Finland has had an interesting, tumultuous history over the last decade regarding copyright law. Before 2005, Finland had one of the more relaxed copyright laws in Europe, with only a blank media levy in place to compensate copyright holders for possible copyright infringement through file sharing and copying physical discs. But in 2005, Finland adopted a new copyright law, based on the European Union Copyright Directive. This particular incarnation of the EUCD is one of the most draconian in Europe. Following this law lead to last year's debacle where the Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC led a police raid on a suspected infringer, and confiscated a nine year old girl's Winnie the Pooh laptop.
A recent addition to the Finnish constitution has made it possible for the public to propose new legislation for their Parliament to consider. And the Finns have made use of this by gathering more than 50,000 voters in support of a new copyright law, one which is radically different from the existing statute. This new proposed law is entitled, “The Common Sense in Copyright Act”. Some of the main features of this new law include reducing penalties for copyright infringement, increasing instances of fair use, banning unfair clauses in recording contracts, and allowing individuals to copy media that they own for purposes of backups and time shifting.
Getting the new copyright proposal into the Finnish Parliament is noteworthy, and certainly a first in modern history, where a proposed law is drafted and supported by the public rather than by elected representatives, but the fight is just beginning for this bill. The proposal will not be considered in the Parliament until 2014, so its supporters need to build upon this initial success and be ready for a struggle against the copyright extremists who have so far ruled in Finland. I wish them luck.
You can read more on the story at TorrentFreak
