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EDRI condemns actions against European file-sharers
European Digital Rights condemns action taken by the international phonographic industry association (IFPI) against European users of file-sharing networks. On 30 March IFPI announced legal actions against a total of 247 file-sharers in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada. Similar actions were announced by the French and Swiss music industry shortly after. Following previous actions in […]
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New Italian decree forbids file-sharing
The Italian government has issued a decree on Friday 12 March that puts a fine of 1.500 euro on the internet file-sharing of feature movies. On top of the fine, computers and digital storage media can be seized. To complete the humiliation for the file-sharer, the sentence has to be published in 1 national daily […]
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EU adopts contested IPR Enforcement Directive
On 9 March the European Parliament finally adopted the Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. The Strasbourg Plenary passed the text, which had previously been agreed behind closed doors by a handful of MEPs in no less than 11 informal meetings with the Council, without any amendment. Although majorities were much thinner than […]
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New EU-plans to promote broadband access
The European Telecom ministers have welcomed new action plans from the Commission to promote broadband access in Europe. The Commission calls on Member States who have not yet put in place a national broadband strategy to do so without delay, with a focus on delivering broadband in under-served areas via a variety of platforms. This […]
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Fast track procedure for IPR Enforcement
The European Union’s disputed Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights is scheduled for a fast-track procedure that may lead to it being adopted by the European Council in little more than two weeks. At present, it is still under discussion in the Brussels Parliament. The Rapporteur, French Conservative Janelly Fourtou, and the Council […]
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More delay for IPR Enforcement and SoftPat Directives
The final vote on two of the most controversial information society Directives, the Directive on Software Patents and the Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights has been delayed once more. The IPRE directive was withdrawn last minute from the 9 February plenary agenda of the European Parliament. On 6 February the Council presented […]
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German DP Commissioner criticizes draft IPR Enforcement
Peter Schaar, appointed 2 months ago as Germany’s chief Data Protection Commissioner, has severely criticized the draft Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, currently under discussion in the European Parliament and the Council. Interviewed by the online news service Heise, Schaar said the Directive brought along many risks, including deep cuts into the […]
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Draft position EU Council on IPR Enforcement
The Irish Presidency of Council of the European Union has published a Draft Common position on the planned Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. On 13 January the Document was discussed in Strasbourg with interested Members of the European Parliament and with the Commission officials who had drafted the initial proposal for the […]
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Norway: no more court cases for DVD-Jon
The case against DVD-Jon (Jon Johansen) finally ended on 5 January 2004, when the Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (Okokrim) confirmed it would not appeal the upholding of his acquittal on copyright charges to the Supreme Court of Norway. DVD-Jon won the first trial on the 6th of January 2003. The Norwegian Okokrim appealed but Jon […]
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No criminal sanctions in IPR enforcement directive
There will be no criminal sanctions in the proposed European directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights after all. In the previous edition of EDRI-gram there was a report about an amendment of MEP Mercedes Echerer (Greens, Austria) on Article 20 that would re-introduce sanctions in criminal law, even for private and relatively small-scale […]
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EP Committee wants to jail file sharers
On 27 November the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament finally voted on the Draft Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. The vote was a total victory for the Rapporteur, French Conservative Janelly Fourtou. Every single one of her amendments passed, and so did all of the compromise amendments she had […]
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Retrial of DVD-Jon in Norway
The Norwegian Jon Johansen pleaded ‘not guilty’ during the retrial on 2 December of his acquittal for reverse-engineering DVD technology and creating DeCSS in 1999. DeCSS is computer software that Johansen and others wrote in an effort to build an independent DVD player for the Linux operating system. In January 2003, a three-judge panel in […]
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