A legislation regarding copyright piracy prosecution is expected to be approved by EU ministers within the next two weeks. As EU has expanded in 25 counties, the need for bringing copyright and intellectual property enforcement laws into line across the European Union has expanded too. The legislation mainly focuses on large-scale commercial counterfeiting operations, but many civil liberty groups worried that draconian provisions could be applied to ordinary net surfers, such as individual music swappers.

The following statement published on the parliament’s web site shows that the protests did their job. “The House voted for an amendment stipulating that main enforcement measures need to be applied only for breaches committed on a commercial scale. Simply put, this means that consumers acting in good faith will be excluded from the [new regulations] - for example, individuals copying music recordings for their own use would not normally be penalised.”

Despite the publication of the above statement, fears for individual banning subtend are still growing.