For good or bad, the United States has become zealous about IP rights. 

• A new cabinet position is being considered to support IP law enforcement – the WHIPER.
• The federal government attached funding requirements to force colleges to allow rights holders to monitor students‘ Internet use. 
• AT&T wants to watch their own customers to root out copyright infringement.

In fact, when trade organizations seek to punish the US, they relax enforcement of its IP rights in other countries.

In Europe, however, privacy increasingly balances IP enforcement efforts. While the US seeks to establish a national head of IP enforcement, European countries now have directors of data privacy. This week, these differences manifested themselves in a string of rulings in Europe which set privacy as a counterweight to IP enforcement.
Continued