EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (aka Europe's DMCA)

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Via the BBC, the EU parliament today passed the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (dubbed as the European DMCA) by 330 votes to 151.

No need to look to far to find the usual suspects:

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.

Hopefully, the EU directive has been amended so that action should not be taken against consumers who download music "in good faith" for their own use.

EU members will have 18 months to implement the directive in their local law. Knowing that directives usually have room for interpretation by the members, and in the light of the controversial interpretation by the French MPs of the e-commerce directive, this is doubtless another one that will require close citizen scrutiny when it'll come to our respective parliaments.