QuickLinks - Copyright, trademarks and patents

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Issue no. 405 - 24 January 2010

• AU - Peer to Patent Australia recruits volunteer prior art searchers (Technology And Internet News)
  The Peer to Patent project has already earned its place in history. It was explicitly cited as inspiration for the open government initiative in the Obama administration, which recently released a comprehensive directive covering federal agencies. It's encouraging to hear that a new pilot has started in Australia and has gathered a small community of volunteer patent art seekers. You can check out the official site and its Wikipedia page.

Issue no. 404 - 21 December 2009

• FR - Fine for Google over French books (BBC)
  A Paris court has found Google guilty of copyright infringement in a ruling which could have ramifications for its plans to digitise the world's books. The search giant must pay 300,000 euros in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere. It was one of many to take Google to court for digitising its books without explicit permission. Google was also ordered to pay 10,000 euros a day until it removes extracts of the books from its database.

• UK - Digital economy bill: A punishing future (Guardian)
  The digital economy bill is misnamed. A more honest title for the legislation, recently introduced in the Lords, would be the copyright protection and punishment bill. It is less about creating the digital businesses of the 21st century than protecting the particular 20th century business models used in music and film. See also Digital Economy Bill: Industry disputes gov't claims.

• UK - The Digital Economy Bill - a first critical look (Open Rights)
  by Francis Davey. This is an explanation and analysis of the "copyright infringement provisions" of the Digital Economy Bill. These provisions are being popularly referred to as "three strikes" law directed against peer to peer file sharing. This is an extremely serious misconception. The bill gives enormous powers - exercisable with no Parliamentary oversight - to the Secretary of State to require the disconnection of individuals' internet access for any reason. Not only is there no requirement for such disconnections to relate to a number of "strikes" there is no need for disconnection to be linked to infringement of copyright. The Bill's proposal goes far beyond what we have seen attempted in other countries such as France and New Zealand. See also Explanatory notes prepared by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

• Virgin Media to roll out copyright infringement detection tool (Computing)
  Virgin Media is trialling a copyright infringement tool that could be built into the technology underpinning its upcoming music download subscription service. The Detica-supplied system is now being tested by the internet service provider (ISP) in what is claimed to be a UK first. According to Virgin, the trial is aimed at understanding how consumer behaviour is changing and will also support upcoming government requirements for measurement of copyright infringement levels on ISP' networks. see also Net piracy: The people vs the entertainment industry (New Scientist) and What does Detica detect? by Richard Clayton.

Issue no. 403 - 24 November 2009

• EU - European Commission puts challenges of books digitisation for authors, libraries and consumers on EU's agenda (RAPID)
  The European Commission has adopted a Communication on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy aiming to tackle the important cultural and legal challenges of mass-scale digitisation and dissemination of books, in particular of European library collections. The Communication was jointly drawn up by Commissioners Charlie McCreevy and Viviane Reding. Digital libraries such as Europeana will provide researchers and consumers across Europe with new ways to gain access to knowledge. For this, however, the EU will need to find a solution for orphan works, whose uncertain copyright status means they often cannot be digitised. Improving the distribution and availability of works for persons with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired, is another cornerstone of the Communication.

• Google, Authors try to answer book deal concerns (Reuters)
  Google and the Authors Guild filed a new version of a deal to create a massive online library in hopes that changes will answer possible antitrust and copyright concerns in the United States and overseas. Amendments to the settlement were crafted after extensive meetings with the Justice Department, according to the parties. Google's plan to put millions of books online has been praised for bringing broad access to books but has also been criticized on antitrust, copyright and privacy grounds. In one shift, money from unclaimed or orphan works will go to an independent fiduciary rather than go to the registry. Also, books in the registry and covered by the deal were reduced to those copyrighted in the United States or published in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

• Keeping a Global Eye on Copyright Law (EFF)
  We're happy to announce our involvement in a truly global project: Copyright Watch. Working with academics, libraries and copyright monitors from across the world, Copyright Watch brings together the most recent copies of laws from as many countries as we could find. And with that global team, we'll be tracking new proposals, consultations, and freshly passed regulations: finding the promising changes, and highlighting the spectacularly bad ideas hopefully before they can take hold.

