Results for copyright

October 5, 2005

Report on WIPO general assemblies

Apart from important budget/audit matters, there were three substantive issues discussed at the 2005 WIPO General Assemblies. The last few days were spent in closed “informal” sessions to hammer out agreements. All agreements were formally adopted by WIPO member states on 5 October 2005. With the report EDRI was also adopted as accredited observer to […]

Read more

November 21, 2005

Panel meeting with EU delegation

On the closing day of the Summit, Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media and Catherine Trautmann, Member of the European Parliament co-hosted a Workshop on “Human Rights and the Information Society”. Trautmann (Social Democrats) also was the special rapporteur on the WSIS for the European Parliament. Her report was adopted in plenary […]

Read more

December 5, 2005

EDRI and PI call on EP to reject data retention

European Digital Rights and Privacy International are urgently calling on the individual members of the European Parliament to reject the misguided compromise proposal on data retention. Party leaders of the christian-democrats and social-democrats in the parliament have agreed behind closed doors to allow for mandatory data retention of telephony and internet data for a period […]

Read more

January 18, 2006

Evaluation of EU rules on databases

The Directive on the legal protection of Databases was adopted in February 1996. The Directive created a new exclusive ‘sui generis’ right for database producers, valid for 15 years, to protect their investment of time, money and effort, irrespective of whether the database is in itself innovative (“non-original” databases). The European Commission published on 12 […]

Read more

February 2, 2006

Big Brother Award for Dutch immigration minister

Dutch Minister Rita Verdonk for Integration and Immigration won a negative Big Brother Award during the Dutch awards ceremony on 28 January 2006 in De Melkweg in Amsterdam. Minister Verdonk was awarded the price for having handed-over the status of asylum seeker of rejected applicants to their country of origin, for having denied it repeatedly […]

Read more

March 1, 2006

New Italian IT legislation limits civil rights

The Italian parliament has caused controversy by two new legislative acts. A newly adopted law against child abuse gives overly broad powers to the police, while a proposed new law on the protection of intellectual property gives too much leeway to organisations for collective rights management. On 23 January 2006 the Italian Parliament approved a […]

Read more

March 29, 2006

TACD debate on the politics and ideology of intellectual property

Civil society groups from around the world met in Brussels 20/21 March to discuss the politics and ideology of intellectual property. Speakers included representatives from WIPO and the EU, former US Patent Commissioner Bruce Lehman, consumer and development campaigners and noted IP academics Peter Drahos and Susan Sell. The conference tried to step back from […]

Read more

April 12, 2006

Legal actions against file-sharers in Europe

About 2000 new legal actions are taken in 10 countries by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) against file-sharers amounting now to a total number of 5500 cases outside US. IFPI persists in its actions against uploaders, stating it targets persistent file-sharers, who typically upload thousands of music files. “The campaign started in major […]

Read more

May 10, 2006

Three Spanish courts uphold validity of music free licenses

Spanish courts have upheld three times already the validity of music free licenses. In the three cases, the Sociedad General de Autores (SGAE), Spanish music copyright collecting society, sued some open public premises on alleged rights to the music listened therein. In all the three cases, the defences demonstrated that the music played was downloaded […]

Read more

July 19, 2006

"Free cultures – Free Internet"

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) This was the motto of a Swiss symposium on Internet Governance held on 7 July at ETH Zurich. Inspired by the international efforts of convening an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) the symposium in Zurich was co-organized by ETH Zurich, a leading Swiss technical university and SWITCH, a […]

Read more

July 19, 2006

ISPs reaction to British Phonographic Industry action

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) accused the ISPs Tiscali and Cable&Wireless of harbouring filesharers and demanded the close up of 17 and 42 respectively.. BPI has already taken action against 139 uploaders, having settled in court 111 cases of them and considers its campaign against filesharers is […]

Read more

October 11, 2006

The broadcast treaty stalled by WIPO General Assembly

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has decided that the very controversial proposed treaty on the protection of broadcasting organizations, including cablecasting organizations, must be approved by two more meetings before being put for discussion in a diplomatic conference established to take place […]

Read more

Page 56