The new law covers the rights of reproduction, communication to the public, distribution, the legal protection of anti-copying devices and rights management systems.
Among other things, the Directive will close a loophole in European law through which file swapping services could fall. It states that consumers will be allowed to reproduce material they already own but will be prevented from distributing unlimited numbers of copies or selling them.
In practical terms, this probably means that a computer user could take his or her music CD and convert a song to MP3 format then e-mail the MP3 file to a friend; but he or she would not be entitled to distribute that file on a service such as that for which Napster became famous, giving access to an unlimited number of music fans.