• What is Acta and what should I know about it? (Guardian)
  Acta, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has been progressing for two years without much fanfare. Supporters say the treaty will help create a broad consensus on how to deal with counterfeit goods: the kind of legislation usually aimed at criminals who mass-manufacture and sell pirate DVDs, or flood the market with dangerous fake products such as batteries and electrical equipment. In truth, the treaty also contains suggestions for the control of internet content that some believe could radically alter the nature of copyright law worldwide. See also The ACTA Threat: My Talk on Everything You Need To Know About ACTA, But Didn't Know To Ask (Michael Geist) and ENDitorial: ACTA Revealed, European ISPs Might Have A Big Problem (EDRI-gram).

Issue no. 402 - 18 October 2009

• AP comes in for criticism about its news "beacon" (Tech and Law)
  I'd previously blogged the Associated Press's announcement about a new system they were going to use to "wrap" their content to track its usage. As far as I could see from what the AP had said, it wasn't DRM in the sense that people normally understand it. I've now further updated my blog post to refer to an excellent article by Ars Technica which also can't figure out how on earth hNews can be used to "wrap" and "protect" content in the all-encompassing way that the AP seem to be suggesting. "One is struck by the thought that perhaps the AP has been snookered into believing that it's getting 'DRM for news', when in reality it's simply using an open-source news metadata markup language with Creative Commons rights expression". See previous QuickLinks item.

• EU - Time for Europe to turn over a new e-leaf on digital books and copyright (RAPID)
  Joint Statement of EU Commissioners Reding and McCreevy on the occasion of Google Books meetings in Brussels. Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and Charlie McCreevy, Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, have made a joint statement setting out the important cultural and economic stakes of book digitisation in Europe. To face the daunting task of digitising Europe's books, of which there are tens of millions in Europe's national libraries alone, the two Commissioners stressed the need for fully respecting copyright rules to ensure fair remuneration for authors, but also welcomed public-private partnerships as a means to boost digitisation of books. They highlighted the need to adapt Europe's still very fragmented copyright legislation to the digital age, in particular with regard to orphan and out-of-print works. The statement of the two Commissioners comes ahead of a series of workshops and meetings between the Commission, cultural institutions, right holders, IT companies and consumer organisations, which start with an information hearing on the US class action settlement on Google Book Search. see also articles in BBC, Guardian and New York Times.

• UK - Action on unlawful P2P file-sharing (Press Release)
  New ideas to allow for swifter and more flexible measures to tackle unlawful peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing are published by the Government. The Government is seeking views on the idea of including a power, under the forthcoming Digital Economy Bill, for the Secretary of State to direct Ofcom to introduce technical measures to clamp down on piracy, if necessary. This would involve an obligation on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take action against individual, repeat infringers - for example by blocking access to download sites, reducing broadband speeds, or by temporarily suspending the individual's Internet account. To enable stakeholders to provide feedback on the new ideas, the Government has today issued an explanatory statement and extended the current consultation on unlawful P2P file sharing to 29 September.

• US - Authors Guild Accuses Amazon of Hypocrisy in Google Filing (New York Times)
  In response to Amazon's filing in opposition to Google's landmark settlement with publishers and authors, the Authors Guild, one of the parties to the settlement, fired back with a statement on its Web site. In its filing, Amazon said the settlement would violate antitrust laws by giving Google a monopoly over millions of so-called orphan works and create a cartel controlled by authors and publishers for setting prices for e-books. "Amazons hypocrisy is breathtaking," the guild's statement read. "It dominates online bookselling and the fledgling e-book industry."

