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Deutsch: Anhörung zu ACTA im LIBE Ausschuss

On 16 May 2012, LIBE Rapporteur on ACTA, Mr. D. Droustas, hosted the event “the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) – Compatibility of ACTA with Fundamental Rights”. He welcomed the audience stating that European Parliament (EP)’s task policy is to overcome a challenge, namely to find a balance between new technology, artists’ creations and fundamental rights. He said that Europe has to show the right direction to the international community, in particular allowing citizens to participate proactively in the debate.

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Deutsch: Den Haag: Piratenpartei muss ihre Website zensurieren

On 10 May 2012, the district court of The Hague gave its verdict in the case of BREIN against the Dutch Pirate Party.

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Deutsch: EP lehnt Durchsetzung von Urheberrechten im Rahmen der EU-Sicherheitst...

With a crushing majority of 503 in favour to 55 against and 56 abstentions, the European Parliament yesterday rejected the inclusion of the protection of intellectual property rights as a key element in the protection of Europe's internal security.

In a piece of what the Commission appears to have believed to be a piece of masterful political syllogism, it explained in its Internal Security Strategy (adopted at the end of 2010) that dangerous counterfeit goods are a threat

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Deutsch: Den Worten müssen Taten folgen – Kommende ACTA-Abstimmungen im EP

After months of machinations, delays and politics, it appears that there is no more scope for delay and all four of the Committees giving Opinions on ACTA will finally vote next week.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: ACTA ist noch nicht am Ende

Next week, the European Parliament's Development Committee (DEVE), the first of the five Committees responsible for providing opinions on the proposed ACTA agreement will vote on its draft recommendation.

As of today, it appears more likely than not that the Development Committee will vote in favour of ACTA. The Parliamentarian leading on the dossier is Czech Eurosceptic Jan Zahradil.

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Deutsch: Portugal: Klagen gegen Urheberrechtsverletzer sind zwecklos

In a six-year long case brought by the Portuguese Phonographic Association (Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa -AFP), the Lisbon Criminal Court has recently given a ruling condemning a young men to a 2 month suspended jail sentence and a 880 euro fine.

Initially, AFP was after the 17 years old man (in 2006) for allegedly having shared hundreds of songs online without permission.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Der Tag, an dem sich der Hadopi-Strom in die Piratenbucht ...

On 16 April 2012, the HADOPI Authority published a study on economic models of streaming and downloading services and websites of illegal content (notwithstanding the fact that the content is legal). Included in the study is a list of the 25 most popular unauthorised streaming sites in France.

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Deutsch: Youtube verliert im Fall gegen GEMA

A German court decided on 20 April 2012 that YouTube was indirectly liable for the copyrighted content posted by its users in a case brought to court in 2010 by the royalty collective society Gema.

In this case, the defendant argued that it was not liable as it only provided the hosting platform for its users.