Music News Bulletin - 30/01/09

Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) appoints Chairman and Vice Chairs
"The Board meeting of the international independent music association WIN at Midem this year marked the completion of AlisonWenham’s two-years of inaugural Presidency, which has seen this grouping extend its membership to labels and independent music trade associations in 25 countries across all continents, while providing collective impetus for the formation of Merlin (www.merlinnetwork.org) to work with the independent sector in commercial exploitation of their copyrights.

The WIN Board unanimously requested Wenham to continue to lead the organisation for the next two years. In line with firmer constitutional proposals relating to structure and funding of WIN, which were also agreed, the organisation reserved the Presidency as a titular position for a possible future appointment and Wenham was voted Chairman. The widening business and geographical focus of WIN was recognised with the appointment of four Vice Chairmen: David Vodicka, Chairman of Australian Independent Records (AIR); Mark Chung, Chairman of German independents trade body VUT; Portia Sabin, representing the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM); and Duncan McKie, President and CEO Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA)." [RecordOfTheDay]

BPI not impressed with IP Minister’s comments
"Needless to say really, record label trade body the BPI wasn't thrilled by those previously reported comments made by the UK's Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy and printed in The Times. As previously reported, Lammy told the paper that he didn't think the government could introduce laws to force ISPs to cut off persistent file sharers - as some have suggested should happen - because such measures would be wrapped up in legal problems.

But perhaps more worryingly for those who advocate new laws to force net firms to take a more proactive role in policing online piracy, he implied he wasn't completely convinced about the need for legislation to combat filesharing, telling the paper: "We can't have a system where we're talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms. People can rent a room in an hotel and leave with a bar of soap - there's a big difference between leaving with a bar of soap and leaving with the television"." [CMUDaily]

WIN reappoint Wenham to top job
"Elsewhere in trade body news, the globally focused body for the indie label sector, the World Independent Network, has confirmed that Alison Wenham, boss of the UK's Association Of Independent Music, will continue to head up the worldwide indie body too. She was re-elected into the top job at a meeting at MIDEM, though her job title will change from President to Chairman because of plans to appoint a titular President to act as a spokesperson for the body." [CMUDaily]

Meeting in the Commons to discuss copyright term
"A meeting organised by the all important Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group and recording royalty body PPL next Monday will discuss all things copyright extension. The meeting will take place in the House Of Commons, though will centre more on the progress of legislation at a European level regarding increasing the European recordings copyright term from the current fifty years to something nearer the 95 year term enjoyed by record labels in the US." [CMUDaily]

More from the Tenenbaum Case - The last big P2P lawsuit squabble
"The Recording Industry Association Of America is appealing the judge's ruling regarding the webcasting of that previously reported P2P court case against Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum. As previously reported, the Havard law professor advising Tenenbaum, Charles Nesson, requested that the court case - what could be one of the last RIAA P2P lawsuits against an individual file sharer given the trade body's recent change of strategy - be webcast on the internet, arguing that the case was of great interest to the net community and it should be made public in a way they are comfortable with. Somewhat surprisingly, Judge Nancy Gertner agreed.

The RIAA don't want the case to be webcast to the world, possibly because, while US copyright law is generally on their side when it comes to illegal file sharing, all sorts of tricky and, for the record industry, tedious technicalities can come up when cases go to court. Such technicalities being aired over the web could look bad for the record industry." [CMUDaily]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 16/01/09

MA judge OKs streaming of music-swapping hearing
"A federal judge on Wednesday authorized the first online streaming of oral arguments in a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in a copyright infringement lawsuit that pits a Boston University graduate student against the music recording industry.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner restricted the live streaming to a Jan. 22 hearing, saying she will decide later whether to make other proceedings in the case, set for March 30 trial, available online.
The lawsuit is one of a series filed by the Recording Industry Association of America since 2003 against about 35,000 people who allegedly swapped songs online. Most of those sued are college students, and many have defaulted or settled for amounts between $3,000 and $10,000, often without legal counsel." [Google]

DtecNet, the anti-piracy outfit replacing MediaSentry as the RIAA’s chief evidence collector, also operates in several other countries. The Danish company is working for the BPI in Britain in support of its drive to force a “3 strikes” regime, and helping in Australian investigations against alleged pirates. We take a closer look.
"Earlier this month it was confirmed that the RIAA was dumping its anti-piracy partner, MediaSentry. After five years of legal action and mass lawsuits it decided its relationship with the notorious tracking company should come to an end. Some commentators believed that this signaled the end of the RIAA’s legal action against file-sharers, but that is definitely not the case.

The RIAA will now be working with DtecNet, a Danish anti-piracy tracking company which employs largely the same techniques as MediaSentry, but the aims will be slightly different in the majority of cases. The new tactic for the IFPI-headed music industry is to target ISPs instead, lobbying governments to implement the dreaded “3 strikes” or “graduated response” scheme reported so often in recent months." [TorrentFreak]

Universal digital chief on iTunes, DRM, and Android
"Rio Caraeff didn't come up in the music business scouring nightclubs and honkey tonks for talented new acts. Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group's eLabs, has a background in mobile technology and software. Nonetheless, he just might be the prototype for the label exec of the future.

