EU Laws tighten Copyright by abolishing Caching

The European parliament has posted a law (February 1999) that prohibits to save data by caching.

The "web caching" method is used by nearly every Internet Provider (ISP) in order to lower the number of times an unchanged file is downloaded by request. Therefore the files are downloaded during the first request and kept till their time to live parameter indicates that the file is out of date. This kind of caching speeds up the surfing in the Internet.

But the new law makes it easier to prosecute those who infringe others copyrights. This law prevents caching as all material cached is copyright of some one else and therefore forbidding caching is a step backwards in the Internet evolution.

The law had to be brought to affect in the EU member states within the next 2 years.EU-Parliament: www.europarl.eu.int