The European Union's new point person on copyright policy won't take up her post until mid-April, but she's already stirring up controversy. That's because Maria Martin-Prat spent years directing "global legal policy" for IFPI, the global recording industry's London-based trade group, before moving back into government. The appointment raises new questions about the past private-sector work of government officials, especially those crafting policy or issuing legal judgments on the same issues they once lobbied for.
Martin-Prat isn't a lifelong music industry employee; she worked for the EU, left for IFPI, and then rejoined the EU several years ago. She's currently working for DG MARKT, the Internal Market branch of the European Commission. She runs MARKT's distinctly non-glamorous-sounding unit E.1, "Free movement of services and establishment I, Services Directive," and she makes sure that EU countries don't enact illegal barriers to halt the free movement of service professionals like doctors. (For instance, DG MARKT recently forced Cyprus to change a law requiring real estate agents from other countries to pass a Cypriot exam and to work in collaboration with a Cypriot agent.) She's a Spanish lawyer and fluent in Spanish, French, and English.
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