Don't Lend a CD, Its Illegal
Well its not right now, but that's what some of our representatives would like.
Two powerful members of the EU Parliament are working to change EU copyright laws in such a way that practically any infringement of a copyright, no matter how small, could be punishable by exceedingly steep fines.
Currently only commercial copyright infringement is punishable by criminal law, personal copyright infringement is subject to civil law. This effectively means that individuals are protected from trigger happy copyright owners, whilst truly damaging behaviour faces the full weight of the law. Now these people want to change that, for reasons that are obvious once you read this:
Janelly Fourtou (one of the sponsors of such a change) is married to the former Vivendi CEO Jean-René Fourtou.
This neatly illustrates why all systems of government need checks and balances, to stop power being abused. The EU is effectively without any of these, which makes it the worst possible form of government.
4 comments:
francesucks (nice blog name) is right, I fear. And the EU, of course, is only too willing to exercise command and control..
Turkey is awash with zillions of pirated CDs. But the EU's writ ain't ever gonna run in these parts.
One of the biggest problems with heavy regulation, is that companies have no choice but to lobby heavily. What then ensues is a complete carve up of individual rights, in favour of politicians power and lobby groups.
Light sensible regulation = very little lobbying.
It is quite worrying how Europe does seem free to do as it pleases without any constitutional or democratic limits. Checks and balances are always required in any form of government...america would not have survived by now otherwise. Perhaps a supreme court idea wouldnt go a miss.
In the Evil Empire of course, we have a system that ensures that common sense is the LAST consideration.
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