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Vote on IPR enforcement delayed again
The vote on the Draft Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, originally foreseen for the meeting of the Judicial Affairs Committee of the European Parliament last Monday, has been postponed again. The Rapporteur, Janelly Fourtou (Conservative, France) had to give in to a request for delay supported by a majority composed of Social […]
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199 amendments on IP enforcement directive
Last Monday, the European Parliament’s Judicial Affairs Committee (JURI) should have discussed its Report on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. But the agenda was so overcrowded that the Rapporteur, French MEP Janelly Fourtou, could only make some introductory remarks before the session was over. Overwhelmed by the large number of 199 amendments the Parliament’s […]
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IPR Enforcement: rapporteur ready for compromise
On 4 November there was a heated debate in the Judicial Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament about the proposed new directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. According to Social Democrat Willy Rothley from Germany “the EU Commission aggressively attempts to exceed its authorities and assume competencies it does not hold. Senselessly, […]
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Campaign against proposed IP Enforcement Directive
An international coalition of 39 civil liberties groups and consumer rights organisations sent a letter to the European Union on 11 August urging rejection of the proposed intellectual property enforcement directive. The coalition warns that the proposed Directive is over-broad and threatens civil liberties, innovation, and competition policy. The proposal requires EU Member States to […]
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Deep-linking legal in Germany
The German Federal Supreme Court ruled on 17 July that deep links from a news search engine to articles on a publishers web site do not violate German copyright or competition law. The plaintiff, a media group that publishes several newspapers and magazines, including ‘Handelsblatt’ and ‘DM’, sued the search engine provider www.paperboy.de for forbearance. […]
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Landwell scares Spanish peer-to-peer users
On 17 July, Landwell, a Spanish legal firm related to Price-Waterhouse-Coopers, issued a press release stating that they were planning to present a lawsuit against 4.000 Spanish Kazaa users for illegally downloading copyrighted material such as movies, songs or software. They announced they had identified a total of 95.000 Spanish file-sharers, and were going to […]
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Analysis of draft IP enforcement directive
The EU parliament Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market will vote on 11 September on the proposed EU Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The Directive proposes to harmonize IP law in such a way that all enforcement measures available to IP owners in any EU member state must be available […]
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French IP commission promotes internet-surveillance
On 26 June a special copyright advisory board within the French Ministry of Culture published a report supporting government plans to increase surveillance of Internet users as part of a wider bid to stop the online copying of protected works. The Superior Council for Artistic and Literary Intellectual Property (Conseil Supérieur de la Propriété Littéraire […]
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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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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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New EU legislation on copyright infringements
The European Commission has launched a proposal for a new Directive that aims at no less than harmonising penalties for infringements against copyright laws. The proposal, adopted by the Commission at the end of January, is currently under discussion in the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. A first draft of a ‘Working Document’ […]
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Evaluation of Directive on Electronic Pay Services
In their formal evaluation of the European Directive on Electronic Pay-Services (98/84/EC), the European Commission strongly promotes legal measures against copyright infringements. The report, published 2 weeks ago, evaluates the implementation and enforcement of the directive by member states and candidate countries, from its adaptation in November 1998 through to December 2002. Part of the […]
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