The European Parliament (EP) and Council have finally reached an agreement on the "Telecoms Package". Critically it includes some small changes to amendment 138 that MIGHT make it more difficult for UK broadband ISPs to be forced into disconnecting their customers (following several initial warnings); specifically those suspected of repeated involvement with illegal file sharing.

A change to amendment 138 caused uproar last month when some undemocratic political manoeuvrings within the EP resulted in a key phrase, which protected a citizens' right to Internet access by requiring a prior judicial ruling before disconnection, being stealthily removed (here). Now some of that protection has returned, albeit still lacking the original reference to clear judicial protection.


There is clearly a lot more verbal wording to help protect individuals, though the language is deeply ambiguous. We can still see nothing concrete that would stop a country like the UK, which appears to have supported the above text, simply setting up a type of kangaroo court to asses each case PRIOR to the user being cut-off.


Some might be able to argue that the new text will require a court level procedure for any pre-disconnection appeals style process, though it is all very open to interpretation and others may just as easily argue the opposite. On the other hand neither a government nor an ISP can now cut a customer off from the Internet merely on the say so of a Rights Holder.

The result of all this is a mix of both political and legal confusion, it’s one of those documents that politicians write seemingly as a method to keep us all busy with speculating over just what it is supposed to mean. The answer to that question is nobody seems to know.