Unlike more traditional industry suits, Caraeff doesn't believe litigation is the answer to piracy. He doesn't believe in copy-protection software. He doesn't believe that the music industry needs to find a strong competitor to Apple to flourish. What he does believe in nurturing new revenue streams and pruning 10-click online music shopping to one. He believes in the power of mobile devices to sell music (he says Google's cell phone, Android, is proving to be a powerful music-buying tool)." [CNet]

Longer copyrights for songs would deal a blow to our cultural heritage
"If Charlie McCreevy, the European commissioner for the internal market, has his way, the copyright on music will be extended from 50 to 95 years, making the Beatles' ‘Yesterday' and their other early hits ‘free' not in around six years' time but 50 or more years from now.

McCreevy's proposed directive, on which the European Parliament's legal affairs committee will vote in February, pleases the recording industry, which has long lobbied for it, but it has provoked fierce criticism from economists and lawyers. Their criticism is not surprising, for the industry's arguments are flimsy. The Commission has nonetheless been persuaded, aided probably by the idea of a ‘musicians' fund', which would receive 20% of the revenue from selling old recordings.
But most economists argue that a ten-year term should be enough to ‘incentivise' the creative muse. And, for those interested in Europe's culture, the downside of long protection would be that a large part of our heritage would be consigned to a commercial vacuum, with numerous works orphaned because their authors cannot readily be located.

The European Commission acknowledges the problem in the directive's ‘use it or lose it' clause. But this is so poorly drafted it would have little practical effect." [EuropeanVoice]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 05/01/09

Les producteurs belges contre les sites illégaux
"Les producteurs belges de musique, de films et de jeux vidéo, représentés par la Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), demandent mardi, dans un communiqué, que les sites illégaux de téléchargement soient bloqués « le plus rapidement possible » par les fournisseurs belges d'accès à internet.

Selon la BEA, les auteurs, les artistes mais aussi les consommateurs sont victimes de ces sites. Dans son édition de janvier 2009, Test-Achats passe au crible un certain nombre de sites musicaux qui proposent le téléchargement payant." [LeSoir]

Spanish Web Users Angry At Anti-P2P Campaign
"Spain's Association of Internet Users (AI) has demanded that the culture ministry cancel a national campaign against P2P file-sharing and illegal downloads called "If you are legal, you're legal." The adjective 'legal' in Spanish can also mean 'okay' or 'good' when applied to a person.
According to an AI statement, the campaign "recklessly offers information that lacks all legal basis, with the exclusive aim of re-educating public opinion."

The campaign launched in late November on TV, radio and in the press. It shows people downloading, with comments from some who defend legal or paid downloads, and criticises those who download illegally, without paying. The campaign also specifically criticises P2P file-sharing." [Billboard]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 31/12/08

RIAA graduated response plan: Q&A with Cary Sherman December 21, 2008
"On Friday, major news broke: the RIAA would (largely) abandon its widespread lawsuit campaign against individuals in favor of a "graduated response" partnership with ISPs. The outlines are clear enough—the RIAA will identify infringers, pass that information on to ISPs, who will notify (and eventually sanction) users without turning personal information over to the music industry.

But details, in some cases hugely important details, remained unclear. Chief among these was the lack of any talk about an oversight or appeals process for users who want to contest the RIAA's claims in some way. We checked in with EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann, one of the leading non-industry voices on these issues; he suggested five potential "gotchas" that need to be scrutinized as the plan goes forward." [ArsTechnica]

No more lawsuits: ISPs to work with RIAA, cut off P2P users December 19, 2008
"In a stunning turn of events, the US music industry has ceased its long-time litigation strategy of suing individual P2P file-swappers. Instead, with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo acting as a broker, the RIAA has signed voluntary "graduated response" agreements with major Internet service providers. Those currently on the receiving end of an RIAA lawsuit, though, will have to see it through to the (very) bitter end.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) broke the story, and Ars has confirmed all details given in the piece." [ArsTechnica]

ISP to RIAA: Pay up or do your own dirty work December 22nd, 2008
"I love stories of the little guy going head-to-head with the big guys, especially when the big guy looks like a fool in the end.

CNET’s Greg Sandoval tells the story of a small Internet Service Provider in Louisiana whose owner has refused to play ball with the Recording Industry Association of America - at least on the RIAA’s terms. Last week, the RIAA announced that it was going to shift strategies to fight piracy. Instead of filing mass lawsuits, the RIAA said it is partnering with ISPs to identify, serve notice and potentially disconnect file-sharers." [ZDNet]

RIAA drops mass lawsuits, recruits ISPs to crack the whip December 19th, 2008
"The headlines across the blogosphere make it sound like the Recording Industry Association of America has thrown in the towel and decided to stop going after music pirates on the Internet. That’s not exactly the case.

Instead, the RIAA is teaming up with Internet Service Providers to identify and, potentially, blacklist offenders from obtaining an Internet connection in the future. That keeps the RIAA from having to subpoena the ISPs for user information and instead puts the ISP into the hot seat to crack the whip on the customer. OK, maybe blacklisting would be an extreme, last resort after repeated warnings - but I could see it headed that way." [ZDNet]

Update on Capitol Records v. Thomas: Motion to Certify an Appeal Denied; Petition for an Extraordinary Writ May Follow 12.31.2008
"Earlier this fall, the Court adjudicating Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas, vacated a $222,000 jury verdict because the Court found it had erred by instructing the jury that U.S. law provides a "making-available right." I have discussed the profound and numerous flaws in that ruling here (http://pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/2008/pop15.16thomasmaright.pdf). I discussed the downright disturbing flaws in Section K of that ruling, (which contains the Court's associated advisory opinion on copyright reform), here (http://pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/2008/pop15.18thomasreform.pdf).

