FR - Le statut d'hébergeur de Dailymotion confirmé en justice

(AFP)
Le TGI de Paris a rendu une nouvelle décision favorable au site de partage de vidéos Dailymotion et débouté les humoristes Jean-Yves Lafesse et Omar et Fred qui le poursuivaient pour avoir diffusé sans autorisation plusieurs de leurs sketches. Si le tribunal a jugé que Dailymotion n'était pas un éditeur et n'était donc pas coupable de contrefaçon, il a en revanche estimé que la plateforme n'avait pas retiré suffisamment "promptement" certains des sketches, une fois que Lafesse l'avait averti de leur exploitation. A ce titre, Dailymotion devra verser 5.000 euros de dommages et intérêts et retirer les vidéos en question.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law, Social_networking

FR - French websites liable for story in RSS reader

(OUT-LAW News)
A French court has punished web publishers because of snippets of text that appeared on their sites via an RSS reader. It is believed to be the first time that a website operator has been held responsible for content delivered by a third party's RSS feed.

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

FR - French sites fined for linking to privacy-invading content

(OUT-LAW News)
Three French websites have been found guilty of invading an actor's privacy for publishing links to articles containing the offending material. The Paris Tribunal has fined the operators of all three sites. Oliver Martinez, who is famous for his relationship with pop singer Kylie Minogue, sued two blogs and one news site over links to other people's stories about him and his relationship with Minogue. The case was principally against Fuzz.fr, a website which displays links to news stories on other sites ranked by popularity. One of those links was to a story about Martinez and Minogue and formed the basis of the case, which claimed that the article violated his right to privacy. French sites fined for linking to privacy-invading content.

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

US courts erode protections for online publishers

(OUT-LAW News)
Two recent judgments could erode vital protections there for web publishers in the US. The rulings could undermine protections from liability for user-posted material previously enjoyed by publishers. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) has been taken to mean that a content publisher cannot be held responsible for the content provided by someone else to an un-moderated website. But accommodation matching service Roommates.com and a sex partner finding website have both lost parts of court cases in recent weeks which experts say could change the interpretation of that law.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

FR - Linking can be damaging to your pockets

(EDRI-gram)
A recent decision by the Paris Tribunal has condemned 3 different French websites for linking to another website containing gossip information on the French actor Olivier Martinez.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

UK - YouTube under fire over 'rape' footage

(Guardian)
YouTube, the video-sharing website owned by Google, came under attack from MPs after admitting that an error in its review procedure meant it had failed to remove footage apparently showing a gang rape. Pressed by the culture, media and sport select committee to explain how it dealt with offensive and illegal material posted to the website, Google's vice-president and general counsel, Kent Walker, said human error had been to blame for footage of an apparent gang rape being viewed more than 600 times before it was removed.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law, Social_networking

UK - Policing internet 'not ISP's job'

(BBC)
The head of one of Britain's biggest internet providers has criticised the music industry for demanding that he act against pirates. The trade body for UK music, the BPI, asked internet service providers to disconnect people who ignore requests to stop sharing music. But Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse, which runs the TalkTalk broadband service, is refusing.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

IE - Irish ISP sued over file-sharing by users

(OUT-LAW News)
Ireland's biggest internet service provider (ISP) is being sued by the four biggest record labels over illegally downloaded music. The labels are demanding that Eircom take action to prevent its network being used to share copyright-infringing material. The Irish subsidiaries of EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner are taking a case under copyright law. They say that Eircom is infringing copyright because its network makes available copies of music without the owners' consent. The record labels want Eircom to filter the offending material out of its service, but Eircom will argue in Ireland's High Court that it has no legal obligation to monitor all the traffic on its network.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

Facebook: We didn't give data leading to Morocco arrest

(CNET.com)
Facebook has denied giving the Moroccan government information to identify a man who was sentenced to prison for posting a fake profile of a Moroccan prince. A Moroccan court sentenced the 26-year-old IT engineer to three years and fined him 10,000 dirhams ($1,320) for setting up a Facebook account in the name of King Mohammed's brother, Prince Moulay Rachid.

Labels: Content_Regulation, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

AU - Judge on privacy: Computer code trumps the law

(CNET News) Australian Judge Kirby says computer code is more potent than the law--and that legislators are powerless to do anything about it. Technology has outpaced the legal system's ability to regulate its use in matters of privacy and fair use rights.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Data_protection_privacy, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

UK - ISPs could face piracy sanctions

(BBC)
Internet service providers must take concrete steps to curb illegal downloads or face legal sanctions, the government has said. The proposal is aimed at tackling the estimated 6m UK broadband users who download files illegally every year. The culture secretary said consultation would begin in spring and legislation could be implemented "by April 2009". Its intentions are outlined in a creative industries strategy paper called Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy. The document is a broad ranging paper that sets out government support for the creative industries.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

UK - Illegal downloaders 'face ban'