• US - Digital publishing - Google's big book case (Economist)
  The internet giant's plan to create a vast digital library should be given a green light. To its opponents, it is a brazen attempt by a crafty monopolist to lock up some of the world's most valuable intellectual property. To its fans, it is a laudable effort by a publicly minded company to unlock a treasure trove of hidden knowledge. Next month an American court will hold a hearing on an agreement, signed last year by Google and representatives of authors and publishers, to make millions of books in America searchable online. The case has stirred up passions, conflict and conspiracy theories worthy of a literary blockbuster. See also Google books - Tome raider. A fuss over Google's effort to build a huge digital library.

• US - Google's book project faces growing opposition (Guardian)
  Google's ambition to create the largest body of human knowledge on the internet by scanning millions of library books and turning them into a massive digital publishing venture is prompting growing opposition from authors and legal experts who object to its scope and copyright implications. Opponents and supporters of Google's plans are lining up for a showdown that will come to a head on 4 September, the deadline for submissions to be lodged with a Manhattan court that is reviewing the scheme, known as Google Book Search. see also A plan to scan (FT).

Issue no. 401 - 26 July 2009

• Associated Press plans tracking system to enforce its rights online (Guardian)
  The largest US news agency, Associated Press, says it is backing its threat to act against illegal use of its content online through a new system to track how its news stories, pictures and videos are used by websites and to enforce its terms of use. Ap intends to create a news registry that will tag and track all its content online to ensure compliance with its terms of use. The system, which will initially cover AP text content, uses a built-in "beacon" to alert the news agency about how each piece of its content is being used. The system will be extended to content from the 6,700 media organisations that are members of AP early next year; ultimately it will also cover photos and video. see also Newspapers, news & internet - important developments - "DRM for news" & tracking copying of news stories (Tech & Law blog).

• European Publishers Call on E.U. to Protect Copyright (New York Times)
  Leading European newspaper and magazine publishers have called on the European Commission to strengthen copyright protection as a way to lay the groundwork for new ways to generate revenue online. The publishers said widespread use of their work by online news aggregators and other Web sites was undermining their efforts to develop an online business models at a time when readers and advertisers are defecting from newspapers and magazines. See Press Release (EPC) and the Hamburg Declaration. The declaration started life as a regional initiative in Germany and then enjoyed nationwide support. Now, with the support of members of EPC and WAN-IFRA, the "Hamburg Declaration" has become an important international initiative. See also see also Working with News Publishers (Google European Public Policy Blog). The truth is that news publishers, like all other content owners, are in complete control when it comes not only to what content they make available on the web, but also who can access it and at what price. Millions of webmasters around the world, including news publishers, use a technical standard known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP) to tell search engines whether or not their sites, or even just a particular web page, can be crawled.

• FR - L'INA admet avoir mis en ligne des pubs sans en avoir les droits (01net)
  Lors du lancement de son nouveau site, l´institut a mis en ligne 200 000 spots. Interpellé dans une lettre ouverte par une société de production, il reconnaît ne pas avoir consulté les ayants droit.

• UK - Legal row over National Portrait Gallery images placed on Wikipedia (Guardian)
  The National Portrait Gallery has threatened legal proceedings for breach of copyright against a man who downloaded thousands of high-resolution images from its website, and placed them in an archive of free-to-use images on Wikipedia. There has been no formal response from the internet encyclopedia but Derrick Coetzee, who downloaded the images, promptly uploaded the letter from the London lawyers Farrar and Co, "to enable public discourse on the issue". See also Wikipedia painting row escalates (BBC).

• UK - Plug pulled on suspected pirates (BBC)
  Web users suspected of file-sharing are being cut off without warning by internet service provider (ISP) Karoo, based in Hull. Karoo, the only ISP in the area, makes customers sign a document promising not to repeat the offence in order to get their service restored.

• US - Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle (New York Times)
  In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique, Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them. An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an e-mail message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, using a self-service function.

