Europe, scourge of the right wing, tasted the wrath of the traditionally liberal Internet community on Thursday night when it was crowned as the Internet Villain for 2005 at the 7th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards, the ISPAs.

Facing stiff competition from BT, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Lycos and Carol Vordermann, the EU took the award for work that, said the ISPA judges, "has threatened the ’Country of Origin’ principle, which has encouraged e-commerce across the EU, and for the Draft Framework on Data Retention".

Read the complete story . (ZDNet UK)