“Midnight Knocks” by Recording Industry Executives Get Go-Ahead

[k-net2020]

Very Scary stuff this....

Civil liberties in Europe were handed a severe set-back today as the European Union Parliament passed a controversial directive that will treat average consumers who accidentally infringe a single copyright with the same harsh penalties formerly reserved for large commercial counterfeiters.

The EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive creates powerful new enforcement measures to be applied throughout the EU that permit Hollywood and recording industry executives to civilly prosecute consumers for minor and non-commercial infringements of intellectual property rights.

You can read the full release at h**p://www.ipjustice.org/CODE/release20040309_en.shtml

Under this directive, the personal information of European citizens must be forcibly disclosed to companies such as Vivendi-Universal who can now harass and financially extort European consumers as well. And the EU directive applies to all types of intellectual property infringements, not just copyrights.
It also provides for Anton Pillar orders or “midnight knocks” that permit private citizens’ homes to be raided by recording industry executives, and Mareva injunctions, which freeze consumers’ bank accounts and other assets without the need for a court hearing.

The European Council is expected to approve the directive on 11 March and Member States will have 24 months in which to implement its provisions in their own countries.

What is REALLY scary is that the directive was 'pushed' through by French Conservative MEP Janelly Fourtour. Fourtour’s family owns the world’s largest entertainment company, Vivendi-Universal. : grim :

There are still a lot of people making it as difficult as possible though...

h**p://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/hi/technology/4379371.stm

h**p://fuware.nanocrew.net/pymusique/

Enjoy it while it lasts....