Rock stars and consumers attack EU IP copyright law directive

March 9, 2004

We recently heard of consumers revolting against the EU IP
copyright law which treats individuals that unintentionally shares
copyrighted files without financial gain as bad as large organised crime groups
that deliberately get involved in mass scale piracy for profit. MEPs have even been
encouraged to reject this directive or vote for amendments.

Now
rock stars are showing their anger against this directive and are attending a
demo along with consumers in Strasbourg
in France
against this controversial directive.
They claim it does more to punish fans than it does to help artists. Co-founder of the EFF John Perry Barlow
hopes that the EU will stop to consider just who really benefits from this
directive. If the consumers and
artists are angry, then obviously the directive should not be considered as the
proper approach to deal with music piracy. GristyMcFisty submitted the
following news via our news
submit :

CIVIL
RIGHTS GROUPS and rock stars are to picket the EU in a bid to block the IP
Enforcement Directive going through.

Consumers, rock stars and representatives of
civil liberties groups are attending the demo tomorrow in Strasbourg,
France against the controversial European Union Intellectual Property
Rights Enforcement Directive.

The proposed directive is scheduled for a
debate and final vote in the European Parliament.

Civil liberties groups have slammed the
enforcement directive dubbing it "imbalanced" and "over-broad". They claim
it treats individuals who engage in unintentional non-commercial
infringements the same as if they were major commercial counterfeiters.

Consumer groups want MEPs to reject the
directive or to vote for amendments that would reduce its danger to
ordinary people.

According to an international civil liberties
organisation IP Justice, the proposed directive would allow recording
industry executives to invade the homes of P2P file-sharers in order to
gather evidence for civil prosecutions.

The law has attracted the anger of those
people it tries to protect '“ the musicians. Michael Franti, leader of
popular beat combo Spearhead said that prosecuting fans who share music
files in order to prevent piracy is like "outlawing sex to prevent
pregnancy."

He said that it does more to punish fans than
it does to help artists and labels adjust to the expansive future of the
electronic revolution.

John Perry Barlow, pen man for the Grateful
Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that he
hoped that the European Union will stop to consider who really benefits
from it.

"If it is intended that artists and creators
be compensated, if it is intended that culture be enriched, and that the
right both to speak and to hear will be preserved, then this directive
should never become European
law."

It seems that the EU is competing with the
US in an aim to
implement the toughest laws that deal with copyright infringement. It is like treating a consumer that
unintentionally shares music as bad as a paedophile. Any well known good musicians that run
concerts would obviously be against this sort of legislation since if fans
are scared away from sampling their music, it would mean less fans going to
their concerts.

Source: The Inquirer