EU Public Affairs Monitor - 15/12/08

EIB gets an extra €30bn for infrastructure projects
"Funds will be directed primarily towards into new member states. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will spend an extra €30 billion on projects over the next two years following an agreement at last week's meeting of EU finance minister to increase the bank's capital.

The bank's reserves were increased from €67bn to €232bn to allow continued funding of current projects and financing of future projects. The immediate effect will be extra money during 2009-10 for the bank's main project areas." [EuropeanVoice]

US Sues Sony Music Over Children's Online Privacy
"Sony Music Entertainment was sued on Wednesday by the U.S. government, which claimed the music company violated federal rules aimed at protecting the online privacy of children. Sony Music improperly accepted registrations on its music Web sites from users who were under 13, without obtaining consent from their parents, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan." [BillBoard]

Canadian Copyright Board Raises Tax
"The Canadian Copyright Board has announced it will raise the tax on blank compact discs to 29¢ (US$0.23), a 38% increase. Previously the tariff on blank recordable CDs was 21¢ (US$0.1679).

The tariff is collected on behalf of the Canadian Private Copying Collective, an organization formed in 1999 and created to collect money that compensates musicians and stakeholders for having their music copied by individuals. The decision leaves the rate for audio cassettes at 24¢
The board says there were two reasons for the increase.

“First, increased mechanical licence royalties, coupled with the elimination of container deductions and free goods allowances in the calculation of the performers' and makers' remuneration, greatly add to our estimation of the total remuneration per prerecorded CD," the board said in a report. "Second, the use of compression technology raises from 15 to 18.4 the average number of tracks copied on a blank CD used to copy music."" [BillBoard]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 05/12/08

Stepping up the fight against piracy
"The EU struggles to come up with an effective set-up for intellectual property rights. The EU constantly stresses the importance of promoting a knowledge-based economy. But one of the crucial components of a knowledge-based economy, as the European Commission and national governments have repeatedly acknowledged, is an effective set-up for protecting intellectual property rights. Without protection for intellectual property, runs the argument, inventors and innovators will take their talents elsewhere and businesses will not develop the new products, services and technologies needed if the EU is to be an area of innovation.

Holders of intellectual property rights need to be sure that the revenue from their brands and inventions is maximised and counterfeiting and piracy is adequately tackled both inside the Union and in the rest of the world." [EuropeanVoice]

Can the EU protect intellectual property? (I) by Karin Riis-Jørgensen MEP
"Europe needs modern solutions to tackle the problems that counterfeiters of digital and physical goods pose to intellectual property rights. There is no doubt that protection of intellectual property is and will be one of the major challenges for Europe in the future. In a global world we need to protect our property rights and trademarks. The growth of the counterfeiting industry is partly a consequence of globalisation, since more than half of the counterfeit goods that come to Europe are from China. But globalisation is also the reason why we need to protect our trademarks. For many companies, production is no longer profitable in Europe, but development is. And that is what we are good at in Europe and what we need to protect. If new designs and goods are copied as soon as they enter the market, development will no longer be profitable in Europe." [EuropeanVoice]

Can the EU protect intellectual property? (II) by Arlene McCarthy MEP
"Counterfeiting and piracy pose serious threats to business and governments, but also put European consumers at great risk. Global counterfeiting and piracy continues to rise. It accounts for some 7% of world trade and in 2007 European customs officers registered more than 43,000 cases of fake goods seized at the EU's external border, compared to 37,000 in 2006. An increase of almost 17%.

Legitimate business is damaged by the loss of sales haemorrhaging to counterfeit and pirated goods and services. Europe is a centre of excellence for promoting innovation and creative products. The creative media and business information sector alone is worth more than €350 billion, but counterfeiting and piracy rob entre-preneurs of vital resources for research and development investment in new innovative products and services, and undermine Europe's attempt to increase its competitiveness and create jobs." [EuropeanVoice]

Canadian Copyright Board Opens Hearing On Music Tariffs
"The Canadian Copyright Board kicked off a large-scale hearing today in Ottawa over arguments about multiple tariffs that cover everything from performing rights in songs to mechanical reproduction rights.
"It's sure to be a landmark hearing, if only because it's the first time that the board has combined all radio-related tariffs into a single proceeding," says David Basskin, president of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA).