• US - Pioneering Peer-to-Patent system not renewed for third year (OUT-LAW News)
  A pioneering patent system being piloted in the US has been stopped from accepting new submissions. The Peer-to-Patent project harnessed web users' knowledge to improve patent quality but the project has been curtailed. It will no longer assess new patents, but will process those already on its books, which is expected to take until October. The system was launched two years ago as an attempt to harness the wisdom of web users to ensure that nobody was granted a patent monopoly on things that had already been invented. The service may be reinstated after a period of analysis, though. US President Barack Obama has named a supporter of the programme as the next head of the USPTO. David Kappos has been named as Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO.

Issue no. 400 - 5 July 2009

• FR - La loi Hadopi censurée par le Conseil constitutionnel (Reuters)
  Le Conseil constitutionnel a censuré les pouvoirs de sanction de l'autorité créée pour lutter contre le piratage sur internet, infligeant un camouflet à Nicolas Sarkozy et aux artistes qui l'ont soutenu. Ce projet de loi adopté le 13 mai dernier par le parlement à l'instigation du président français prévoyait la création d'une Haute autorité pour la diffusion des oeuvres et la protection des droits sur internet (Hadopi). Cette dernière était chargée de la mise en oeuvre d'une "riposte graduée" allant jusqu'à la suspension de l'abonnement en cas de récidive pour les auteurs de téléchargements illégaux. C'est ce volet qu'a invalidé le Conseil constitutionnel saisi par les députés socialistes opposés au projet, estimant que seules les instances judiciaires, et non une simple autorité administrative, pouvaient décider de couper l'abonnement. En revanche, il a validé la partie du dispositif qui permet à l'Hadopi d'envoyer des messages d'avertissement aux fraudeurs.

• US -Suit over China's Web filter to target Lenovo, Acer, Sony (IDG News Service)
  A U.S. company will seek legal action against Lenovo, Acer and Sony next week over their shipment in China of controversial software that the company says stole its programming code. Solid Oak Software may also take action against other PC makers that have started shipping the software. The software, an Internet filtering tool that blocks pornographic and political content, copied files from Solid Oak's own Internet content control product, according to the company. In recent weeks China ordered domestic and foreign PC makers to bundle the software, called Green Dam Youth Escort, with all computers sold in the country. It postponed the requirement just hours before the original deadline this week, but said it did so only because PC makers needed more time to ship the program.

Issue no. 399 - 7 June 2009

• CA - Research institute report on copyright recalled (CBC)
  The Conference Board of Canada (a not-for-profit research organization) has recalled three reports advocating tighter copyright rules, stating that the reports didn't follow research standards. The board said it was recalling Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy; National Innovation Performance and Intellectual Property Rights: A Comparative Analysis; and Intellectual Property Rights-Creating Value and Stimulating Investment. It said an internal review showed the reports "did not follow the high-quality research standards of the Conference Board of Canada." University of Ottawa law Prof. Michael Geist, who writes frequently about internet copyright issues, attacked the form and content of the reports, calling one of them "deceptive and plagiarized."

• EU - Commission welcomes Parliament vote on copyright term (Rapid)
  The Commission welcomes the European Parliament's endorsement of a proposal to extend term of copyright protection for performers and record producers from 50 to 70 years. The Commission is also pleased that the Parliament's text has further strengthened the position of performers by introducing a new claim for session players amounting to 20% of record labels' offline and online sales revenue. According to the proposal, performers can also recover their copyright after 50 years, should the producer fail to market the sound recording. Finally, a newly introduced 'clean slate' would prevent record producers from making deductions to the royalties they pay to featured performers.

• The Economist: copyright and wrongs (Communia)
  The Economist has launched a new online debate on copyright and wrongs. In support of the initial motion ("existing copyright laws do more harm than good") we have Professor William Fisher (Harvard Law School), while Professor Justin Hughes (Cardozo Law School, New York) argues against it. Users can publish comment all along and even vote on that motion.

• UK - Call to 'disconnect file-sharers' (BBC)
  Persistent illegal file-sharers should be cut off from the net, an alliance of UK creative industries will tell the government later. The alliance wants the government to force internet service providers (ISPs) to disconnect users who ignore repeated warnings about sharing illegal content. John Woodward, head of the UK Film Council, said illegal file-sharing was hurting film-making and risking jobs. The coalition says more than 50% of net traffic in the UK is illegal content.

