Europe approves Internet piracy law

The Corrs want protection for their music

STRASBOURG, France -- A new law aimed at restricting Internet and high-tech piracy has been approved by European MPs.

The new regulation allows rights' holders in the music and film industries to prevent illegal copying of their works by advanced technology.

The legislation has been backed by pop stars including Sting, Ronnie Wood, Dave Stewart, the Corrs and Westlife who were seeking guarantees that their works are properly protected in the digital age.

The EU Copyright Directive vote on Wednesday follows a decision by the U.S. appeals court earlier this week ordering the closure of Napster, the Internet music-swapping service.

A coalition of more than 30 music industry organisations representing publishers, performers, authors, musicians, visual artists and film makers had lobbied the European Commission and MEPs.

The entertainment industry said before the vote that it was not just representing multi-millionaire stars who could afford to allow their works to be downloaded without payment, but lesser artists on whom the long-term future of the industry depends.

Sales warning

The music industry's umbrella group, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, argues that free access to "intellectual property" such as original music harms rising artists.

It warned that the EU legislation does not offer tight enough safeguards against a copying free-for-all that will cause a slump in the long term in CD sales and film receipts at the box office.

An IFPI spokesman in Strasbourg said: "Europe's emerging information society is more than new equipment and networks, its about the content that is accessed through that new technology: what consumers see, read, listen to and enjoy.

"The creative sector is enthusiastic about working to provide consumers with the richness and diversity of European culture.

"But at the same time, it must continue to be rewarded for the effort they put into creating those works.

"Creators urgently need a fair set of rules to protect their works from abuse in the digital era. Otherwise, creative works will fall victim to mass-scale, unauthorised copying."

Sir George Martin, the former EMI producer who steered the Beatles through the recording studios, backed the musicians' campaign.

Hundreds of artists from across Europe had written to the European Parliament asking MEPs to back "culture and creativity" when they vote.

Among them were Nobel-prize winning authors Seamus Heaney from Ireland and Josi Saramago from Portugal, Italian actors Roberto Benigni and Sophia Loren, and leading figures from the classical music world such as Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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IFPI
European Parliament

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