The hearing will take more than a week and will hear debates over several tariffs, including those brought forward by the Society of Authors, Composers, and Music Publishers of Canada for performing rights in songs, an application by CMRRA and Société professionnelle des auteurs et des compositeurs du Québec dealing with reproduction rights, the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada and La Société de gestion collective de l'Union des artistes involving performing rights as well as the AVLA Audio-Video Licensing Agency and Quebec Collective Society for the Rights of Makers of Sound and Video Recordings." [Billboard]

Exclusive: Indies vs. Spain
In a desperate move to save jobs and preserve a hard-built cultural and commercial industry, a group of music companies and retailers are nearing a decision to file a legal action against the government of Spain, Music Confidential has learned. Executives believe the government is shirking its responsibility to protect the companies' intellectual property and commercial rights from Internet piracy.

Not only would this be the first lawsuit of its kind, but the twist is that it is not being led by multinational corporations. This move is driven by small- and medium-sized independent Spanish enterprises. Sources say that at least one other independent music group will also be monitoring their progress with an eye toward filing similar actions against the governments of other European Union member states. The governments of Germany and Italy may be next in line. [MusicConfidential]

Merlin honoured by Spanish government
"Indie global rights agency Merlin has been honoured at the International Forum on Digital Content (FICOD) in Madrid. Merlin board member Mark Kitcatt was presented with the award for Improving Competition For Independent Music Companies by Spanish Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Sr. D. Miguel Sebastian.
The award recognises the work that Merlin is doing to enhance the ability of independents to access the online space and to develop the digital market.

Merlin CEO Charles Caldas says, “We are delighted to have received this award and that the tremendous efficiency and global reach that Merlin provides those wishing to license the world’s most exciting and commercially valuable independent repertoire has been recognised.”" [MusicWeek]

Burnham to keep pressure on ISPs
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has again signalled that the Government is in no mood for messing and will legislate should ISPs not make progress on piracy. Speaking at last night’s Squaring The Circle MusicTank, which was the final of four networking sessions examining alternatives to illegal file sharing, Burnham told industry executives that he is “determined to bring the issue to a conclusion”. He added that pressure will be kept on the ISPs to ensure progress with the ongoing Memorandum of Understanding does not slip.

Burnham told the networking group, which also featured contributions from Dan Klein, Detica media accounts director, Simon Persoff, Orange UK director, legal and regulatory and Richard Mollet, the BPI’s public affairs director, that the success of the MoU will be seen over a two to three year timescale and that the parties need to “find solutions which reward creators. It is in the public interest for there to be a workable system of copyright.”
He added that the creative industries and the internet are now mainstream, so the debate is changing and the need for government to have a role is becoming clearer – “the internet is not a place where governments can’t go”." [MusicWeek]

UK consumers, Big Content battle over three-strikes rules
"Although France's "graduated response" proceedings have attracted the most attention, the UK is in the midst of a consultation of its own on how to involve both content owners and ISPs in some sort of response to P2P file-sharing. The government is pushing a co-regulatory approach that would task industry groups with hashing out the details of such a plan, while the government would make sure that any agreement is fair, competitive, and preserves privacy. With all the responses now in, the UK music industry is clearly pleased that it won't have to pursue 6.5 million copyright infringers on its own. Digital rights groups are... less excited.

The entire consultation is helmed by BERR , the UK agency that handles Business, Enterprise, & Regulatory Reform, and it stems from the famous (in certain circles, anyway) Gowers Review of intellectual property that we covered extensively back in 2006 . That report, which took a top-to-bottom look at UK copyright and IP policy, was stuffed with plenty of consumer-friendly ideas, such as no new copyright term extensions. But it also contained good news for rightsholders, such as a suggestion that the government step in if ISPs and rightsholders couldn't agree on how to handle the issue of P2P file-sharing." [ArsTechnica]

ISPs sign voluntary code on speed
""BT, Virgin Media, Talk Talk and Tiscali are among a group of Internet Service Providers which have signed up to Ofcom’s new voluntary code of practice governing broadband speeds.
Ofcom had found a rising number of ISPs were selling their services by claiming faster and faster broadband speeds to download music, games and films. But, few customers were seeing the tangible benefits.
The regulator, therefore, asked ISPs to provide better and more realistic information and sign up to the code of practice on how they present broadband speeds.
The eight principles of the code cover areas such as training and information at point of sale to ensure that customers are aware that they might not get the maximum speed advertised because of technical or other factors. The code also ensures every ISP must have trustworthy systems to find the cause of a speed problem and take steps to fix any issue that is down to them." [MusicWeek]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 18/11/08

Tennessee anti-P2P law to cost colleges over $13 million November 18, 2008
With the RIAA's long-running legal war against file-sharing not having the desired effects, the music industry has turned its sights on legislation aimed at getting others to do the dirty work of copyright enforcement. Last week, they scored a victory when the state of Tennessee passed a law that would require colleges and universities to work to prevent copyright infringement over campus networks. It's great news for the RIAA, but bad news for Tennessee students and taxpayers who will have to foot the $13 million bill.