After the ruling, the Thomas Plaintiffs did just what they should have: They filed a motion to certify the Court's making-available-right ruling for an interlocutory appeal. Thomas is an ideal case for an interlocutory appeal: the recent self-reversal in Thomas would require the parties to re-try the entire case because the Court used internally inconsistent reasoning to adopt a minority position on a pure question of law that admittedly causes the United States to violate nine international agreements. Stronger grounds for an interlocutory appeal are scarcely conceivable." [IPCentral]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 30/12/08

Choruss: legal file sharing on campus 11th December 2008
"The plan to provide US students with compulsory flat-fee music finally has a name, it emerged this week. Choruss LLC will provide participating universities with a replacement for their current subscription services such as Rhapsody, and has the backing of the the EFF and the tacit support of the RIAA. That alone indicates the magnitude of the initiative. When have those two lobbying groups ever agreed on music policy?

This, the worst kept secret in the music business, leaked out in April, when Jim Griffin confirmed he had been engaged by Warner Music to seek deals that would help end the litigation strategy against students, and replace it with a steady pool of income for the rights holders. (Griffin has spent a decade campaigning to "monetize the anarchy" of digital music - see our 2004 interview)." [TheRegister]

Has Boston University Left Its Safe Harbor and Become Liable for Students' Piracy? 12. 2.2008
"Defenders of the most egregious, blatant forms of online copyright piracy often suffer from what could be called Wile-E.-Coyote syndrome: They can become so fixated on throttling the roadrunner of copyright protection that they fail to notice that they have just run off a cliff and begun plunging downward.

For example, a federal judge has reportedly held that Boston University (BU) is such an incompetent internet-access provider that it cannot disclose the identities of allegedly infringing users of its network. In London-Sire Records, Inc. v. Does 1-4, Judge Gertner's recent order granted BU's "Motion to Quash" because "[BU] has adequately demonstrated that it is not able to identify the alleged infringers with a reasonable degree of technical certainty."

Continue reading Has Boston University Left Its Safe Harbor and Become Liable for Students' Piracy? . . ."

New Op-Ed December 30, 2008
"Rick Carnes and I co-wrote an op-ed on ISP music licensing (as exemplified by the Choruss operation) for Content Agenda that might be of interest.

http://www.contentagenda.com/article/CA6625534.html?industryid=45173t

Coolfer published a couple comments on the op-ed. Let it be known that I dig Glenn and Coolfer and I'm just clarifying a couple things he mentioned (also just speaking for myself here and not for my co-author).

One of the points we made is that an unlimited download service at below market rates undermines the investment that legitimate services have spent and committed. (I refuse to use "all you can eat" to describe these services as that phrase grates on me as comparing music to, let's say, a potato, which I won't do.) The point (which I made in more detail in a recent article for the ABA) is that users are already paying for the very Internet connection they use to buy their music from legitimate services. If you tell them that they only need to pay $5 a month more for all the music they want from what were once illegal "services"--well, I think you see where that goes. The idea seems to be that students could get rid of their Rhapsody accounts, which appears to make EFF very happy." [MusicTechPolicy]

Don't Make Kids Online Crooks December 29, 2008 Monday
"Seventy-five years ago, Prohibition ended. Just 13 years after launching an extraordinary experiment in social reform, the nation recognized that the battle against "intoxicating liquors" had failed. Organized crime had exploded. Civil rights had been weakened. And an enormous number of ordinary Americans had become "criminals" as they found ways to evade, and profit from the evasion of, this hopeless law.

We're about a decade into our own hopeless war of prohibition, this one against "peer-to-peer piracy." The copyright industry has used every legal means within its reach (and some that may not be so legal) to stop Internet "pirates" from "sharing" copyrighted content without permission. These "copyright wars"--what the late Jack Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Association of America, called his own "terrorist war" in which apparently the "terrorists" are our kids--have consumed an ever growing amount of legal resources. The Recording Industry Association of America alone has sued tens of thousands of individuals. These suits allege millions of dollars in damages. And schools across the nation have adopted strict policies to block activity that the Supreme Court in 2005 declared presumptively illegal." [ContentAgenda]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 19/12/08

RIAA to end its “Sue The World” policy
“In a week dominated by the Leonard Cohen classic, can I just say "hallelujah". A year that began with the news all four majors had ended their kamikaze love affair with digital rights management, is ending with the news that the Recording Industry Association Of America is axing its other self-defeating, unhelpful, surely-record-company-execs-cant-be-this-dumb policy of suing individual music fans over their use of P2P file sharing technology to acquire or share unlicensed music.

From the word go the RIAA has been at the forefront of the litigious approach to tackling the piracy threat of the internet, which was good news for lawyers, but bad news for pretty much everyone else, not least the record companies who had to foot the bill for the legal campaign that was destined to fail from the word go, and which destroyed the already sagging reputation of the record industry at a time when it needed public and consumer support, partly because the labels were clearly going to have to develop direct customer relationships moving forward, and partly because it needed enough goodwill to fight for a re-evaluation of copyright systems.
The original strategy was to sue any company making P2P networking possible. But it soon became clear that suing Napster, Grokster, Kazaa et al was not effective because, even when the US courts eventually started to find in the labels' favour, the kids had always transferred their loyalties to newer P2P systems by the time older ones had been sued out of business.” [CMUDaily]

Culture announced an imminent "unpopular" measure against piracy
“Molina says that EU ministers have in their agenda actions against practices "illegitimate"

Today, Cesar Antonio Molina, the Spanish Culture Minister, announced that "not too late" there will be legislation, "which is likely to be unpopular" to regulate Internet piracy, a practice that has branded as "illegitimate" during the ‘Breakfast Briefing Europe Press’ and that, in his view, affects the whole culture.

