US Public Affairs - 30/05/09

Lessig on the orphan works bill

"Prof. Lessig has an OP-ED in the NYT today about the orphan works bill rolling now in Congress. Among the important points mentioned there, here are my three favorites: (1) to the extent that foreign authors are substantially deprived of copyright protection as a result of the new rule, the amendment will probably violate U.S. international obligations, and it would take the E.U. exactly two seconds to file a WTO complaint. (2) It makes no sense to put so much weight on the issue of “diligent effort” if rightholders are not required to register works, as in the case of patents, for instance. (3) It would be somewhat unfair to apply the rule retroactively to works by authors who relied on full, automatic copyright protection upon creation/fixation." [CyberLaw]

EU Commission: Internal Market - 30/05/08

EU Internal Market Chief: Counterfeiting and Piracy Need Industry-Led Solutions
"The European Commission wants practical, pragmatic suggestions for fighting the “modern-day highway robbery” known as piracy and counterfeiting, Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said at a 13 May commission-sponsored high level conference on the issues.

McCreevy stressed that more regulation is not the answer, and that solutions lie with public-private cooperation. He called on industry to lead the battle against fakes, and on internet service providers (ISPs) to solve the problem of illegal downloads. But he also outlined planned expansion of anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy efforts within the Commission." [IPWatch]

European Commission Proposes Forum On Future Of Copying Levies
"The European Commission has recommended that a forum involving creative artists and the consumer industry should be established to determine the future of private copying levies.

Twenty-one of the European Union’s 27 countries impose oft-criticised surcharges on equipment - ranging from blank cassettes to MP3 players and mobile phones - that may be used for recording or copying images or sound. While such levies are officially designed to compensate musicians or authors for the use of their work, they have attracted much criticism for allegedly being imposed in an arbitrary manner and for hampering cross-border trade within the EU." [IPWatch]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 30/05/08

"Three Strikes and You're Out" Policy Strikes Out April 21, 2008
"The new baseball season is in full swing, yet in recent months the phrase "three strikes and you’re out" has taken on an entirely different meaning on the Internet. My new technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) reports on how, prodded by content lobby groups, a handful of governments have moved toward requiring Internet service providers to terminate subscribers if they engage in file sharing activities on three occasions. The policy - occasionally referred to as "graduated response" - received support last fall from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who pressured the private sector to negotiate an agreement to implement the three strikes system. The policy soon attracted global attention as the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia all announced that they were contemplating a similar approach.

In recent weeks, however, it would appear that governments are beginning to have sober second thoughts. After a Swedish judge recommended adopting the three strikes policy, that country's Ministers of Justice and Culture wrote a public opinion piece setting out their forthcoming policy that explicitly excluded the three strikes model." [MichaelGeist]

German Court Says ISPs Can't ID File-Swappers March 20, 2008
"A German court has ruled that the identities of ISP subscribers should not be disclosed as part of potential file-sharing copyright investigations, finding that such measures can only be used for "heavy" crimes like terrorism, murder or child pornography, TorrentFreak reports. The Federal Constitutional Court's (FCC) ruling will stand for six months, after which time it could be made final.

Earlier this week, Italy's government agency that deals with privacy issues made a similar finding, ruling that companies like Logistep that harvest IP addresses from file-swappers for use in copyright investigations are breaking the law." [DWMMedia]

German Court Decision Hands Big Win to File-Sharers March 20, 2008
"The Federal Constitutional Court in Germany has ruled that the identities of file-sharers must remain private and can no longer be revealed to media companies who accuse them of copyright infringement. In future, only those accused of ‘heavy’ crimes such as murder, child pornography or kidnapping will be revealed.

Germany has some of the toughest copyright laws and it’s thought that as many as 200,000 German file-sharers have had their identities revealed to entertainment and media companies, so that they may be threatened with legal action." [TorrentFreak]

EU Commission: Information and Society 05/09/08

Cut red tape to attract venture capital to cutting edge high-tech research, Commission tells Parliament and Council (04/09/2008)
The Commission today called on the Parliament and Council to support a new drive to cut red tape and allow greater flexibility to make European high-tech research more effective. It was responding to the 'Aho report', the most comprehensive evaluation of EU ICT research yet, looking beyond the management of research to evaluate its impact on innovation. The report highlighted that EU research could be of greater benefit for European competitiveness by involving and supporting high growth companies and providing better links between research and venture capital. The Commission, which has launched several initiatives to involve leading companies in research (IP/08/910, IP/08/824, IP/08/785), is committed to making the information and communications technology (ICT) research it supports more effective in terms of delivering business opportunities. It is also launching a public consultation that will feed into proposals to this end in early 2009. [Europa]

Opening soon: a digital library for Europe 11/08/08
Europe's cultural diversity in books, music, paintings, photographs, and films open to all citizens at the click of a mouse via one portal – this dream of a European Digital Library could become reality this autumn. However, further efforts by the EU Member States are needed, said the Commission today in a new Communication on making available digital versions of works from cultural institutions all over Europe. Digitisation of cultural works can give Europeans access to material from museums, libraries and archives abroad without having to travel or turn hundreds of pages to find a piece of information. Europe's libraries alone contain more than 2.5 billion books, but only about 1% of archival material is available in digital form. The Commission therefore called on Member States to do more to make digitised works available online for Europeans to browse them digitally, for study, work or leisure. The Commission itself will provide some € 120 million in 2009-2010 for improving online access to Europe's cultural heritage. [Europa]

Supporting social tourism 21/08/08
The Tourism Unit of the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry DG is promoting the exchange of good practice on social tourism through a series of conferences and workshops, launched in 2006, as part of the Commission’s drive to promote tourism in the context of the Lisbon strategy. The most recent, in Brussels in April 2008, was on the topic ‘Facilitating the growth of the youth and senior citizen tourism markets’. In addition to various actions supported by the Commission, good practices in tourism by local authorities and private sector from several parts of Europe were also reviewed. [Europa]

EU Commission Enterprise and Industry Monitor - 05/09/08

The Best Idea for Red Tape Reduction Award
The Best Idea for Red Tape Reduction Award aims at identifying innovative suggestions for reducing unnecessary bureaucracy stemming from European law. Cutting red tape will allow companies to spend more time on their core activities and free up resources for research, innovation and growth. The purpose of the competition is to generate ideas for the European Commission to consider as part of its Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens. [Europa]