Across the pond, the European Parliament is ready to give Big Content even greater powers than they have here in North America. It's a measure of how draconioan these proposed laws are that the normally copylock-happy Business Software Alliance and other technology companies think this proposal is crap.

Thomas Vinje, a partner in the Brussels law firm Morrison & Foerster, whose clients include Nokia, shares the concerns expressed by the academics. He said Fourtou's amendments make a bad situation worse. "She is putting a dangerous weapon in the hands of, among others, the big record companies," he said.

The European proposal would criminalize sharing and downloading, and it would make it illegal for an ISP to protect the privacy of their customers. It also seems to throw patent infringement onto the pile of criminal offences, so developing a piece of technology that infringes on someone's patent would also carry a criminal sanction.

Given that the internet in general is one large copying, caching, sharing network, the proposed law could essentially be used to criminalize networked information.

The craziest thing about this bizarre law is its main proponent. Janelly Fourtou, the MEP behind this thing, is the wife of Jean Fourtou, CEO of Vivendi, parent of Universal Music Group, and soon-to-be minority shareholder in the NBC Universal media combine.