EU Proposing to Make P2P Piracy A Criminal Offense

brajesh writes "The European Commission is pushing for a proposal (.pdf) to crack down on organized piracy, which could also make indirect copyright infringement a crime across Europe, with implications similar to the recent MGM v. Grokster U.S. Supreme Court ruling. If the directive is adopted, developers who create software for file sharing that is then used for illegal ends could potentially be criminally liable in EU member countries." From the article: "The problem here is some activities, such as the creation of software, can be used for legal and illegal purposes, as is the case with Grokster...It gets really messy, because it is unclear what is legal or not legal, and it is problematic to operate with such abstract terms."

Comments

Re:But I thought Europe was all about freedom?

[tilleyrw]

This is a common example of thoughtcrime.

Americans have all freedoms and have fairly reelected G. W. Bush to maintain this degree freedom. A goal of the U.S.A. Government is to spread this degree of perfect freedom throughout the world.

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