[LINK] EU backs tighter rules on piracy

[Antony Barry]

 From BBC

  EU backs tighter rules on piracy

A similar US law has led to lawsuits against pop-swappers
The European Parliament has passed an anti-piracy law, covering 
everything from handbags to music downloads.

  Under the law, counterfeiters could face civil penalties, but 
proposals for criminal sanctions were dropped.

  Before the vote, critics said the law was flawed as it applied the 
same penalties to both professional counterfeiters and consumers.

  But a late amendment limited them to organised counterfeiters and not 
people downloading music at home.

  Property price

The final vote on the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement 
Directive took place in the European Parliament on 9 March. The 
directive was passed by 330 votes to 151.

  The law was drawn up to target professional pirates, criminals and 
counterfeiters who make copies of goods such as football shirts or CDs.

  During the debates, the directive was widened to cover any 
infringement of intellectual property.

  The directive allows companies to raid homes, seize property and ask 
courts to freeze bank accounts to protect trademarks or intellectual 
property they believe are being abused or stolen.


Music firms might come knocking if you are swapping pop
  Civil liberty and lobby groups feared that the music industry will 
also use the law to mount raids on the homes of people who swap songs 
via file-sharing systems such as Kazaa.

  The Enforcement directive was compared to the controversial US Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act by Andreas Dietl, director of EU Affairs for 
the European Digital Rights (EDRi) lobby group.

  The Recording Industry Association of America has used the DMCA to 
bring lawsuits against file-swappers in the US and EDRi fears the same 
could now happen in European countries.

  The European law was shepherded through the European Parliament by MEP 
Janelly Fourtou, wife of Jean-Rene Fourtou who is boss of media giant 
Vivendi Universal.

  But late amendments added to the law limited who intellectual property 
owners could take action against and what penalties they could apply.

  One amendment said action should not be taken against consumers who 
download music "in good faith" for their own use.

  Proposals to jail counterfeiters were also dropped from the act.

  Lobbyists fear that the law could threaten press freedom in countries, 
such as Spain, which include confidential information in definitions of 
intellectual property.

  In November, the EU copyright directive came into force in the UK 
which put many things people are used to doing with music, such as 
copying tracks to an MP3 player, fell into a legal grey area.

  EU ministers are expected to sign off on the new rules against 
counterfeiting by the end of the week.

  Member states would then have 18 months to implement their own 
versions of the directive.




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