On 30 March 2013, the consultation on the intellectual property rights enforcement directive (IPRED) will be over. This means that you have three more days to let the European Commission know your thoughts on the current enforcement of copyright in the European Union.

The European Commission now wants to evaluate the efficiency of the current framework and whether or not a revision is necessary. It is the perfect occasion to raise attention to the necessity of a comprehensive copyright reform. Moreover, some questions seem to lead to the conclusion that Internet service providers should be responsible for dealing with alleged infringements online.

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Deutsch: ACTA und TAFTA: Absolute Transparenz ist gefragt

In a letter sent to the president of the European Parliament, Linus Nordberg, a Swedish advocate, developer for Tor and representative of the EDRi-member Association for Digital Liberties from Sweden (Föreningen för digitala fri- och rättigheter – DFRI) asks for transparency and clarity regarding ACTA treaties and an immediate and full release to the public of the related documents.

Nordberg considers that The European Parliament (EP) has given ambiguous messages regarding ACTA, playing an “active role in transparency issues rela

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Deutsch: Hadopi für eine Privatisierung der Rechtsdurchsetzung

The French anti-piracy authority Hadopi has produced a new report on how to fight illegal streaming and downloading of copyrighted material.

This is probably an attempt of ensuring its future as, since its installation in 2009, the authority has not yet proven its efficiency with the so-called three-strikes system, in terms of revenues to the culture industry, and has already cost France tens of millions of euros.

“Some Internet sites, streaming services and direct download sites are specialized in the massive exploitati

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) continues its offensive against torrent websites that are accused of copyright infringement.

Based on the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act from 1998, the group obtained in 2012, from the High Court, the blocking of Newzbin2 and The Pirate Bay through several big UK ISPs and in October 2012, asked again six ISPs (BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk) to begin blocking three more leading BitTorrent sites, Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents.

The ISPs have agreed to block these sites, but only on the basis of a court order.

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: EDRi Leitfaden zur Konsultation zum Urheberrecht

This is just a quick warning that you have until 30 March 2013 if you want to answer to the public consultation on the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED). The directive has been in force since 2004 and requires all Member States to apply remedies and penalties against those engaged in "commercial" infractions of intellectual property law.

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Deutsch: Chisugate: Copyright-Erpressung in Finnland

In the spring of 2012, in Finland, the father of a young girl received what amounted to a blackmail letter from a copyright lawyer. The letter demanded the payment of 600 Euros as damages for having distributed copyright-protected music recordings. The letter also demanded that the father sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the matter.

The father contacted the lawyer and denied having distributed any copyrighted material.

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Deutsch: Europäische Domainnamen unter Druck

On 26 November 2012, 132 or 133 domain names were seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (ICE) in collaboration with the Europol and national law enforcement authorities.