Copyright Police Set Up Shop In The EU

from the wonderful dept

alex writes "If you thought the copyright police was having a jolly good time in the States, just checkout what's happening in EU. They're going to be breaking down doors and taking names." The article talks about a new law in the EU that was originally focused on real pirating of products, but had been amended to include any intellectual property violations, such as downloading songs. The article submitted here says the vote will happen today, and this other article points out that it has already passed, though with an amendment saying that it should "be applied only for breaches committed on a commercial scale" and not be used against those "acting in good faith," such as music downloaders in their home. The bill was also changed so that it no longer included criminal penalties for piracy. So, it's not as bad as the original article makes it sound - but it is still a step in the wrong direction. As we've seen in the US, these laws tend to have a lot of "unintended consequences" as intellectual property owners suddenly start twisting them around to use them against competitors or anyone who uses their products in ways they didn't intend. It's no surprise, of course, that this law was pushed by the wife of the head of Vivendi Universal.

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