MEPs vote against web caching

European Parliament members have delivered a blow to the development of electronic commerce by voting for an online copyright directive that could make web caching illegal, write Kim Benjamin and Steve Ranger.

Caching enables Internet service providers (ISPs) to store web content - such as pages from US web sites - closer to their users to speed access and reduce the use of expensive transatlantic leased lines.

The European Parliament is trying to protect the rights of copyright holders such as musicians and film owners by banning the unauthorised copying of material on the Internet.

Industry groups argue that the move will risk increase costs and slow down the Net.

The European Internet Services Providers Association (Euro ISPA) has lobbied to get the directive changed, warning that the directive would not protect copyright and would harm Internet surfers.

Euro ISPA said: 'The vote goes against everything the European Union (EU) has been saying about the need to develop electronic commerce.' A spokesman added: 'Customers and electronic commerce will lose out.'

He blamed the 'colossal number of issues in the directive', and doubted that MEPs could have been expected to vote knowledgeably at all. 'It is not an easy issue to grasp,' he said.

The European Commission and a cross-party range of MEPs said they would continue to oppose a ban on caching.

An aide to Finnish Liberal MEP Astrid Thors said: 'The vote went quite badly from our point of view, and we regret this deeply.

'People think they can help copyright holders by doing this, but the reality is people are just not aware of the practicalities,' she said.

Around 75% of MEPs endorsed a report by Italian MEP Roberto Barzanti.

The draft directive on copyright is now scheduled to be discussed by EU internal market ministers.