The Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a petition asking Members of the European Parliament to remove broad terms in the IPRED2 bill (Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights (COM/2006/0168 final - COD 2005/0127) such as "aiding, abetting, inciting copyright infringements are criminal offences".
Such provisions are broad and have dangerous consequences for the software and hardware producers and users, since any digital device could somehow "aid" copyright infringements.
Vivendi and other Hollywood and Music enforcement industries are pushing very hard by sending their lobbyists in the European Parliament in order to convince deputies that Europe needs criminal sanctions against all those illegal copyists, as well as the equipment providers (software, hardware, ISPs, etc…). One of the main target of those words are the authors of P2P software, such as Azureus, eMule, or even the Apache web server.
By the way, hardware manufacturers are also concerned. One good question to send to your MEP would be: "Does your photocopier is aiding copyright infringement? If yes, does the manufacturer can be a criminal under current text adopted by the JURI committee?"
