Okie,
You raised an interesting question about European law affecting US law/practices. In cyberspace, the US is finding out that, despite the fact it developed the Internet, its rules don't apply everywhere.
US business may have to conform to the EU Privacy Directive when each EU nation enacts enabling legislation (fat chance anytime soon of course). When that happens, a good number of US businesses could be shut out of the EU since the US fails to meet EU standards for protecting personal data.
The recent modifications to the Copyright Act were partly enacted to conform to international copyright regimes. Note that US law now includes Moral Rights in visual arts (i.e., you just cannot tear down and scrap a sculpture ... gotta have a plan to preserve it).
Cheers,
Brian