Asked about the possibility of blinding access to Internet pirates repeat, Molina has stated that they are "exploring ways" and that "not too late there will be a regulation" this whole issue. Probably it’ll be a regulation that will be very unpopular, but what is unpopular, dilapidated and a disaster is that thousands of jobs that gives the culture will disappear by this illegal action. That can’t be allowed, he said.

Also, Molinas says that from the Ministry of Culture is struggling and acting very well" against piracy since "many fronts" and that at European ministers meetings is a "reiterative theme”, with the development of new laws and new forms of organization, to prevent piracy, "a termite that is destroying entire network of industry, to acquire such extreme shades."” [UFI]

Copyright cop wedding crashers fined by Spanish court
“The next time you have a wedding, make sure your videographer isn't a secret spy for the RIAA or similar copyright group. This real-life scenario happened to a couple in Spain thanks to the efforts of the Spanish General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), a rights group for musicians and artists. But although the group managed to bust the reception venue for copyright violations, SGAE itself has been fined for violating the privacy of the newlyweds.

The incident originally took place back in 2005, when SGAE snuck a private detective into the wedding reception acting as a cameraman. The group had suspected the venue—La Doma restaurant near Seville, Spain—for using music without paying royalties. Predictably, this series of events have horrified privacy advocates who argue that the couple's privacy was breached. As noted by The Sunday Times, however, the issue has come to light recently because SGAE has increased its efforts to catch venues that are avoiding royalty payments, and another, similar case is about to go to court.” [ArsTechnica]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 02/12/08

Songbeat: Making music piracy easier than ever? 02/12/08
"While illegal P2P file-sharing is still seen as the biggest threat to the music industry, other forms of online piracy are coming up on the inside. Take a look at the new version of an application called Songbeat, for example." [MusicAlly]

SongBeat: The New Music Piracy Tool That Will End Up Closing Soon Enough! December 2nd, 2008
"In the current climate P2P and Bittorrent file sharing isnt seen as illegal in all countries, but overall it has to be the biggest threat on the music industry because of its nature.

Songbeat has launched a new version of their service which seems to be taking piracy to a new level." [RouteNote]

Songbeat Makes Searching For Music Online Really Simple December 1, 2008
"There’s a new version of Songbeat, a simple but powerful desktop application for discovering music online, and I like it. When it was first released earlier this year, the client only enabled you to search for music online using Seeqpod, but the updated version lets you search more engines at once and also lets you easily play, export and download songs." [TechCrunch]

US Public Affairs - 30/11/08

In Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Case, "Distribution" Does Not Mean "Making Available"

"At trial, the plaintiffs sought to prove that the defendant, a single mother in Duluth, had willfully infringed 24 of the plaintiffs' recordings by downloading and distributing them via the peer-to-peer program Kazaa. Finding that the defendant had infringed, the jury awarded the plaintiffs statutory damages of $9,250 per song, for a total of $222,000. The defendant filed a motion for a new trial or, in the alternative, for remittitur, calling for a reduction of excessive damages; the plaintiffs filed an unopposed motion to amend judgment, seeking an injunction. Instead, the court elected sua sponte to address the possibility of granting a new trial because of an incorrect jury instruction." [CyberLaw]

Music Sampling Does Not Infringe on Copyright, But…

"The German Supreme Court (BGH) clarified last week that sampling does not infringe on copyright in the work from which samples were taken for the purpose of creating a new work. There is a catch hiding in the details, though. According to the official press release (in German), the highest judicial authority in Germany ruled that a certain statutory exception principally covered instances of sampling. The relevant exception is anchored in section 24 to the German copyright act, known as “free use” (freie Benutzung). Free use is not fair use, but you can think about it as an extreme version of the transformativeness element familiar from the U.S. fair use analysis. Accordingly, the new work must transform the work of which elements it uses into something independent and wholly different. While using the copyrighted elements taken from the prior work, such use should be so transformative that the first work becomes hardly recognizable as the source." [CyberLaw]

Digital Copyright Issues and the Ubiquitous iPod

"The advent of new technologies has resulted in Copyright law having to adapt to new situations and infringements. These technologies, including music formats that contain compression, as well as the reduction in cost and size of hard drives has created significant new challenges and markets for digital content. Even in the short life of the iPod, it has gone from a music device, to a multimedia device. This article examines some of the issues and case law that is relevant to the content revolution created by the iPod." [SSRN]

The Dangers of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Much Ado about Nothing?

"In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a landmark piece of legislation aimed at protecting copyright holders from those who might manufacture or traffic technology capable of allowing users to evade piracy protections on the underlying work. At its core, the DMCA flatly prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures in order to gain access to copyrighted works, with no safety valve for any traditionally protected uses. While hailed as a victory by the software and entertainment industries, the academic and scientific communities have been far less enthusiastic. The DMCA's goal of combating piracy is a noble one, but lurking is the danger that it comes at the expense of public access to protected works and future innovation. Despite America's long history of fair use protections in copyright law, many commentators have warned that consumers now find themselves unable to do many of the same things with copyrighted works that they previously could - anyone who might sell them the technology to access a protected work and enable fair use would find themselves in violation of the DMCA. Worse, early litigation dramatically expanded the definition of what constitutes a technological protection measure deserving of the law's respect. As the definition broadened, scholars feared that even modest innovations - ones that would never qualify for patent protection under existing law - could wind up receiving perpetual patent-like protection through the backdoor of the DMCA. Despite the experts' dire predictions, however, subsequent common law interpretation of the DMCA has reigned in many of its potential dangers - the judiciary's focus is rightly on the need to balance innovators' interests with the equally important goals of public access and enhancing overall social welfare. Nonetheless, coherent and uniform protection of fair use under the DMCA is likely best achieved through Congressional action." [SSRN]

