This week sees the second European Union conference on piracy and counterfeit goods.

Internal market and services commissioner Charlie McCreevy, members of the European Parliament, and industry representatives are attending the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy with the aim of improving cross-border cooperation on fake goods and illegal downloading of music and software.

McCreevy said: "Last year we met to discuss measures needed for the fight against fake goods. This year we are delivering concrete solutions. I am confident that the Observatory, alongside other initiatives we have launched, will significantly help us to step up the fight against intellectual property theft".

The group meets Thursday 2 April in Brussels.

There is more information here. ®

Related stories

• HMRC can't corral non-EU counterfeits (29 July 2009)
• Euro elections go Web2.0 (12 May 2009)
• IP minister rules out 'three strikes' disconnection law (28 April 2009)
• US outlines secretive international piracy deal (9 April 2009)
• EU gets real in fight against counterfeiters (2 April 2009)
• Chinese crackers create counterfeit iTunes racket (11 March 2009)
• Updated eBay scammers work unpatched weaknesses in Firefox, IE (8 March 2009)
• German cops bust cybercrime forum (4 March 2009)
• FBI releases pics of low-level suspects in $9m ATM scam (6 February 2009)
• Microsoft heralds 'record' prison terms for Chinese pirates (2 January 2009)
• Boffins bust web authentication with game consoles (30 December 2008)
• Customs warns of killer consoles (5 December 2008)