Issue no. 398 - 13 April 2009

• SE - Biggest-ever Internet piracy bust claimed in Sweden (CNET)
  Swedish police reported making a major Internet piracy bust. Authorities seized computer equipment belonging to a Stockholm-area man whom they suspected of violating local copyright law. The seized server contained 65 terabytes of digital data, consisting of films, TV series, computer programs, and the music equivalent of 16,000 movies, according to the Antipiracy Agency, an organization based in Sweden that's supported by a consortium of film and game organizations to fight Internet piracy.

• SE - Piracy law cuts internet traffic (BBC)
  Internet traffic in Sweden fell by 33% as the country's new anti-piracy law came into effect. Sweden's new policy - the Local IPRED law - allows copyright holders to force internet service providers (ISP) to reveal details of users sharing files. According to figures released by the government statistics agency - Statistics Sweden - 8% of the entire population use peer-to-peer sharing. Popular BitTorrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay, is also based in Sweden.

• UK - Government outlines digital rights agency proposal (Guardian)
  The government has fleshed out the digital rights agency proposed in Lord Carter's Digital Britain report and called for comment from the industry and consumers. The agency would establish a co-regulatory approach for navigating online copyright issues for film and music content, including illegal file sharing. The paper published by the Intellectual Property Office was described as a "straw man" - meaning it is designed to provoke debate rather than represent policy. The government called on creators, commercial rights holders and consumer groups to submit responses.

• UK - YouTube stands by video block (BBC)
  YouTube will not reverse its decision to block music videos to UK users despite a plea from the Performing Rights Society to change its mind. It is removing all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the PRS. Patrick Walker, YouTube's director of video partnerships said it remained committed to agreeing terms. But such agreement needed to be done "at a rate which is sustainable to all", he told the BBC. Thousands of videos were made unavailable to YouTube users from late on 9 March.

Issue no. 397 - 8 March 2009

• FR - Halte au piratage à grande échelle via Internet ! (Le Monde)
  par Luc Besson. Il est un délit maintenant reconnu de tous : celui de visionner des films gratuitement sur son ordinateur via Internet. On appelle ça le "piratage". Le piratage est tout simplement "un vol caractérisé". Il y a 500 000 vols de films par jour en France : 500 000 connexions illégales. Les internautes français détiennent ce triste record du monde. Voilà une bien mauvaise image pour le pays des droits de l'homme. Ces sites ne pourraient exister sans la complicité objective de bon nombre d'acteurs économiques français qui ont un intérêt financier à faire perdurer le système. L'économie du piratage sur Internet est une longue chaîne d'acteurs qui, pour la plupart, n'apparaissent pas au grand jour mais tirent profit de cette activité illégale. Pour que les sites de téléchargement et de streaming soient accessibles aux internautes, il faut tout d'abord trouver un hébergeur. Il arrive que ces hébergeurs soient de nationalité française. Cette prestation, pour un site de streaming tel que BeeMotion.fr, de nationalité canadienne, est assurée par une grande entreprise française de télécommunication, Iliad, par l'intermédiaire de sa marque Free. Voir aussi Luc Besson attaque, beeMotion ferme (Les Numériques)

• SE - Biggest-ever Internet piracy bust claimed in Sweden (CNET)
  Swedish police reported making a major Internet piracy bust. Authorities seized computer equipment belonging to a Stockholm-area man whom they suspected of violating local copyright law. The seized server contained 65 terabytes of digital data, consisting of films, TV series, computer programs, and the music equivalent of 16,000 movies, according to the Antipiracy Agency, an organization based in Sweden that's supported by a consortium of film and game organizations to fight Internet piracy.

