Collecting societies
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Russian council rejects copyright extension to 70 years
According to a short notice on the website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty the Russian Federation Council rejected a proposal to extend the copyright term on 26 May 2004. The bill, which passed the Duma on 18 May, would extend the period that authors have the rights to their works to 70 years after their […]
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Berlin declaration on music flatrate
During the Wizards of OS conference in Berlin, from 10 to 12 June 2004, legal scientists and civil rights defenders jointly launched a declaration on collectively managed online rights. The declaration is a response to the call for comments on the Communication from the European Commission on the management of copyright and related rights in […]
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Bulgarian complaint against Microsoft
Bulgarian members of Parliament and Internet Society Bulgaria have filed a case with the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission against both Microsoft Bulgaria and Microsoft USA. The members of the Bulgarian Parliament Ivan Ivanov and Stoicho Katsarov and the Internet Society Bulgaria signed a letter to the Competition Protection Commission with four points questioning Microsoft practices […]
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IPR Enforcement Rapporteur made millions on IPR
The rapporteur of the EU Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, Janelly Fourtou (UDF, Conservative, France), has earned millions from business related to Intellectual Property Rights, even while she was shepherding the report through the European Parliament. As several newspapers have investigated, Mrs. Fourtou runs a private fund together with her husband, Jean-René […]
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Creative Commons license success in the UK and Finland
On 25 May 2004 the Creative Commons licensing scheme gained a major victory in Europe. The BBC announced it will apply a CC-license to the content of its Creative Archive, thus offering free public access to some of their audio and video programming. The CC model turns copyright on its head by explaining the ways […]
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Belgian consumer group will appeal in copy protection case
On 27 May 2004 the Belgian court of Brussels rejected the complaint made by the consumer organisation Test-Achats (Test Aankoop) against four record companies in Belgium (EMI, Sony, Universal and BMG) about their use of technical copy protection measures. Test-Achats collected 200 complaints from individual members and demanded that the companies would stop using technical […]
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10 years of internet prosecution in Italy
On 18 May 2004, the Italian Senate turned a highly controversial new decree into law that puts heavy fines and even prison sentences on the download of movies, music or other copyrighted works even when done without any commercial purpose. Though the law speaks of penalties when ‘making a profit’, jurisprudence in Italy has already […]
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Dutch MP3 search engine wins court case
The Dutch MP3 search engine zoekmp3.nl has won a clear victory in an full civil proceedings case they instigated against Brein, a Dutch representative body of both the recording industry and the music rights collecting societies. Zoekmp3 asked and got a clear confirmation that their activities as a search engine do not constitute a copyright […]
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Council adopts bad position on software patents
Tuesday 18 May the Council of the European Union adopted by a qualified majority in its Competitiveness meeting a Common position for the Second Reading of the Software Patent Directive. The text is described by the Foundation for a free Information Infrastructure as ‘the most uncompromisingly pro-patent text yet’. The Common Position, which was agreed […]
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Update on the EU Copyright Directive
Eight Member States were referred by the Commission in December 2003 to the Court of Justice for failure to transpose the Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC) into national law. The deadline for implementation was 22 December 2002, but was only met by Greece and Denmark. Italy, Austria, Germany and the UK transposed the Directive into national law […]
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Collecting societies warned about breaking competition rules
The European Commission warned the 16 different organisations in Europe that collect the royalties on behalf of music-authors that they may be breaking EU competition rules. The collecting societies have closed a pan-European pact in the Santiago agreement, whereby each national organisation functions as the only shop for all European music licenses. “The structure put […]
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Survey on WIPO Broadcasting Treaty
The Union for the Public Domain is organising a survey about the way governments act in the preparation of the proposed WIPO Broadcasting Treaty. The draft stands to give broadcasters the power to regulate copying, reproduction, distribution and right of transmission. It would extend the length of these powers from 20 to 50 years, and […]
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