One can wonder how that is going to be enforced.)

The idea of banning people from the Internet is supported by French President Sarkozy, among others.

But in the European Parliament, there is resistance against this ill thought out proposal. Among others, Swedish MEP Christopher Fjellener (EPP-ED) is putting up a fight. In a Motion for Resolution he writes...

"Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise that the Internet is a vast platform for cultural expression, access to knowledge, and democratic participation in European creativity, bringing generations together through the information society; calls on the Commission and the Member States, therefore, to avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet access."

Shortly we will know what the EP decides.