• SE - How piracy paved the way in Sweden (CNET)
  The trial against The Pirate Bay site has begun in Sweden. And while Sweden is depicted by copyright-enforcement groups as piracy's promised land, it is also a nation that experiments with legal music-service alternatives. For years, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the Motion Picture Association of America have depicted Sweden as rife with digital piracy. During the time leading up to the trial, though, at least three innovative, legal alternatives for listening to digital music have been launched in Sweden: Spotify, Tunerec, and Chilirec. Spotify has forged agreements with organizations such as Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music Group, Merlin, The Orchard, and CD Baby, and now offers millions of songs streamed online. See also Pirate Bay: we don't know nothin' about org charts, contracts (Ars Technica) and Pirate Bay Crew Chums Up to Foes Over Lunch (Wired).

• UK - Government seeks international strategy on illegal downloading (Guardian)
  The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, is aiming to have the framework of an international strategy to combat illegal internet downloads agreed with the US and European partners by the autumn. Burnham's ambitious plan, part of a five-pronged strategy to bolster the ailing music industry, was outlined by the government minister at a parliamentary reception involving groups including the BPI, which represents UK record companies. The ultimate aim of the plan would be to develop a consensus with other governments that would make the UK's own initiatives to combat internet piracy more likely to succeed. Burnham said the government is seeking a 70% to 80% reduction in illegal downloads with its plans in the UK.

• US - Dell applies to have the term 'netbook' released from Psion ownership (OUT-LAW News)
  Dell is trying to have a trade mark owned by rival Psion cancelled because it believes the term 'netbook' is now a generic name for small, cheap computers. Psion applied to register the term as a trade mark in 1996. Dell has filed for cancellation with the US Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO), arguing that the trade mark has been abandoned, that Psion has made false claims in declarations about the trade mark and that the term has now become generic. Psion has recently been asserting its rights to control the term 'netbook' as small, cheap computers become a fast-selling item.

Issue no. 395 - 27 December 2008

• Project Playlist: some major labels block while Sony BMG strike deal (TechCrunch)
  MySpace is getting back into the business of blocking third party widgets - they've banned embedded music widgets from the fast growing Project Playlist under threat of litigation from the major labels. MySpace they confirmed the ban, noting that they have received infringement notices from "major music companies". But see Good news for Project Playlist: Sony BMG strikes deal (CNET News). Project Playlist has struck a deal with Sony BMG to bring the label's catalog to its streaming-music service. It's the first major-label deal for Project Playlist.

• Talks break down; Warner Music pulls videos from YouTube (CNET)
  Negotiations between Warner Music Group and YouTube over renewing the licensing agreement for the record label's music videos broke down and Warner, the third largest record label, removed videos from the Google-owned video site. The impasse comes at a time when all four major labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and EMI, are renegotiating their licensing deals with YouTube.

• US - RIAA drops lawsuits; ISPs to battle file sharing (CNET)
  The Recording Industry Association of America said that it no longer plans to wage a legal assault against people who it suspects of pirating digital music files. The music industry has a new form of protection: Internet service providers. The RIAA will alert an ISP that a customer appears to be file sharing. The ISP will then notify the person that he or she appears to be file sharing. If the behavior by the customer doesn't change, then more e-mails will be sent. If the customer ignores these e-mails, then the ISP may choose to suspend the person's service. If all else fails, they can choose to discontinue service. see also Hollywood wants in on ISP "graduated responses," too (Ars Technica).

Issue no. 394 - 7 December 2008

• FR - Piratage : Alabanel envisage une charte de non agression (Journal du Net)
  La ministre de la Culture, Christine Albanel a commandé le 2 novembre dernier une nouvelle étude relative aux "différentes solutions possibles à la question de la prévention de la lutte contre le piratage" au juriste Pierre Sirinelli, membre du Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique (CSPLA, placé sous la tutelle du ministère de la Culture). La ministre souhaite notamment que ce rapport étudie la piste d'une charte signée à la fois par les ayants-droit et les acteurs du Web 2.0, dans laquelle chacune des parties reconnaîtrait la bonne volonté et les engagements de l'autre en matière de lutte contre le piratage.

