Apparently the European Commission has proposals to make patent infringement criminal. Wow. Fortunately, there is opposition:

Law Society Calls On EU To Rein Back Criminal Sanctions For Intellectual Property

“The Commission has gone too far in bringing forward these measures and it is not clear that they are wholly legal”, said Law Society President Fiona Woolf.

“The idea of imposing criminal sanctions on patent infringements is worrying. Breaching a patent is not like counterfeiting. It’s not the same as making counterfeit copies of CD’s, which involve more obvious criminal intent. Infringement can be done without knowledge or intent and it seems unsafe to make this a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment. Intent to commit a crime must be proved. These EU measures should be limited to counterfeiting and piracy.”

It’s really scary. A few weeks back [EDIT - ON NEIGHBOURS, the TV Soap*] they had some police do a search of Lyn’s house because of a patent infringement, which was incorrect. She had no idea she’d infringed but she was treated almost the same as if she was a counterfeiter. I was annoyed because it starts to create the idea in people’s heads that that’s the law (it isn’t, it’s just tv drama) which might set it up for public acceptance were changes proposed in the future. I had no idea those changes were currently being suggested. What sort of world are we creating?

*Can’t believe I forgot to put this reference in. I have a friend called Lynne too, my boyfriend was like “I didn’t know that happened to her, why did you spell her name wrong? Were you trying to give her a pseudonym”. No, I’m just a sad git who think of TV characters as my friends…

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