Legislative fun in Europe

While the legal situation in the United States has been dominated by the SCO case, many community members in Europe are more concerned by what is happening on the legislative front. A couple of initiatives underway in the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market are worthy of attention - and activism.

The first of these, of course, is software patents. The Committee now looks set to adopt the directive on software patents on September 1. Opponents of software patents in Europe have been working hard to raise awareness on the issue; protests on the net and in Brussels happened on August 27. There is still time to be heard on this issue and, perhaps, influence the outcome. It is worth the effort; software patents are one American export that Europe can do without.

Patents are just the beginning, however. Starting, seemingly, on September 11, the Committee will begin discussing a directive "on measures and procedures to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights." The full (54-page) text of the directive can be downloaded from this EU page. Two parts of this directive are cause for concern:

• Article 9 requires identification of anybody who, in the view of a copyright holder, is "thought to infringe upon an intellectual property right". This article, it is expected, will lead to the same sort of "subpoena storm" currently being engaged in by the recording industry in the U.S.

• Article 21 includes a (criminal) prohibition of "illegal technical devices." This is, of course, a DMCA-style anti-circumvention law, which will lead to DMCA-style problems.

For a much more detailed look at the draft directive, see this analysis by the Foundation for Information Policy Research. This analysis also notes that there is, apparently, still time to bring about major changes to this draft. With luck - and suitable pressure on members of the European Parliament - the worst features of this directive can be eliminated before it ever comes to a serious vote.

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