Issue no. 393 - 9 November 2008

• DE - Google to appeal thumbnail copyright defeats in Germany (OUT-LAW News)
  Google has lost two German court cases over copyright in images displayed as thumbnails in search results. German courts ruled in both cases that Google's display of miniature versions of pictures without permission infringed copyright in the originals. The search giant will lodge one appeal covering both cases.

• EU - Database right prevents more than just cut 'n' paste copying, rules ECJ (OUT-LAW News)
  A judgment by Europe?s highest court has strengthened the rights of database creators to protect their work from being used by third parties without permission. The database right protects against more than just copying and pasting, it ruled. The decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) means that the transfer of material from a protected database to another database may be prevented, even if there is no technical process of copying. The ECJ affirmed the right of the University of Freiburg to protect the content of a database of poem titles from commercial exploitation by an unrelated company. Directmedia Publishing GmbH v Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.

• EU - Sarkozy snubbed by Barroso in the three strikes approach (EDRI-gram)
  The President of the European Commission has refused French President Sarkozy's request to withdraw Amendment 138 included in the Telecoms Package recently voted by the European Parliament. Amendment 138 which basically reinstates the legal issue of the freedom to communicate of Internet users, reaffirming that only threats to public security can justify the restriction to the free circulation of information on the Internet without a court decision, was voted with a large majority by the MEPs, fact which largely displeased EU French presidency who has continuously pushed and pressed for the application of the three strike approach introduced by its "Création et Internet" draft bill. see also Commission position on Amendment 138 adopted by the European Parliament and EU - Risposte graduée : Reding a la moutarde qui lui monte au nez (Libération)

Issue no. 392 - 5 October 2008

• EU - Cost of EU-wide trade marks set to plummet (OUT-LAW News)
  The cost of registering community trade marks (CTMs) across Europe will fall from ?1,650 to ?1,000, according to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), the body reponsible for the marks. The plan is the result of a meeting of the body's administrative board and budget committee.

• Internet - creative content and "graduated responses" (ISOC-ECC)
  The purpose of this Aide Memoire is to express the comments of European Chapters of the Internet Society with regard to proposed restrictions on access to and use of the Internet, in the name of protection of intellectual property rights. Recognising the importance of copyright, some proposed measures go beyond that which would be necessary or effective. In short, the signatories, consider that the proposed French law in particular is a disproportionate response to the stated objectives of the EU Commission's Communication and that the proposed measures and sanctions reflect a lack of understanding as to the nature of the Internet with unfavourable consequences for the use of the Internet for many economic and social purposes. See also version française.

• US - RIAA, MPAA resume lobbying push to expand copyright law (CNET News)
  The Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America are lobbying for a pair of bills to rewrite and expand digital copyright law, designed to give the federal government more power to police copyright violations.

• US - Tech activist takes on governments over 'copyrighted' laws (CNET News)
  Carl Malamud has devoted his life to liberating laws, regulations, court cases, and the other myriad detritus that governments produce daily, but often lock up in proprietary databases or allow for-profit companies to sell for princely sums.

Issue no. 391 - 31 August 2008

• EU - European Commission is misleading EU on copyright extension, says academic (OUT-LAW News)
  The European Commission "wilfully ignored" studies that it paid for whose conclusions disagreed with its policy and the Commission is misleading the European Union Council, Parliament and citizens over copyright extension, a leading academic has warned. Professor Bernt Hugenholtz is the director of the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law (IViR) and has written an open letter to Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso that is starkly critical of its controversial policies on copyright extension.

• EU Piratage sur internet: les fournisseurs doivent informer leurs clients (AFP)
  Commission européenne et Etats membres sont tombés d'accord, lors de la réunion informelle des ministres européens de la Culture et de l'Audiovisuel à Versailles, sur la nécessité d'une "obligation d'information" sur les conséquences du piratage sur internet pour les fournisseurs d'accès.

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QuickLinks consists of

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