Internet song-swappers and peddlers of knock-off Prada handbags could have their property seized and bank accounts frozen under a proposed EU law set for a vote before the European Parliament on Tuesday.
The EU draft directive is one of the toughest measures yet to protect companies' intellectual property (IP) rights in Europe, creating new policing measures to crack down on the growing unauthorized trade of counterfeit products on street corners and online piracy of software, film and music.
Under the directive's current form, firms who feel their trademarks and IP have been violated by individuals or groups can ask a judge to seize their assets and freeze their funds to assist in prosecution.
The proposed law, known as the European Union Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, has drawn criticism from consumer watchdog groups though who argue the penalties are the same for large-scale commercial counterfeiters as for individual file-sharers.
Their concern is that the more litigious factions in say the music industry would have enhanced powers to pursue individual file-sharers in Europe.
"Under this law, your home is not quite your castle any more. You will have to defend it quite aggressively," said Andreas Dietl, EU Affairs director for cyber-rights group EDRi, or European Digital Rights.
Protests abound
EDRi and various civil liberties groups said they had organized a protest on Monday evening in Strasbourg, France to voice their opposition to the directive on the eve of Tuesday's vote before the plenary session of Parliament.
If approved, the law would go before the European Council of Ministers for a potential ratifying vote later in the week.
Critics compare the directive to a tougher version of the controversial United States law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which music companies have used to sue individual song-swappers in America.
"This makes the DMCA look like a kiddie ride at Disneyland," said one Internet media executive.
The directive has been guided through the European Parliament by MEP Janelly Fourtou, wife of Vivendi Universal chief executive Jean-Rene Fourtou.
Vivendi 's music label Universal Music is one of the biggest proponents of tough new global anti-piracy laws to help in their battle to minimize rampant online file-sharing, a practice they blame for the contributing to industry's declining sales.
Janelly Fortou's office has defended the directive saying it should not be seen as legislation meant to solely target file-sharers.
It has been in the works for years and is designed to give IP-holders ranging from pharmaceutical firms to fashion labels a more effective legal tool to stifle the massive black market for brand-name knock-off products.
Defenders of the directive also point to the fact that it is largely modeled on existing laws in the United Kingdom, considered to be Europe's most protective regime for IP-holders.
John MacKenzie, an attorney for London-based law firm Masons specializing in IP law, said the proposed law would not lead "to dawn raids" on the homes of individual infringes as some consumer rights groups claim.
"There is a bit more balance in the directive than the consumer groups would have you believe," MacKenzie said. "The IP community has been rather sanguine because they believe that the courts will strike some balance."