Why Emerging Business Models and Not Copyright Law are the Key to Monetising Content Online

"The multimedia Internet is here to stay. Rich media - including videos, music, podcasts, and flash animation - is already a key feature of the Internet experience, and will only grow in diversity and importance. As Internet users increasingly crave - and technology increasingly enables - multimedia content delivered on demand over broadband connections, the number of songs, videos, and other media online will increase exponentially to feed the demand. As online media consumption increases, so will expectations for its capacity to generate revenue for content owners and creators. Analysts boldly predict a bright future for the entertainment industries, especially in Asia, with broadband Internet cited as a key growth driver. Yet, to date, the vast majority of music and video acquired or consumed online is free and uncompensated. Despite the rising expectations for monetizing content on the Web, no clear sustainable, scalable model for monetizing content has emerged that compares to the level of revenues copyright owners have enjoyed in the "physical" (as opposed to online) market." [SSRN]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 28/11/08

Monopoly of collecting societies' activities: infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic and Hungary
"The European Commission has decided to send reasoned opinions to the Czech Republic and Hungary on the grounds of obstacles to the freedom of establishment and to the freedom to provide services as a result of the monopolies granted to national rights management companies.

Czech and Hungarian laws provide that a single collecting society may be authorised to operate in their respective countries for each type of right and work. This monopoly granted to national companies bans collecting societies set up in other Member States from undertaking any form of activity and denies them the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services. The Commission has doubts as to the justification of those national measures in the light of their negative effects on two of the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the EC Treaty." [Europa]

The latest information on infringement proceedings concerning all Member States is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/index_en.htm

EMI Music CEO Applauds Govt Action On ISPs
"EMI Music CEO Elio Leoni-Sceti has spoken of his support for the U.K. government's and others' attempts to get ISPs to tackle illegal file-sharing, while admitting the music industry failed to adapt to changes in consumer behavior. Leoni-Sceti appeared at U.K. media/telecoms regulator Ofcom's Next Generation Net Generation conference in London. Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy was also among the business leaders at the conference.

The EMI Music CEO appeared on a panel, "Global Content Economy - Challenges for Business," alongside executives including Telefonica Europe CEO Ronan Dunne, Nikesh Arora, president EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) operations, Google, and Roma Khanna, president, global networks & digital initiatives at NBC Universal. Pledging to transform EMI into a "consumer-focused music company," Leoni-Sceti commented: "The new EMI wants to be the most consumer-led, innovative music company in the world - that means listening to our consumers and putting the consumer experience at the heart of our business strategy."A consultation process was recently concluded by the U.K. government, following this summer's brokering of a Memorandum of Understanding between the music industry and ISPs. Part of the agreement includes a pledge by ISPs to write letters to customers who are involved in illegal peer-to-peer activity." [BillBoard] [CMUDaily]

Artists send video message to PM over copyright term
"More from the campaign to persuade Gordon Brown to increase the recorded music copyright term now - and this time the protests have been presented in video form. As much much previously reported, record labels and recording artists have been lobbying the government regarding extending the recording copyright from 50 to 95 years for ages now; the former because the legendary recordings of the rock n roll era are about to come out of copyright; the latter because there is a whole generation of session musicians who will soon start to lose the royalty payments that stem from recordings they worked on in the sixties, which for some are a bulk of their earnings. " [CMUDaily]

EURO LICENSING: THE HARD ROAD AHEAD
"There is no 'us' and 'them' any longer. With nearly 50% of all music consumed by Europeans classified as international repertoire and the rest considered to be essential local music preserving the cultural identities of each European Union (EU) nation, the troubled state of licensing digital publishing rights is not, as some said a few years back, 'a European problem.' After intervention by the European Commission (EC), the current structures for licensing these rights are seen by some to be as volatile as the financial markets. How everyone responds to the situation will inevitably impact the future of recorded music, music publishing, digital and mobile music services and broadcasting -- and everyone else in the creator-to-consumer chain of distribution. Considering the importance of intellectual property as a significant contributor to worldwide economies, figuring out solutions during this economic crisis, in the midst of the physical-to-digital music transition, becomes even more essential.

Music Confidential reached out to senior executives and lawyers throughout Europe to shed some light, and perhaps a bit of insight, on problems and possible solutions following the EC's mandate to restructure rights and operating procedures among the network of collecting societies. Despite an extraordinary amount of angst and concern among the interested parties, there are opportunities and some optimism to report." [MusicConfidential]

Conference calls on WIPO to Boost Support for Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights
"A conference on the future evolution of collective management of copyright and related rights in Europe has called on WIPO to step up efforts to help stakeholders address the emerging challenges facing collective management. Participants urged WIPO to strengthen the copyright infrastructure so as to support creative industries and promote social, economic and cultural development.

