"The Commission also wants to facilitate copyright licences for online content covering the territory of several or all of the EU Member States," said a Commission statement. "According to Commission studies, a truly single market without borders for creative online content could strengthen considerably the competitiveness of Europe's music, film and games industry and allow retail revenues of the sector to quadruple by 2010 if clear and consumer-friendly measures are taken by industry and public authorities."
However, the plan could threaten consumer rights in a number of areas, according to digital consumer rights pressure group the Open Rights Group (ORG).
"Looking at some of the details of the European Commission consultation document it seems to be that they are proposing a lot more than just a cross Europe licensing scheme," said Becky Hogg, executive director of ORG. "There is stuff here about transparency and interoperability in digital rights management systems, there is stuff about codes of conduct between internet service providers and rights holders to encourage legal access and discourage unauthorised file sharing."
"These sorts of proposals have been causing waves in the consumer rights community since the last part of last year when France announced an experimental project where ISPs would monitor and disconnect users suspected of illicit file-sharing online," she said.
Hogg said that the consultation was likely to touch on difficult questions that the UK has already answered, such as the proposed extension of the copyright term in sound recordings beyond the current 50 year limit. This was a proposal that was rejected by Andrew Gowers in his 2006 review of intellectual property law, which the Treasury has backed.
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