The big story here in Denmark today is that the Danish Parliament has finished a bill, which will make it illegal to make copies of copy protected CDs, DVDs, and computer games and to parallel import (import not using the Danish branch of a company) these items from non EU countries. According to the article passing the bill will be a formality meaning that we should expect that making a copy of a CD for the car stereo or the iPod will be illegal in the future.
I'm not an expert on EU politics, but from what I've been able to find out the bill is "our" way of implementing the infosoc directive, which is designed to make copyright laws the same all over Europe.

I can understand why people would support legislation, which tries to help the entertainment industry fight "pirates" (I wouldn't have supported it, but I can understand why others would). But why they would support legislation making it illegal to parallel import CDs, DVDs, and computer games is beyond me. Obviously, it is hurting the Danish branch of Warner Bros that you can buy a copy of Analyze That on DVD in parallel import shops before it opens in cinemas here, but how is that a problem for the Danish government? Isn't that just one of the joys of free trade? It's apparently not enough that there's a region system making it impossible to screen American or Asian DVDs on a regular European DVD player. Now there will be laws against importing the DVDs as well.
This means that people, who want CDs, DVDs, and computer games, which haven't been released here will have to start ordering them themselves through Amazon or other companies. This sucks, because of shipping expenses, the taxes added on by the Danish postal service, and having to wait ages for your order to arrive. But people will do it anyway, because the DVDs sold by the Danish companies are released months later than the American ones and usually don't have all the bonus material the American ones does. So all this will mean is that a bunch of stores will close and people will have to start buying their movies and music online.

And if it's illegal to make copies of CDs it'll be hard for internet radio stations to stay in business. Right now it's legal to make copies for personal use and you can apply for a license to make copies for work related use. But with the latest initiative from IFPI saying that they won't give out any more special digitalizing permits it's hard to see how internet stations can stay in business.

If anyone has any insight into how the copyright laws have been changed around Europe I'd be curious to hear more about it. I have no idea if people living in European countries that dub movies buy a lot of original languaged movies. But even if they don't they're probably as affected by the law against copying copyright protected material as we are here in Denmark. So if you have any insights on this please leave a comment.