The Conference on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights in Europe, held in Brussels from November 24 to 25, 2008, was organized by WIPO in association with the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers (GESAC) and in cooperation with the Association of European Performers’ Organisations (AEPO-ARTIS), and the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC)." [WIPO]

The European IP market needs a revolution
"The European R&D and patenting world treat intellectual property as a legal right and nothing else. Most companies and investors want that attitude to change. If it does, a number of exciting possibilities can begin to emerge.What Europe needs most is intermediaries from outside the law
A recent EPO survey revealed that 60% of European companies do not care if the inventions and technologies they find and use are patented or not (which surely helps explain the modest levels of patent registrations in many EU countries!). At the same time, however, countless European surveys have revealed that technological innovation is the priority for the EU's institutions, as well as national and regional governments, industrial associations and others; and that European companies are very keen to improve technological innovation (including R&D outsourcing) as key weapon in the global competition race.
These conflicting findings tell us a few key things about the type of IP market Europe should adopt, given that improving its existing one is an official target, as set out by EU leaders in the Lisbon Agreement."

The complete article (and the accompanying charts) in .pdf format is saved on the shared file (in the Monitoring section). A text version can be read on:
http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:3BkUjCSMfg8J:www.wipo.int/sme/en/best_practices/pdf/european_ip_market.pdf+WIPO+European+IP+Market+needs+a+revolution&hl=nl&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=be [WIPO]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 20/11/08

How to destroy the music business 20th November 2008
"Put yourself in these hypothetical shoes for a moment. My goal is to make as much money as possible by doing as little work as possible. I have no creative talent except for generating and recycling marketing buzzwords. I have no technical knowledge or ability - but I can get my head around a Twitter feed. It doesn't sound promising, but you'll want in, I promise.

Now let's imagine a business that can achieve our goals. The natural place to start this business is on the internet - where one can harness the labour of millions of people and pay them sod all for their work. Under the smokescreen of "collective intelligence" or harnessing "the wisdom of the crowd", we can keep our supply costs at zero. And if we can keep reminding these rubes that "power lies at the edge of the network" or "in the Long Tail", they'll produce lots of stuff for us for nothing, without complaining." [TheRegister]

TechDirt's Backfiring Defense of the Thomas Decision--and the "Effective Freedom" of Totalitarian Terror (Part II) 11.21.2008
"Having dealt with Mr. Masnick's self-immolating attack on my analysis of Thomas, I must now even more emphatically reject Mr. Masnick's absurd claim that he "proved" that my paper on Free Culture mischaracterized the views that Professor Lawrence Lessig expressed in Code, a deplorable book advocating government control of the Internet and lawsuits against programmers. Frankly, mischaracterizing Lessig is pointless: quoting him suffices. Nevertheless, Mr. Masnick claimed, "The worst was when a variety of others pointed out Sydnor's out of context comments [sic] and put them back into context--and Sydnor still stood by the paper, refusing to admit he took a single comment out of content."

Nonsense: I stand by my paper because Mr. Masnick and "others" failed to quibble successfully even about details wholly tangential to its main argument. As Mr. Masnick's post indicates, his quibbles claimed that I had unfairly portrayed Lessig as a "communist sympathizer."" [IPCentral]

Asinine lawsuit from French music interests targets Sourceforge Nov 15th 2008
"Torrent Freak reported yesterday that the SPFF -- think of it as the French RIAA -- filed lawsuits against the developers of P2P clients Vuze, Limewire, and Morpheus. There is also a fourth target, and I'll get to that particular bit of insanity later.

The SPFF's beef is with the fact that these programs don't provide a system to block copyright protected materials from being shared. Because the programs don't prevent files from being shared, the SPFF argues that the programs are complicit in the act itself." [DownloadSquad]

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 - 14/11/08

Feargal Sharkey: The problem of illegal file-sharing has become a global one but the way governments go about tackling it changes from country to country.
"In the UK, internet service providers (ISPs) have recently voluntarily agreed to engage and educate their customers about file-sharing.
Virgin Media is one of the most recent ISPs to write to customers whose net connection may have been used to download unlicensed content.
However, coming up with a logical and viable solution is proving difficult because of the fast pace of technological change." [BBC]

The BPI is preparing a membership briefing paper after label representatives aired concerns that the financial insecurity surrounding EUK is creating worry among the independent community during the all-important quarter four period.
"Despite EUK’s assurances that it has sufficient cash flow to maintain all its obligations throughout the final quarter, questions have remained over the limited bargaining power independent labels wield with EUK and the increased risk and financial exposure the situation has led to among smaller businesses.

BPI director of independent member services Julian Wall says that “there is a heightened level of concern at the moment amongst a spread of the independent BPI member labels”." [MusicWeek]

NAPSTER JUDGE CALLS FOR ALL-INTEREST COPYRIGHT BODY
"The judge who oversaw the original copyright infringement case against Napster, back in the days when Napster was a P2P network and enemy number one in the record industry, has said he thinks there should be a new copyright body in the US made up of representatives of all interested parties, including the public, to issue blanket licences, negotiate and set standard royalties and adopt rules and regulations to help enforce content owner's rights." [CMUDaily]

DUTCH LIVE MUSIC CONFERENCE TO PRECEDE MIDEM
"Another music industry event for your diaries, this one just before the customary January jolly for record label execs that is Midem. EuroSonic Noorderslag will take place in the Dutch city of Groningen and will have a live music focus, with the usual mix of keynotes and panel discussions plus showcases a plenty giving a platform for new bands and, in particular, artists from Belgium. It all takes place from 15-17 Jan." [CMUDaily]

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]

Music News Bulletin - 16/10/08

Behind the music: How would you like your music served? October 16 2008
"Do you want to download it on your phone? Would you pay? Do you hate ads? I really want to know. Recently, I was sent an analysis of Radiohead's In Rainbows pay-what-you-like venture and Nine Inch Nails' digital giveaway of their album The Slip – including an account of how they fared against Torrent websites such as Pirate Bay. It was written by Will Page, chief economist for MCPS-PRS, with the help of Eric Garland who runs BigChampagne – a company that measures legal and illegal downloading – so it was quite heavy reading.

