EU Public Affairs Monitor - 17/11/08

France votes for 'three strikes' filesharing law 04/11/08
"The French senate has voted overwhelmingly in favour of Nicolas Sarkozy's anti-piracy legislation that offers illegal filesharers two warnings before cutting off their internet access

This week, as ever, it's one step forward and two steps back for the recording industry's anti-piracy legislation. Even as France seems poised to pass a new "three strikes" law against filesharers, lobbyists in Denmark have given up on the chance of passing similar legislation." [Guardian]

Dance Music Classics Get Aboard The Pirate Ship 12/11/08
"Recently, the techno-oriented site Resident Advisor ran a detailed, well-reported piece by UK writer Richard Brophy on the state of the bootleg 12-inch in dance music. To be clear, since "bootleg" has a few different musical connotations, Brophy isn't talking about mash-up pop Frankensteins or unauthorized recordings of live shows, but about pirated versions of actual releases—small-edition replicas of classic, long-out-of-print house and techno 12-inches. These are, he suggests, far more legion in the dance world than we might think, an open secret that few retailers try to do anything about even if they know what they're selling is technically illegal." [Idolator]

Prof Enters RIAA Lawsuit Controversy Nov 17, 2008
"A Harvard Law School professor representing a Boston University student accused of copyright infringement is attacking the constitutionality of lawsuits launched by the RIAA against individuals.

Professor Charles Nesson claims the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it lets a private group, in this case the Recording Industry Association of America, carry out civil enforcement of a criminal law." [PollStar]

Pay-For Content Set To Grow Faster Than Free, With Music Leading The Way, Forecast Says 11 Nov 2008
"Maybe there are legs after all to that hypothesis on the return of pay-for content - the one Economist publisher Paul Rossi suggested at our Future Of Business Media conference last month. Just 12 percent of European web users paid for online content last year, but that’s due to rise to 19 percent by 2013, a new Jupiterresearch report says: “While free content will continue to dominate, as overall online audiences for all content categories continue to grow, so the number of European users willing to pay for content online will grow at an even greater rate.”" [PaidContent]