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New Finnish draft copyright law
The Finnish Ministry of Education has published a new draft copyright law. The new proposal does not differ a lot from an earlier version that was rejected by parliament last February. It is still highly complicated and overzealous. On the positive side the so-called ‘community first sale doctrine’ is now limited to commercial entities only. […]
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French consumer unions fight CD copy protection
In a first result of legal procedures against record companies instituted by two French consumer unions, EMI Music France is condemned for deception. Within a month, they must print the following warning on copy protected CD’s: ‘Attention, this CD cannot be read by all players or car-radio’s.’ Late in May, the 2 unions started legal […]
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Turmoil about voting date for EU Patent directive
A proposal to hasten the plenary vote about the EU Software Patent directive was stopped just in time. The voting date now remains set at the 1st of September. The extra time seems extra important now that the public debate about the implications of this directive has only just taken of. Last Monday, the French […]
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Finnish protest against EU copyright plans
EDRI-member Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI) submitted a statement on a proposed EU Directive to harmonise the enforcement of intellectual property laws, including copyrights and patents, across member states. According to EFFI, the new directive is based too unilaterally on studies made for the media industry. For example, the proposal compares piracy to drug trade and […]
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European Court of Justice rules on copyright fees
A recent verdict from the European Court of Justice implies that all EU countries should choose the same legislative translation of ‘equitable remuneration’, a crucial formula in the European Copyright Directive. Weighing the case of the Dutch copyright collecting society SENA versus the national broadcasting organisation NOS, the Court explains how the 1992 EU directive […]
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Germany expands academic use of copyrighted material
On 11 April German parliament agreed on the implementation-proposal of the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD). Only the small liberal opposition party opposed. Public debate centered around new educational and scientific limitations on copyright. The new law allows teachers to make works available to a limited group of class members, e.g. in an intranet, for the […]
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Implementing the European Copyright Directive
One month after the implementation deadline of the European Copyright Directive, only 2 of the 15 member-countries have implemented the law. All over Europe, scientists, legal experts, civil rights and open source groups are warning about possible negative effects on free speech, innovation and academic research. In many countries, civil rights groups joined forces with […]
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