BRUSSELS -- European lawmakers are set to deal a blow to the battle against piracy by weakening a proposed European law on intellectual property rights.
The Brussels-based European Parliament, made up of elected solons from the 15-member European Union, will next week vote to call on European governments to bring in "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" measures against infringements rather than the "criminal sanctions, including imprisonment" suggested earlier.
EU member states believe the Parliament does not have the authority to pass laws on issues like this. And as the Parliament's members have to work with their colleagues in their home countries, they are left with little option but to back down.
Film and record companies are campaigning for a strong line from the EU on piracy, but Internet companies are worried that the proposed law doesn't do enough to distinguish commercial counterfeiting from inadvertent individual copyright infringement.
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