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New copyright law in Germany
Today, 9 September 2004, the German minister of Justice presented a cornerstone-paper on the so called ‘second basket’ of copyright regulations, implementing the European Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC). The cornerstone-paper defines a clear right to make private copies, even when ordered by a third party, and does not require the original to be legal, though ‘downloading […]
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Festival report Werkleitz Biennale
For its 6th edition, the Werkleitz Biennale changed location, from Tornitz/Werkleitz to the city of Halle (near Leipzig) in east Germany. The theme ‘common property’ brought together many artists and activists working in copyright-critical environments. The location, a former workers-building from 1907 in very rich Jugendstil overlooking an idyllical park, offered an excellent meetingplace for […]
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Dutch parliament blocks patent vote
On 1 July 2004 the Dutch Lower House adopted a motion directed at Minister Brinkhorst and State Secretary Van Gennip (Economic Affairs) to withdraw the Dutch vote in support of the Council of Ministers’ text for the Directive on Software Patents. It was quite a surprise the motion was accepted. In a letter to MPs, […]
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Linux-plans Munich threatened by EU software patents
The plans from the city council of Munich, Germany, to migrate all civil servants to open source Linux software, are endangered by the proposed new EU software patents directive. The Greens in Munich have filed 2 motions on 30 July 2004 demanding more research into how the directive affects the project. A cursory search revealed […]
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Opinion European Court of Justice: perpetual rights for databases
On 8 June 2004, the European Court of Justice issued an opinion on four (similar) cases regarding the database directive ‘sui generis’ right. The opinion seems to grant perpetual protection to databases, and confirms grave public concerns about the impact of the directive on the use and re-use of online information. Though the opinion of […]
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Recommended participation: nanotech and DRM
The European Commission is organising two interesting public consultation rounds, on nanotechnology and on digital rights management (DRM). The consultation on nanotechnology invites public feedback on the communication ‘Towards a European Strategy for Nanotechnology’, in which the Commission proposes an integrated and responsible approach for developing nanosciences and nanotechnologies in Europe. All interested people are […]
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National parliaments challenge Council on software patents
Since the beginning of July, the European Parliament had two weeks to group up fractions and build coalitions. A new pro-EU Centrist and Liberal group has emerged, which will be the third strongest in the European Parliament after the Conservatives and Social Democrats. Due to all the political power game, there was not much time […]
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Libre Software Meeting 2004 conference report
The LSM conference has become an institution in France and around the globe. It all began in the year 2000 and has now become a well established meeting place for members and friends of the Free Software movement. Between 6-10 July 2004 about 700 persons gathered to discuss the bright future for users of Libre […]
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Report about two copyright conferences
The annual ‘New Directions in Copyright’ conference was held 29 and 30 June 2004 at University of London, organised jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Board and the Birckbeck School of Law. The focus was on legal issues pertaining to recent developments in copyright. The flat fee / compulsory licensing was under serious debate […]
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EU initiative to make DRM more acceptable
The European Commission has funded a new project to make Digital Rights Management more acceptable to consumers. INDICARE (the Informed Dialogue about Consumer Acceptability of DRM Solutions in Europe) is distributing its first e-mail newsletter this week. The newsletter includes links to articles on the INDICARE website that are conceived as the starting point for […]
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EU Commission celebrates 10 years of TRIPS
10 years ago, on 23 June 1994, the TRIPS agreement was concluded as a part of the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO. A good reason for the European Commission to have a party. After all, the Brussels executive body has not only taken the helm within the EU in transposing the agreement, but also goes […]
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Free Bitflows conference Vienna
One of the highlights of the Free Bitflows conference in Vienna, Austria on 3 and 4 June 2004 was a lecture by Brewster Kahle about the Internet Archive. This digital archive aims at no less than offering universal access to all human knowledge, by collecting digital copies of all old and new public domain books, […]
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