"...While the music industry may consider U.S. court rulings against Napster's music-swapping bonanza to be landmarks in Internet age copyright law, most European artists don't see them as key to protecting their rights. Unlike Metallica, Dr. Dre and other U.S. artists who have sought to shutter Napster and other free online music services, the Europeans' primary targets have been the hardware and media that enable high quality copying. Pop powerhouses including the Spice Girls, Boyzone, Robbie Williams and Eros Ramazzotti were among the European stars who pushed the European Union to pass stronger legislation protecting their work from being pirated in the digital age. The EU legislation passed last month makes it illegal to pirate CDs and download copy-protected music from the Internet.

The legislation, however, has upset consumer groups because by technically narrowing the definition of "private copy" it has also limited consumers' rights to make duplicates of material they have purchased, even for private use. The legislation, which takes effect in each of the 15 EU nations after being ratified by the national parliaments, allows countries to add fees for each blank CD or CD burner sold - mirroring existing laws in Italy and Germany, where additional charges of between 5 percent and 10 percent are already being assessed..."