NZZ Online reported yesterday that Maria Martin-Prat will replace the current EU-Commissioner in charge of copyright Tilman Lüder in mid-April.

Martin-Prat worked for five years as chief lawyer at IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), is considered a hard-liner and evidently is already criticizing private copying for its negative effect on profits. If I have two iPods then I must kindly purchase two copies of the same song. One could think that conflict of interest enters here with the elegance of an elephant in a china shop. Aside from EU-Representatives Christian Engström (Piratpartiet, Sweden) and Marietje Schaake (Liberale partij, Netherlands), it does not seem to have come to anyone's attention, let alone bother anyone. The two representatives addressed the EU-Commission as follows: "Does the commission see no problem in filling an important position with a person who previously worked as a lobbyist on the very issues she will handle in her new job?" The commission finds it no problem.

It is no surprise that Martin-Prat will campaign right away for new EU guidelines for the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRED) and ACTA. The IFPI has its lobbyist in the right place now. As I have already said to NZZ Online: "To appoint an IFPI lawyer as EU copyright commissioner is as absurd as appointing a representative of the pharmaceutical industry to be Commissioner of Health. Conflict of interest is pre-programmed, an improvement in the situation is not to be expected. I find this choice a very unhappy one, to say the least."

This guest editorial is by Denis Simonet, President of the Pirate Party Switzerland. The original can be found on his Blog.