That's the first time I hear such a thing and it sounds very strange to me. Are you just referring to France? Or maybe UK, too? There are over 40 countries in Europe, and most of them have a lot more relaxed copyright laws than USA.
I'm referring to all significant countries in Europe, since they all have the same copyright term, as part of implementing the appropriate EU directives on this matter. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_2006/116/EC
One of the main arguments for the Copyright Term Extension Act in the US was to better align US copyright law with that.
