Collecting societies
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Consultation European Commission on library digitising
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on its program to digitise the collections of European libraries. The program on digital libraries is a response to a letter sent in April this year by six European presidents and priministers to create a virtual European library. On 30 September the Commission adopted a Communication on […]
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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 […]
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Spanish gaming programmer faces prison sentence
A Spanish gaming programmer may face up to one year prison charges for developing a video-game which makes fun of religious practices. ‘Matanza Cofrade’ is a video-game, a first person shooter Doom-like game in which the player shoots participants to the famous Holy Week procession. The participants are zombies and in the background, images of […]
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NL and BE collecting societies to drop national exclusivity
The Belgian and Dutch music copyright collecting societies are to drop their claims of national exclusivity on the licensing of online rights. SABAM and BUMA, that manage the music copyrights for authors in Belgium and in the Netherlands, have announced this intention to the European Commission, after the Commission started in-depth investigations into the problems […]
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Follow-up: jurisprudence hyperlinks
In response to the article about the Norwegian Supreme Court decision on hyperlinks in the previous EDRI-gram, subscriber Matthias Spielkamp from Germany pointed to an article he wrote about recent jurisprudence in Germany. Contrasting the Norwegian decision that a hyperlink can not be considered unlawful in a copyright context, irrespective of the legal or illegal […]
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New intellectual property legislation in Ireland
On 1 August 2005 the Irish Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr. Michael Ahern, announced a package of new IP legislation to be presented to parliament before the end of the year. Ireland needs to bring the public lending right and the artists’ resale right into conformity with EU legislation and will simultaneously implement the […]
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First Norwegian verdict on hyperlinks
On 27 January 2005 the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled on old case; the existence of the website napster.no, which Norwegian internet users could use in 2001 to find music files (not more than 170 in practice) on the Napster file-sharing system. The owner of the site is found guilty of accessory copyright infringement, for having […]
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New IPR law proposed in Spain
The Spanish government has issued a press release announcing a new draft Intellectual Property law. The law aims to adopt the existing copyright and intellectual property rights to the context of IT and implement the European Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC). The main changes are: 1. The right to “interactive disposition” which regulates the way authors offer […]
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Music: commission wants 1 internet clearing house
The European Commission wants to create 1 European internet rights clearing house for internet content providers. An in-depth study into the current collective management of copyrights shows that a company that wishes to start an online music business has to seek clearance with 25 national copyright management organisations and has to sell no less than […]
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Creative Commons festival in Spain
From 15 to 17 July there will be a (freely accessible) festival on copyleft and creative commons in Barcelona, with talks by Lawrence Lessig, Wikipedia, Cory Doctorow and John Perry Barlow and plenty of workshops, screenings and presentations in the CCCB (Barcelona Contemporary Culture Centre). The festival is devoted to the exploration of non-restrictive alternatives […]
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US Supreme Court: liability for P2P software providers
The US Supreme Court has handed down a slashing verdict for the makers of peer to peer software. In the case of MGM versus Grokster and StreamCast the judges find the software producers liable for copyright infringements committed by users of the software. The court uses three arguments for this theory of extended liability. First […]
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EDRI contribution to WIPO prep-meeting Development Agenda
The Second Inter-sessional Intergovernmental Meeting on a Development Agenda took place in the WIPO Headquarters in Geneva from 20 to 22 June 2005. EDRI was represented this time by Ville Oksanen. He got two chances to address the meeting. EDRI stressed the importance of the creation of the independent WIPO Evaluation and Research Office as […]
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