(BBC)
People in the UK who go online and illegally download music and films may have their internet access cut under plans the government is considering. A draft consultation suggests internet service providers would be required to take action over users who access pirated material via their accounts. See Net firms reject monitoring role.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

SE - Pirate Bay hit with legal action

(BBC)
Four men who run one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world have been charged with conspiracy to break copyright law in Sweden. The Pirate Bay's servers do not store copyrighted material but offer links to the download location of films, TV programmes, albums and software.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

ISPs new role in network control

(BBC)
by Michael Geist. Industry has now dangerously shifted toward locking down the Internet. The Internet locks approach envisions requiring Internet service providers to install filtering and content monitoring technologies within their networks. ISPs would then become private network police, actively monitoring for content that might infringe copyright and stopping it from reaching subscribers' computers.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law, Rating_and_filtering

US - Microsoft U.S. consent decree extended two more years

(CNET)
Microsoft will have to put up with another two years of court antitrust oversight, a federal judge has ruled. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly cited the length of time it has taken Microsoft to get its protocol licensing program up and running as the primary reason she is extending the consent decree. "The court's decision in this matter is based upon the extreme and unforeseen delay in the availability of complete, accurate, and useable technical documentation relating to the communications protocols," Kollar-Kotelly said.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

EU - Countries can choose whether or not to force disclosure of file-sharers

(OUT-LAW News)
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that EU law does not force the disclosure of internet users' details in file-sharing cases. The judgment will be a blow to record labels but could also put ISPs in the UK at a commercial disadvantage, a copyright expert has said. The ECJ has said that it is up to each country to decide how to balance the rights of the copyright holders to protect their intellectual property and the rights of internet users to protect their privacy. See Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-275/06 Productores de Música de España (Promusicae) v Telefónica de España SAU (ECJ Press Release). See also EU court ruling on file-sharers is not what it seems (OUT-LAW News).

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Data_protection_privacy, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

UK - Government piles file-sharing pressure on ISPs

(The Register)
The government turned up the heat on internet providers, warning that laws to force disconnection of illegal filesharers are already being drafted for a parliamentary debut in November. Lord Triesman, the minister for intellectual property, said that if ISPs can't agree a voluntary scheme with the music and film industries by the end of summer, he will press Gordon Brown to introduce legislation in the next Queen's speech.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

FI - In Finland shooting, fallout for YouTube?

(News.com)
Seven children and one adult were shot and killed at a school in Finland, and the teen who police say did it posted several threatening screeds on YouTube prior to his rampage. Predictably, some media outlets are already producing stories that imply Google's YouTube is a scary place where hateful polemics can be broadcast, unmolested by more thoughtful minds. See also The cyber school for killers (Tiles).

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law, Social_networking

FR - Les hébergeurs de contenus sont-ils irresponsables devant la loi ?

(ZDNet)
par Lionel Thoumyre. Au regard des dernières décisions de justice, condamnant Dailymotion ou relaxant Wikimedia Fondation, pour contenus illicites sur leurs services, il est difficile de comprendre ce qui relève de la responsabilité de ces acteurs. Lionel Thoumyre, directeur de juriscom.net, fait le point.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

FR - Wikipedia not liable for libel, rules French court

(OUT-LAW News)
The Wikimedia Foundation is not responsible for defamatory comments published in its user-generated encyclopaedia Wikipedia, a French court has ruled. The comments had been removed quickly after being notified to the site operators. Three men sought €69,000 in damages when the a Wikipedia entry identified them as gay activists. A French court ruled, though, that the company that publishes the encyclopaedia cannot be held liable for user contributions. The ruling afforded Wikimedia the same protection enjoyed by ISPs.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

FR - Free ferme 14 newsgroups

(01net)
Free ferme 14 newsgroups utilisés pour le piratage de films. Des newsgroups ont été détournés pour le téléchargement de copies illicites de films et de logiciels. Le FAI aurait procédé à leur fermeture sous la pression de la justice.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

SE - Sweden mulls forcing Internet providers to crack down on file-sharers

(Associated Press)
Swedish Internet service providers could be required by law to cut off customers who share large amounts of copyright music and films online under a new proposal presented to the government. A report prepared by a government-appointed investigator said illegal file-sharing was "a significant obstacle" to the development of legal alternatives to download copyrighted material on the Net. Internet providers should therefore be obliged to cancel services to customers found to engage in large-scale file-sharing or face fines, according to the report by Justice Department investigator Cecilia Renfors.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

EU - Regulation 864/2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligation

(Eur-Lex)
Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II). see IPR HelpDesk. The Regulation establishes uniform conflict of law rules to be applied by the courts of the Member States to determine the law applicable to claims related to acts of unfair competition (Art. 6) and infringements of intellectual property rights (Art. 8). Thanks to these new rules, companies will enjoy certainty and legal security in the protection of their intellectual property rights. The Rome II Regulation does not include conflict of law rules related to obligations arising from violations of privacy and rights relating to personality, but the Commission will submit a study on the situation of both legal matters no later than December 2008. The Regulation will not enter into force until January 2009.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

