The music industry should stop criminalizing customers and limiting their freedom in the battle against piracy, a European consumers’ group said Thursday.

The emergence of copy-protected CDs - installed with anti-piracy software that limits how many times the CD can be copied - is the most visible example of this, said Jim Murray of BEUC, an association representing consumer lobbies across Europe.

Private consumers … are not criminals and to portray them as such is insulting and counter productive, Murray said.

The group launched a digital rights manifesto for music and film lovers, saying they had the right to privacy and the right to benefit from technological innovations without abusive restrictions.

Priracy is becoming a very serious issue but is it being handled in a way that is going to improve the situation, read more at ap.org