The Federation Against Software Theft (The Federation) has criticised the European Parliament for failing to crackdown on file sharers.

In a vote last week, MEPs backed an amendment to a report on the creative industries written for the European Parliament, which said a ban on Internet access conflicted with ‘civil liberties and human rights”.

The amendment was added to the so-called Bono Report on the Cultural Industries. This was written by French MEP Guy Bono to advise the forthcoming European Parliament debate on encouraging growth in Europe’s creative industries. It called on the EU and its member states 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.”

John Lovelock, chief executive of The Federation, said: “We are disappointed that MEPs seem not to be taking the future of our economy seriously as the UK government is.

“There is always a balance of rights, but currently some consumers and businesses are doing their best to kill off some of our key creative industries which employ many people,” he said.

“While this vote has no legal force and still leaves national governments a free hand in policy making, The Federation believes that this vote fails to move the debate forward on IP protection and is at odds with the current thinking in national governments,” added Lovelock.

“Civil liberties and human rights including the principles of proportionality should not be dressed up as a rogues charter,” he said.