US - Yahoo files to dismiss China human rights suit

(CNET News.com)
Yahoo has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two Chinese journalists who alleged that the Internet company and its subsidiaries "willingly" handed over information about their online writing to the People's Republic of China. The case hinges on a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California. Plaintiffs Shi Tao, Wang Xiaoning- two pro-democracy advocates - and Yu Ling (Wang's wife) charged Yahoo and its Hong Kong subsidiary with allegedly divulging information about their online activity and pro-democracy writing to Chinese authorities, an act that ultimately caused their arrest and prosecution, according to the filing. Both men were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Labels: Content_Regulation, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

UK - Cameron pledge over violent music

(BBC)
David Cameron has pledged to extend copyright on music to 70 years - in exchange for an effort by music bosses to curb violent music and imagery. The Tory leader told record industry chiefs they had a responsibility to help fix Britain's "broken society". See speech. See also ISPs face down Tories on file sharing (The Register) ISPs have given David Cameron's call for them to block P2P music sharing short shrift, repeating their stance that they are not "the gatekeepers of the internet", as he insists.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

BE - ISP told to block file-sharing in landmark case

(OUT-LAW News)
An internet service provider in Belgium must screen traffic for music piracy, a court has ruled in a decision which overturns conventional thinking on how two major European directives relate to one another. The Court of First Instance in Belgium made the controversial ruling against ISP Scarlet Extended. It said that the ISP must block or filter out traffic on its network which it thinks is copyright-infringing material. It must introduce suitable 'technical instruments' to do this within six months. It is believed to be the first time that a European court has ruled that an ISP must block such traffic. voir aussi Belgique : un tribunal impose à un FAI des mesures pour empêcher le piratage (Silcon.fr) at P2P: les fournisseurs d'accès sommés de fermer le robinet ! (Juriscom.net)

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

US - Bush administration attacks 'shield' for bloggers

(CNET News)
The Bush administration blasted a congressional proposal that would shield a broad swath of news gatherers, including some bloggers, from revealing their confidential sources. The latest draft of the Free Flow of Information Act would pose a grave threat to national security and federal criminal investigations by protecting far too large a segment of the population, a U.S. Department of Justice official told Congress.

Labels: Content_Regulation, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law, Social_networking

European Union brings in harmonised rules on law applicable to civil liability ('Rome II' Regulation)

(RAPID)
The European Parliament and the Council approved a regulation harmonising the rules concerning the law applicable to non-contractual obligations ('Rome II'). The aim is to ensure that courts in all the Member States apply the same law in the event of cross-border disputes in matters of tort/delict, thus facilitating the mutual recognition of court decisions in the European Union. The Regulation adopts the solution applied in the majority of Member States and establishes a general rule that the law of the country in which the damage occurs (for example, the law of the place of the road accident) will apply, unless the parties both have their habitual residence in another country, in which case the law of that country will apply. There are a number of specific rules for the commonest specific torts/delicts such as product liability, environmental damage, anti-competitive practices, etc. Regarding the highly controversial question of media violations of privacy, the co-legislators chose to exclude them from the scope of the Regulation but called on the Commission to present a detailed study by the end of 2008.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

'Second Life' publisher removes child porn after German TV probe

(News.com blog)
by Daniel Terdiman. Second Life publisher Linden Lab was contacted by a German TV station that said it had discovered images in the virtual world showing a child avatar engaged in "depicted sexual conduct" with an adult avatar. Linden lab quickly began an investigation and banned the two people behind the avatars, as well as removed the images. Linden Lab said it has a zero tolerance policy regarding such behavior and acts quickly to remove residents who engage in it or the content itself when it is informed of its existence.

Labels: Child_abuse_images, Computer_crime, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

US - "Psychic" Uri Geller sued after trying to remove critical YouTube clip

(News.com)
by Declan McCullagh. The latest attempt to misuse the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "takedown" sections involves Uri Geller, the purported spoon-bending "psychic" who is trying to suppress a video on YouTube that claims Geller is a fraud and demonstrates sleight-of-hand tricks he could have used.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

US - Principal sues ex-students over MySpace profiles

(CNET News.com)
A Pennsylvania school principal has filed a lawsuit against four former students, claiming they falsely portrayed him as a pot smoker, beer guzzler and pornography lover and sullied his reputation through mock MySpace profiles.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law

UK - Web bosses must block pupils' videos mocking teachers, says minister

(Guardian)
Website providers have a moral obligation to stop pupils posting offensive school videos that demean their teachers or other children, the education secretary said yesterday. Alan Johnson told teachers that companies had a responsibility to ensure their sites were properly policed to prevent young people putting humiliating clips taken by mobile phone cameras on the internet.

Labels: Liability_jurisdiction_applicable_law, Mobile_and_wireless