The odd thing about In Rainbows was that, even though people could have got the album legally for "almost" free, between October 10 (the date it was released on the band's website) and November 3 2007, it was still downloaded from Torrent websites to the tune of 2.3m downloads. Even though Radiohead have hesitated to give specific figures relating to the success of their venture, outsiders would say that those Torrent downloads far exceed the downloads from the band's official site. In fact, on October 10 alone, almost 400,000 people took the album from Torrents."[Guardian]

Behind the music, In the City October 10 2008
"Feargal Sharkey once said, and I'm paraphrasing: "When God handed out bullshitters, he gave an extra serving to the music business." I tend to agree with him, and at the In the City music conference this past weekend, there were a few of them lurking around.

In the City is a three-day event in Manchester, set up some years ago by Tony Wilson, where people from the music business have panel discussions during the day and spend the evenings checking out showcases by unsigned bands. This year the discussions focused on music's future in a digital world, and as is so often the case in this business, there were few artists present. But one panel centred on the rights of the people without whom the business wouldn't exist, as they discussed the launch of the Featured Artists' Coalition." [Guardian]

The Big Royalties Debate October 8th, 2008
"Congratulations! You have recorded a kick-ass song and a major label wants to sign it and distribute it to a worldwide audience. The trouble is, just how much will you be rewarded for your years of hard work?

The fact is that people don’t buy singles on CD or Vinyl for £3.99 anymore – they pay £0.99 (if you are lucky) for a download, so the record companies have a lot less coming to them (read: a lot less to share with you). Sales have gone crazy with the advent of the digital revolution, but that is just the tip of the iceberg; there has been no set royalty rate agreed with music publishers and the RIAA. No wonder everything is such a mess!" [UKMusicJobs]

Digital music royalties for songwriters left unchanged October 2, 2008
"A sigh of relief could be heard in digital music land today as the federal Copyright Royalty Board left unchanged the rate for royalties paid to songwriters and publishers for CDs and digital downloads.

Today's ruling is the first time that the board formally set the digital download rate. Previously, because there was no formal rate for downloads, companies such as Apple had used the CD rate -- a 9.1-cent payment to the songwriter and/or publisher for every track sold through iTunes and other download stores. The board today also set a new rate of 24 cents for each ring tone, which had been independently negotiated." [LATimes]

Music News Bulletin - 19/09/08

Legal digital music is commercial suicide
"Opinion Lala, for those who don't know, is a free streaming music venture. Invested in by Warner Music group to the tune of $20m it streams about five million songs, but also offers 89 cent MP3 sales, and song rentals for 10 cents each. But why is almost nobody using their well-designed, expansive, free streaming service?" [TheRegister]

Best Buy snaffles Napster 15/09/08
"Napster's board has unanimously accepted a takeover bid from US retail behemoth Best Buy, worth $120m. Thus ends a bumpy four-year ride as an independent company. Like Frankenstein's monster, the reanimated Napster was constructed from the parts of formerly deceased music companies. Software vendor Roxio acquired the assets of the bankrupt rebel P2P outfit for just $5m in late 2002, and acquired the remains of Sony's unsuccessful music service PressPlay six months later. After the injection of electricity, and $20m, Napster went live five years ago this month." [TheRegister]

China's nonstop music machine: Baidu versus business
"Exclusive Baidu is renowned as China's glittering internet success story, and as the start-up that gave Google a bloody nose. It dominates the web in the world's second biggest economy with 70 per cent market share, and on Wall Street carries a market cap of almost $12bn. But Baidu's success comes at a price, for the legitimate music business, for the development of China and of its intellectual property (IP) law, and for any internet company wishing to do business in China." [TheRegister]

12th century thinking haunts digital music: On serfs, fanbois and bandits 17/09/08
"British digital music company 7Digital claimed a coup yesterday by becoming the first online music store to carry DRM-free catalog from the "Big Four" major record labels. Calling it a coup is misleading, however. It's really further confirmation that the top of the music business is run along feudal lines: closer to the 12th century than the 21st." [TheRegister]

Media standard backers attempt Apple-less solo run: 'We don't need no stinkin' iTunes' 17/09/08
"Computer and entertainment companies have announced a plan to standardise video and music files so that they play on any device. The ambitious plan has not been backed by the dominant force in digital downloads, Apple." [TheRegister]

Yahoo Search Adds Free Streaming 18/09/08
"As a part of its "play the web" mission, Yahoo has partnered with Rhapsody to offer free audio streams to Yahoo search results (read press release). Search results for some artists -- 10,00 at the time, reports Alley Insider -- will have an artist short cut at the top of the page. There are also links to lyrics (Yahoo has licensed lyrics from GraceNote), videos and albums." [Coolfer]

Research on Student Piracy Confirms Market Research and Anecdotes 17/09/08
"Now it's even more official. A professor at the University of Idaho has for years studied students and piracy. His findings echo what everybody else says. According to Woolley, who has been analyzing piracy among university students for several years, students aren’t even ashamed to admit illegally downloading music off the Internet. More than 95 percent of respondents in his research freely admitted to illegally downloading music, and some 63 percent admitted to copying a CD. Students indicate that they expect the trend to continue after they graduate and move into the workplace." [Coolfer]

