EU Commission sets up piracy monitor but rejects copyright reform

The Commission has said that counterfeiting and piracy are having a "dramatic and damaging" effect on economies in the European Union, but stopped short of proposing any change in EU laws on copyright.

"The current legal framework provides the tools to enforce intellectual property rights in a fair, effective and proportionate way," said a Commission statement.

Instead of changing the law, the Commission has established a body whose remit will be to monitor activity and help countries to work together to reduce illegal activity. This will be the EU Observatory on counterfeiting and piracy.

"[The Observatory] will bring together national representatives, private sector experts and consumers to work to collect data on and analyse the scope and scale of the problem, share information, promote best practices and strategies, raise awareness and propose solutions to key problems," said the statement.

"Within the EU there are already a number of legal instruments in place, such as the Enforcement Directive, but in order to make them more effective the EU is seeking stronger administrative cooperation between authorities at all levels in the fight against piracy and counterfeiting," said the Internal Market Directorate's explanation of its actions.

The setting up of the Observatory was recommended by a resolution adopted by the EU Council of Ministers in 2008.

"The EU is home to some of most successful businesses in the world who consider intellectual property rights to be amongst their most precious commercial possessions," said Internal Markets Commissioner Charlie McCreevy. "Intellectual property rights encourage innovation and creativity which results in an essential cycle of business development, knowledge, further innovation and employment."

"They also offer consumers a reassurance that the products and services they buy are legitimate, reliable and above all safe. Unfortunately, there are always those who will seek to undermine honest intentions. We need to stop this dangerous trend not by more legislation, but by mobilising stronger collaboration helping us to fight back," said McCreevy.

The Internal Markets Directorate said that the function of the Observatory was to "improve the quality of information and statistics related to counterfeiting and piracy on the Single Market [and] identify and spread national best practice strategies and enforcement techniques from both the public as well as the private sector".

Though its creation has just been anounced it has already had its first meeting, which took place earlier this month. At that it set up two subgroups, one to look at issues surrounding data gathering and another to examine existing legal frameworks.