draconian measures

The majority of the reports and press releases put out by the music industry in the past several years can be summarized in a few words: “Piracy is evil and we lose a lot of money because of it.”

Today the European Commission published the responses to a public consultation on Europe’s anti-piracy directive IPRED.

As expected, there is a huge divide between the copyright holders on the one hand, and Internet providers, academics and citizens on the other.

The latter fiercely oppose the draconian measures that IPRED introduces, claiming it threatens basic human rights while stifling innovation.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the woman who was charged with copyright infringement through online file sharing, tried to fight, and subsequently lost, will appeal the verdict in her case, which ordered her to pay $1.92 million in damages to the recording industry that sued her.