European Parliament to vote on new music piracy law

A clamp down on music piracy is expected to be agreed when the European Parliament vote on April 27th 2007 on a proposed European Commission (EC) directive to equalise criminal penalties in all 27 EU countries.

If agreed, the new penalties will substantially increase the fines currently in place and introduce a maximum four-year prison sentence for intellectual property crime.

The new law is aimed at commercial pirates which means that individual pirates will still be subject to the law in their own country.