EU granting copyrights to consumers?

After all but 2 EU nations rejected the restrictive European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD), the European Commision has now presented a much lighter directive. This new directive tries to preserve the rights of individual consumers while trying to stop commercial copyright infringement and piracy through filesharing services.

If the directive passes, it should mean that we as consumers will be allowed ownership of the content we buy and will be free to create copies of CDs for use in our car stereo, rip MP3s for the iPod, and buy DVDs from other regions.

Not surprisingly the content-owners claim the directive is “inadequate” and “unambitious”. I will not even pretend that I have the knowledge to judge the adequacy of the directive, but if there is anything the directive is, it is ambitious. Trying to actually give the consumers freedom to do what they want with the products they buy, instead of turning them into outlaws when they want to listen to their personal selection of smash hits while commuting to work seems quite ambitious to me and like a huge step in The Right Direction.