You’ve seen the IDG story at ITWorld (ok maybe not) and at Maccentral (I’m sure Fleecy noticed). But no one bothered to link to the original document. Quite frankly, I didn’t bother to look it up myself (or repost the same story here) until Cla pointed it out to me (that’s the press release, here are the documents of the commission). As always, thanks.

Let it be noted that despite the title of the IDG article, this proposed directive aims to fight counterfeiting and piracy and it’s content it totally coherent with those goals. e.g. Criminal liability for intentional and serious infringement. It does seem to mostly target large scale counterfeiters; they do qualify it as containing « TRIPS plus » rules.

I don’t pretend to be able to understand the EU style of redaction for the directives, but as far as downloading is concerned, the FAQ states:

Q. Will this Directive mean that young people using file swapping software via their PCs will be held liable for IPR infringement?
A.The proposed Directive would not introduce tougher sanctions against individuals downloading the odd track for non-commercial purposes, though it would not stop Member State authorities from introducing and applying tougher laws.The scope of this proposal covers infringements carried out for commercial purposes or which cause significant harm to the rightholder.File swapping may be considered a copyright infringement depending on the national law in question.This proposal only covers illegal acts, where authorisation has not been given by the rightholder or where the appropriate remuneration has not been paid for the use of that piece of intellectual property.Exchanging illegal content over the internet is an illegal act, or an infringement of copyright if it relates to music files.[…]