European Parliament Backs New Criminal Sanctions in Piracy Battle

BRUSSELS, March 21: The European Parliament’s legal affairs
committee has given its backing to proposed legislation setting European
Union-wide criminal sanctions for those who infringe on intellectual property
rights for commercial gain.

The first EU directive aiming at harmonizing national
criminal law was adopted by the Parliamentary committee yesterday. The issue
now goes before the April plenary session. If approved by Parliament and the
Council, intentional copyright infringements “carried out to obtain a
commercial advantage” across the EU would be subject to fines or imprisonment.
Piracy committed by private users for personal, non-profit purposes are
excluded from the proposed legislation.

The maximum penalty will be 300,000 euros and/or four years
in prison for the most serious infringements involving organized crime groups.
For less serious violations, the maximum penalty will be 100,000 euros. In some
cases, remedies can include the seizure and destruction of the counterfeited
goods.

The European Parliament’s Nicola Zingaretti noted: "We
are turning a new page: this is the first directive where criminal law is
included. … To harmonise criminal codes will be a radical new thing.”