Klaus-Heiner Lehne und die IPRED2

Die Abstimmung über die IPRED2-Direktive (Verschärfter Teil 2 der „Richtlinie zur Durchsetzung von Geistigen Eigentumsrechten“) ist im EU-Parlament verschoben worden. Der FFII weist in einer Pressemitteilung daraufhin, dass der deutsche CDU-Abgeordnete Klaus-Heiner Lehne auf seiner eigenen Homepage selber Urheberrechte verletzt hat und einfach fremde Grafiken nutzt. Aufgrund des von ihm unterstützten Richtlinienentwurfes könnte er damit eine Gefängnisstrafe riskieren (- wäre er nicht immun).

The fact that regular citizens can easily criminalise themselves if the directive were to be approved without significant changes, is demonstrated by MEPs Toine Manders and Klaus-Heiner Lehne, both of whom are lawyers specialised in intellectual property law. The websites of both Members contain copyright infringing images, and in case of Manders’ site there is also a count of trademark infringement. Manders previously tabled an amendment which could consequently turn all visitors of his website into „dealers of stolen goods“.

„Only extremists would claim that both MEPs are criminals merely because their websites contain a few infringing images. Lehne, Nicole Fontaine and Janelly Fourtou, supported by Manders, however tabled amendments which would equate this with someone selling counterfeit watches or DVDs. And your nephew, who put a couple of Pokémon™ pictures on his website, would also be in the same boat“, Maebe added. „But if even staunch, professional supporters of IPRs make a mistake every now and then, where does that leave the rest of us?“