People who illegaly download music or films for personal consumption from the Internet should not be subject to legal sanctions, a Labour Party MEP has said.
"Individuals who carry out a small level of downloading of illegal material should not be the subject of any legal sanctions", Alan Kelly told the EU's Internal Market Committee.
The Munster MEP said that to pursue such individuals would be akin to "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut".
Instead, Mr Kelly said resources should be targetted to punish what he described as "pirate providers".
"We want our legislation to prevent people from exploiting this on a commercial basis, the types of people who store warehouses full of DVDs distributed illegally from internet downloads", Mr Kelly said. "These people should be subject to the full rigours of our legal system.
"However, it makes no sense for the EU to bring in legislation that criminalises a 15-year-old for putting a ring tone or a song on their phone. Our response must be focussed, targeted and proportionate to the crime"
Mr Kelly said it was important to protect artists from having their material pirated.
"We are already making progress in Ireland on these matters. We are doing so at a faster pace than most other EU countries through the co-operation of the ISPs and IMRO."
