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Deutsch: Online-Piraterie nicht schuld an rückläufigen Musikumsätzen

As continuously argued by different IT specialists, digital freedom activists and organisations during the last few years, online piracy does not affect music industry revenues, as it is shown by a new research performed by The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies which is part of European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

After having examined the browsing habits of 16 000 Europeans, the researchers found there is actually a positive relationship between online piracy and visits to legal music s

The Swedish Court of Appeal has referred to ECJ (European Court of Justice) a case involving the question of whether publishing a hyperlink to content can be considered a communication to the public and, implicitly, a breach of the creator’s copyright (in case the hyperlink is published without the author’s consent), under the European law.

The case in question is that of Svensson, a Swedish journalist who wrote an article published by a Swedish newspaper both in print and on the newspaper’s website and who claimed that Retriever Sverige AB, a subscription service providing links to articles that can be found online, had made links to his article available to the public, without his permission, and, therefore, for this he should be compensated.

But Retriever refused

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Deutsch: Spanien: Google verstößt nicht gegen Urheberrecht

The Spanish Supreme Court ruled on 3 April 2012 that Google was not in breach of copyright with its browser and cache services.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Zur Urheberrechtsreform

EDRi presentation to ALDE Group Meeting on 7 March 2012

In this short presentation, I will briefly address two points. Firstly, the need to soberly assess the very difficult position we currently find ourselves in and, secondly, the dangers of failing to learn from past mistakes and endangering the openness of the Internet - its core asset that gives it the societal and economic benefits that we all now take for granted.

According to Commissioner Neelie Kroes, "citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it.

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Deutsch: Britisches Berufungsgericht bestätigt Digital Economy Act

The Court of Appeal has recently rejected the claims made by the two UK ISPs, BT and TalkTalk, that the Digital Economy Act (DEA) violates EU laws.

DEA requires ISPs to send warning letters to widespread file-sharers advising them that complaints have been made against them, and to provide lists of alleged infringements to music and film companies.

The ISPs brought the issue to the court arguing that DEA breached EU laws on data protection and privacy by restricting the customers' basic rights, was incompatible with provisions set out in the E-Com

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Introduction

Following the initial discussions in the European Parliament and the overwhelmingly negative workshop that was held on 1 March, ACTA is close to dead in Europe. What are the strategies for bringing it back to life and how will this impact on other similar initiatives? How can activists ensure that our great success so far can be maintained?

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Deutsch: Roadmap der Kommission für die Überprüfung der Urheberrechtsrichtli...

The European Commission recently published a "roadmap" to the review of the Directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement (2004/48/EC). As it is becoming traditional, the Commission neatly mixes up all kinds of infringements, from dangerous fake medicines to illegal downloads and seeks a "one size fits all" solution.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Urheberrechts-Kombinatorik

Although the creation of the single market has been the primary focus of the European Union for decades, it often seems that for every step forward it takes two back. In that respect it's often rather interesting to look at the mathematics as they play out in the different directives that come out of Brussels.

The EU Copyright Directive outlines 21 different optional exceptions or limitations to the right of reproduction of copyrighted works.