Current Copyright Law Encouraging Piracy, Says EU

The European Commission's Vice-President for the Digital Single Market believes that current copyright laws are pushing users to "steal".

Andrus Ansip says that current copyright restrictions that makes legal content hard to obtain is inadvertently forcing people to seek the same content from illegal sources. And Ansip says that the widespread use of geo-blocking in EU countries is one of the main problems facing the EU's plans to make copyright laws fairer.

Unveiled last month, the EU's Digital Single Market strategy aims to end the fragmentation found within the EU when it comes to digital content. Often, content purchased in one EU country cannot be used in another, even though the two countries share the same currency and has open borders.

It is this discrepancy in an otherwise united Europe that Ansip says is making the piracy problem worse.

And Ansip believes that by making available legal services with "better quality", people will naturally do the right thing because people "prefer to act as honest people" and that "they don't want to steal".