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Ever since DADVSI, the French implementation of the European Copyright Directive, Internet users in France have faced increasingly disproportionate threats of punishment for claims of copyright infringement. The latest scheme promoted by the content industry against unauthorized sharing of music and films on Internet is called "flexible response" or "three strikes, you're dead".

The principle is simple: repeated infringements result in getting cut off from the Internet. A claimed copyright infringer is identified by automated Internet traffic filtering and by a rightsholders' denunciation. After a complaint to the ISP, a letter is sent warning the alleged infringer that he might be being cut off from the Internet. In the

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The extension of the copyright law aimed at fighting illegal file-sharing adopted on 11 April 2008 by the German Government creates concerns on how the p2p-related lawsuits will be considered under the new law.

The new text forces the ISPs to reveal the names and IP addresses of the file sharers. However, some lawyers warn that the procedure is limited by conditions that could turn against the music industry in court procedings .

The present procedure is as follows: industry detectives report the IP numbers of file sharers to the German police who traces the suspects and prosecutes those who offer more than 1000 tracks. However, the industry can demand the police files of all file sharers and

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The 9th meeting of the Council of Europe (CoE) group of specialists on Human Rights in the Information Society (MC-S-IS) was held in Strasbourg from 31 March to 2 April 2008. At the same time, on 1-2 April, another division of the CoE was holding in a building across the street its 2008 Octopus conference on cooperation against cybercrime. This schedule overlapping is not the only sign that CoE's left hand seems to ignore what its right hand is doing: different divisions are also addressing same issues, though from different points of view and with different results.

It happened this time with the guidelines for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). While the Octopus conference was discussing and then adopting its

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Commissioner Charlie McCreevy's announcement in February 2008 that he proposes to nearly double the term of copyright protection for sound recordings from 50 to 95 years came as a shock to UK digital rights campaigners. Back in 2006, here in the UK, the case against copyright term extension was robustly made - by campaigners such as my organisation, the Open Rights Group, and more importantly, by economists from one of the UK's leading universities. It led to a firm commitment from our Government that they would never seek to extend copyright term retrospectively.

There is no case for copyright term extension. Term extension would reduce, yet again, the size of the public domain, harming public

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On 11 March 2008 Ville Oksanen, representing EDRi at the WIPO SCCR, made the following statement on the agenda item related to limitations & exceptions:

"European Digital Rights, EDRI, represents 28 privacy and civil rights organisations from 17 different countries in Europe. As this is the first time EDRI takes the floor, we'd like to congratulate you and your vice chairs on your election.

Not surprisingly, we are strongly in favour of starting the work that would hopefully lead to new international instrument on limitations and exceptions of copyright. EDRI therefore warmly supports the proposal presented by the honourable delegate of Chile.

However, EDRI firmly believes that any new instrument should have also

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Nicola Zingaretti, Socialist Member of the European Parliament (MEP) asked the EU member states to speed up the plan to criminalise copyright infringement that was first proposed in 2005 and agreed upon in 2007. The implementation of the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2) creating new rules on copyright protection would require the Member States to pass laws that would penalise the infringement of intellectual property rights.

At the beginning of February, Nicola Zingaretti, who was in charge of the adoption of the new rules and a supporter of IPRED2, sent a letter to the European Council asking member states to take "urgent action" to address the

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On 14 February 2008, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy announced his intention to propose to the European Commission (EC), in the next several months, an extension of the copyright term for performers from 50 to 95 years. This proposal should be ready for adoption by the Commission before the summer break of 2008.

As a justification to his action, Commissioner McCreevy stated: "I strongly believe that copyright protection for Europe's performers represents a moral right to control the use of their work and earn a living from their performances. I have not seen a convincing reason why a composer of music should benefit from a term of copyright which extends to the composer's life

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The European Commission has recently extended its formal probes launched on 14 January 2008 against Microsoft in two cases where it has been alleged that the multinational firm had abused its dominant market position.

The first case was brought by a complaint from web browser Opera, which complained that the tying of Microsoft's Internet Explorer to its Windows operating system was anti-competitive.

The second case under investigation was the complaint filed by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems for the Microsoft's refusal to disclose interoperability information on some Microsoft server products, Office and NET Framework. In relation to this case the Commission also intends to

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The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has decided on 29 January 2008 in the case of Productores de Música de España Promusicae vs. Telefónica de España considering that the European law "does not require member states to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings". However, the decision allows the national courts to do that if the national interpretation requires so: "As to those directives, their provisions are relatively general, since they have to be applied to a large number of different situations which may arise in any of the Member States."

The decision came in the case where the Spanish music Association Promusicae asked the ISP Telefonica to hand over the names and addresses of the

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On 3 January 2008, the European Commission (EC) launched a public consultation for the preparation of a recommendation on Creative Content Online to be adopted by the European Parliament and Council that calls for a common legal environment for online content, proposing multi-territory licences.

In the opinion of the European Commission, EU policies should support the rapid implementation of "new services and related business models for the creation and circulation of European content and knowledge online."

As a result of the public consultation on "Content Online in the Single Market" launched by the EC in July 2006, there were several calls for the encouragement of the cooperation between industry, right holders and