SB 3974 was introduced this past February into the state legislature. Championed by the RIAA, who pointed to the University of Tennessee's no. 4 position on the list of top music piracy schools, and the MPAA, which noted the school's no. 19 spot on its infringement list, the law will force both public and private schools in the state to implement policies to prevent and prohibit copyright infringement on campus computers and networks." [ArsTechnica]

Antipiracy group pushes 10 years jail time for UK infringers November 19, 2008
"Those guilty of online copyright infringement deserve criminal sentencings that are just as harsh as those who've been busted for commercial physical piracy, according to a UK-based antipiracy group. The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) is pushing the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to adopt modifications to current copyright law that would punish online infringers with 10 years of imprisonment, "to bring parity with commercial dealing in pirated works."

The IPO is currently in the process of considering changes to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 based on the independently-conducted Gowers Review of Intellectual Property. The Gowers report, wrapped up in 2007, concluded that, "the intention and impact of physical and online infringement are the same. Crimes committed on the online and physical world should not be subject to different sentences. Increasing the penalties for online infringement will therefore make the law coherent." As a result, Gowers wrote that punishment for online infringers should be increased to 10 years in jail, suggestion that's now known as Recommendation 36." [ArsTechnica]

What’s wrong with ISP Music Licensing Fall 2008
"The decline of revenues in the music industry has led the industry to take a closer look at the responsibilities of Internet service providers “ISPs” and alternative compensation schemes both in the United States and in Europe. Many schemes have been considered to compensate the creative community for these losses, including the ida that ISPs could charge all or some of their users a small fee on a monthly basis that each ISP would pay to the creative community as compensation in return for the user’s ability to trade content files without fear of litigation or prosecution. It is worth noting that with very few exceptions, ISPs themselves are not leading the charge to undertake this burden, and it is only within the very recent past hat ISPs have entered into industry wide agreements to support anti-piracy efforts on their networks. Anti-piracy efforts are a long way from ISP licensing…." [ChristianCastle]

How Canada Fought Bad Copyright Law: Showing Why Copyright Law Matters
"You may recall, just about a year ago, there was suddenly a bunch of news over the possibility of Canada introducing its own version of the US's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). To the surprise of both the entertainment industry (who helped craft the law) and the politicians who were pushing it, the opposition to this law was incredibly successful in getting its message out. Starting with calls on various blogs and Facebook groups, kicked off by law professor Michael Geist, the issue became a big one throughout the media. The politicians who promised the entertainment industry that they would pass this law tried to delay the introduction, assuming that the opposition, while loud, was thin and would fade away. They were wrong. The issue continued to get attention, and when the law was finally introduced, the opposition, across the board, was widespread and strong. It wasn't just a fringe issue among "internet activists." It was something that people from all over the economy saw as a fundamental issue worth fighting for." [TechDirt]

China Says: If You Must Infringe On Copyrights, Use Baidu
"Many people have noted over the years that with all of the effort that China has put into its Great Firewall, the country hasn't done much of anything to crack down on unauthorized file sharing. In fact, at times, it's almost seemed to encourage it. So some people were a bit surprised to find out that China's censors tried blocking traffic to various well known BitTorrent sites, such as Mininova, isoHunt and The Pirate Bay. However, what may be most interesting is that rather than blocking them outright, it appears that the system just redirects all that traffic to popular Chinese search engine Baidu.

This would be the same Baidu that first became really popular when China shifted all Google traffic to its site, and also the site that stayed popular because it made it easy to download unauthorized music. This would be the same Baidu that was also recently exposed to be fairly complicit in the music downloads it offers, potentially hosting the content itself through a revolving series of ever-changing domains. So, this hardly seems like an attempt by the Chinese government to crack down on unauthorized file sharing -- but an attempt to drive it all to a local company. It looks like the redirects only lasted for a few days, and are no longer in place -- but if the past is any indication, those redirects may come back at any time." [TechDirt]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 27/10/08

Cox To Internet Users: Three Strikes and You're Out October 1, 2008
Over the course of the last year, we've seen an intense, international lobbying effort on the part of the entertainment industry to craft policies that would boot alleged filesharers off of the Internet. The folks over at TechDirt have been keeping a close watch on this front and point to legislation and negotiations in the UK, France, Australia and Canada that would institute a "three strikes" rule. As proposed, this three strikes policy would require ISPs to filter their networks for copyrighted content and send out notices of infringement to users suspected of engaging in filesharing--effectively turning ISPs into "copyright cops". As implied by the three strikes moniker, users would receive two written warnings before having their contract with the ISP terminated outright, upon receipt of the third." [PublicKnowledge]

Music Like Water - Not October 27, 2007
"I originally wrote this post as a comment on Andrew Dubber's blog. Out of courtesy for Andrew, I am going to turn comments off on this post. Please go to Andrew's site to continue the discussion.

