EU Rejects Three Strikes Law, Obama Wants To Stop BitTorrent Sites

The European Parliament has, for the fifth time this year, voted against the “three strikes” law, and this time it’s for good. Earlier today, members of Parliament voted to retain amendment (138/46), which states that restrictions to the fundamental rights and freedoms of Internet users can only be put in place after a decision by judicial authorities. The vote was a landslide: 407 in favor and only 57 against.

However, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) recently released the yearly Special 301 Report that added Canada and Spain to the list of countries that fail to protect intellectual property. Downloading torrents for personal use is perfectly legal in Spain, and though the EU has voted to essentially protect file sharers’ rights, the United States says that 2 billion tracks were downloaded in Spain in 2008, which is causing the USTR to push for more severe legislation. Continue reading...