P2P File-Sharers Face Tough New Law
Posted: 09th Mar, 2004 By: MarkJ
Today is the final vote for Europe's new Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, which could see file sharing (P2P) users treated the same as professional counterfeiters:
Initially the law was drawn up to target the professional pirates, criminals and counterfeiters who make copies of everything from CDs to handbags. But while being debated 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.
Civil liberty and lobby groups fear 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.
It comes as little surprise to see that the wife of Jean-Rene Fourtou (boss of media giant Vivendi Universal) has helped to push the law through. More @ BBC News Online.
Initially the law was drawn up to target the professional pirates, criminals and counterfeiters who make copies of everything from CDs to handbags. But while being debated 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.
Civil liberty and lobby groups fear 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.
It comes as little surprise to see that the wife of Jean-Rene Fourtou (boss of media giant Vivendi Universal) has helped to push the law through. More @ BBC News Online.
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