Andrew, you create the best scenarios on the Internet for discussion…

If the water analogy were as simple as turning on a faucet, and out comes music that everyone pays a flat fee for, then I would agree with you. However, sticking with the water analogy, there are thousands of brands of bottled water, fizzy water, flavored water, tap water, fountain water, toilet water, brown water, fruit water, mineral water, etc, etc, etc. Only a dolt would let their brand become commoditized, municipal tap water… The water utility thing will never happen anyways; innovation will outrun legislation." [UnsprungMedia]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 24/07/08

Virgin/BPI letters arrive, student freeloaders object 03/07/08
"Following the announcement a few weeks ago (see here) that Virgin Media would be sending out warning letters to some of their broadband customers, 800 of these letters have now been sent out across the UK. As reported on the Register and the BBC (here and here), one student customer has objected publicly about being labelled an Amy Winehouse fan, as the letter he received alleged that a track by the pop star was found to be linked to his internet account and he complained that he wasn't even a fan of her music." [IPKitten]

Would The Entertainment Industry Follow A Three Strikes Rule Itself?
"The entertainment industry has been increasingly pressuring ISPs to be copyright cops. The "three strikes" approach being pushed in France, the UK, Australia and possibly Canada is one of the more extreme attempts which would have unauthorized file sharers kicked off the internet entirely. Cory Doctorow asks if such companies would accept their own rule with a three-strikes-and-you're-out policy for sending out erroneous copyright notices -- meaning that they lose their own access for sending out three bogus takedown notices. Given that organizations like the RIAA and MPAA have sent takedown notices to laser printers and believe that providing proof of infringement is too hard, why not cut them off from the internet too after three questionable takedowns? Doctorow's proposal is admittedly Swiftian; aside from being entertaining, it highlights the ridiculousness of the whole three-strikes-and-you're-off-the-internet idea. If the entertainment industry wants ISPs to impose a three strikes rule for improper usage, they shouldn't mind being held to the same standard." [TechDirt]

The UK Acts Against File-Sharing Piracy 07.24.2008
"Today, the Financial Times reported a significant development in the fight against online copyright piracy. The U.K. is reportedly ready to announce an agreement between copyright owners and ISPs under which UK ISPs will agree to work to achieve "a 'significant reduction'" in illegal file-sharing. As a first step, the proposal would have ISPs send warning letters to 1,000 prolific illegal downloader per week during the three-month trial period. If that fails to significantly reduce illegal file-sharing, other alternatives would be considered, including a variation of the graduated-response/three-strikes proposal that would eventually disconnect Internet access services of persons who ignore repeated warnings or--of course--another European media levy, this time on internet-access services.

Personally, I hope that the U.K. opts for the graduated-response option. I realize that the usual "public-interest" groups say that disconnecting infringing users after repeated warnings is unfair, but, seriously, as compared to what? Forcing copyright owners to incur thousands of dollars filing John Doe lawsuits that must then be recovered from the families of teenagers and students unless copyright enforcement is to become a money-loosing proposition? Putting college students in jail? Those are the options available to deter illegal file-sharing under existing U.S. law. Are these options honestly less punitive or more enlightened than a graduated-response program? And by the way, libraries also provide access to knowledge, but if you don't follow their rules, they will throw you out and revoke your borrowing privileges. Is that unfair?" [IPCentral]

The internet is not free
"The result of the court action between Google and Viacom is that YouTube will need to police the material that people upload. I used to teach a course to staff at King's College London on copyright law, and one of the main pieces of advice I gave was that contrary to popular belief, content on the internet is not free. Yes, you can access certain information online, but this does not mean that is legal to upload or download it, as the case may be.

It therefore came as no surprise that a US district court judge ruled in favour of Viacom's demands to see who has been uploading their video content on YouTube. Call it payback time. This is part of a $1bn case which Viacom has undertaken to establish whether it is an infringement for YouTube to host copyright material on their website without permission." [Guardian]

How long should music copyright be? | New Music Strategies
"This one’s easy. I’ve been saying this for a while now, and it never fails to get me into an animated discussion. I’ve listened to all the arguments, read all the reports, heard convincing arguments about copyright extension and for complete overhaul of the copyright system.

And I’ve come to the following conclusion: The ideal term of both recording rights and composer’s rights is five years. That’s right: Five. Not 95. Not 75. Not 50 or 25. Five. That number again: 5." [NewMusicStrategies]