MySpace Music Already Faces Legal Challenge 19/09/08
"MySpace Music hasn't even launched yet, but already it is facing anti-trust allegations from independent record labels. MySpace Music has the backing of its parent company, News Corp., as well as three of the four major labels, and the joint venture is being billed as the biggest music retail launch of the year. Together, the three major labels involved - Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG - account for 70 percent of the U.S. recorded music business. Meanwhile, smaller independent labels feel that they are being frozen out of selling their music on the site, which expects to become the MTV of the Internet. This has the indies crying foul." [FMQB]

A Conversation With Tunecore's Jeff Price
"Tunecore In this exclusive Hypebot interview, Ethan Bauley sits down with Jeff Price for a wide ranging conversation between two creative thinkers who know the industry. Price ran successfull indie label spinArt (Pixies, Apples In Stereo) before founding TuneCore which is democratizing digital distribution with its low cost flat fee model. Ethan Bauley is a musician and Director of Social Media Strategy at M80, a WPP agency. M80's sister company, m80 Music, is Dengue Fever's record label." Part One [HypeBot] Part Two [HypeBot] Part Three [HypeBot]

Music News Bulletin - 29/08/08

Now Hollywood is chasing UK downloaders: And getting the wrong guy 29/08/08
"Tiscali threatened to disconnect a customer for illegally downloading a TV show last week, after receiving a copyright infringement notice from a Hollywood studio. The only problem was the customer had quit the ISP months before the alleged transgression was made." [TheRegister]

Pandora prepares to join titsup.com club: Web radio outfit struggling to cover royalties 18/08/08
"This weekend saw a cry for help from personalised web radio outfit Pandora. It blubbed that music industry royalties are too high for it to survive on meagre web 2.0 advertising revenues. In a Washington Post confessional, the firm's founder and CEO Tim Westergren said: "We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This is like a last stand for webcasting."" [TheRegister]

World shocked (shocked!) by Legal P2P: Old news sinks in 13/08/09
"Why does the idea of legal P2P - something music fans have been clamouring for since the original Napster - still cause so much confusion? Britain is set to be the first country outside Korea where punters will be offered such services (as we revealed back in June), but the idea still seems too incredible for many journalists and bloggers to comprehend." [TheRegister]

EU Gives Green Light to Sony's Acquisition of BMG 16/08/09
"Yesterday the European Union approved Sony Music's acquisition of Bertelsmann's half of its Sony BMG joint venture. Last month Sony agreed to purchase BMG from Bertelsmann for around $900 million. The need for regulators' approval is a standard procedure and an especially potent topic in a recorded music market with such concentrated ownership. The EU approval effectively ends an appeal by indie trade group Impala that asked the EU to rescind its original approval of the merger. As I wrote last year, indie label sales in the US -- either because of or in spite of the merger -- fared well since the merger. From the time of the merger through October of 2007, a period of just over three years, Sony BMG's share of US album sales dropped to 21.76% from 29.78%. Indies rose to 20.55% from 17.58%." [Coolfer]

Another Case Against Long Tail Economics 15/08/09
"At Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, John A. Quelch has a post titled "Long-Tail Economics? Give Me Blockbusters!" Quelch is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Quelch explains the benefits and lures of blockbusters and offers five characteristics that define a blockbuster. His bottom line is this:
More risky than pursuing blockbusters is not to pursue them, to condemn your enterprise to a lifetime of slave labor harvesting the long tail of micro-opportunities rather than imagining, pursuing, and marketing the global solution to an important, widely shared problem." [Coolfer]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 27/08/08

Feds arrest man accused of posting unreleased Guns N' Roses songs August 27, 2008
"How he got his hands on the goods, we don't yet know. But today, police visited the home of a Culver City man and arrested him on suspicion of violating federal copyright law by posting nine previously unreleased Guns N' Roses songs on a website, Scott Glover reports in this L.A. Times story.

In June, the nine songs, from the band's upcoming album "Chinese Democracy," ended up on the website Antiquiet, which drew the attention of the feds. The site received so much traffic that it crashed.

Kevin Cogill, 27, told the FBI that he had posted the songs, according to an arrest affidavit. (In other stories, Cogill has been quoted as Kevin Skwerl, who, according to Rolling Stone, operates Antiquiet and used to work in the distribution office of Universal Music. The Recording Industry Assn. of America says it's the same person.) "Leak or no leak, I said that the only way the album would be a net success would be if the music was good enough to move units for years to come," he wrote at the time on his blog." [LATimes]

Co-regulation for “illicit P2P” August 5th, 2008
"The Department for Business (BERR) is consulting on a co-regulatory approach that it is considering adopting to tackle the use of peer-to-peer filesharing networks (P2P) for copyright infringement.

The six largest consumer broadband access providers by market share have agreed to a Code of Practice that would see them writing to customers instructing them to stop infringing activity when they receive a complaints from rightsholder bodies. They would also pass on copies of the rightsholder’s complaint. This plan has been criticised by both rightsholder and ISP sympathisers: the latter see “nasty-grams” as harming the ISP’s relationship with their customer, and conceding the dangerous principle that the ISP is responsible for their customers’ use of the network, while the copyright activists say that the scheme doesn’t go far enough, and unless the ISPs actually disconnect customers then users can just ignore it." [PublicAffairsLynx]

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]