


Subscribe to the bi-weekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe.
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Entscheidung des Europäischen Gerichtshofs in der Rechtssache Bonnier
Bonnier Audio took the Swedish Internet service provider (ISP) Perfect Telecommunication to court, to obtain an order to disclose the identities of alleged infringers of their intellectual property (IP) rights.
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: ACTA – Wir sind noch lange nicht am Ziel
Following the announcement of David Martin, the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in charge of the ACTA dossier in the European Parliament, that he will advise his colleagues to vote against the proposal, a widespread assumption appears to have developed that ACTA is now dead. This is not just wrong. It is dangerous and wrong.
The background of what's happening in the European Parliament is as follows.
Bonnier Audio took the Swedish Internet service provider (ISP), Perfect Telecommunication, to court to obtain a court order to disclose the identities of alleged infringers of their intellectual property (IP) rights. As a result, the Swedish High Court asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) if, assuming such a measure was proportionate, a Member State could introduce legislation which would require telecommunications data to be made available for such purposes. More specifically, would such a national measure be in breach of the Data Retention Directive?
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Hadopi: Bericht verschweigt Rückgang bei den Verkaufszahlen
Although French Hadopi authority has issued its new report to show how effective the three-strikes law was in 2010 cutting Internet piracy to half, the reality is that the system has brought no increase in the revenues for the culture industry as expected by the law promoters.
“Benchmarking studies covering all of the sources available shows a clear downward trend in illegal P2P downloads.
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Erste Sperrverfügungen nach dem spanischen Sinde-Gesetz stehen an
The Spanish Minister of Culture has stated that in only one month since the Spanish anti-piracy law (known as Sinde Law) has been passed, the Commission for Intellectual Property (CIP) has received more than 300 complaints against websites allegedly infringing copyrights, including 79 site takedown requests.
The law that was passed on 1 March 2012, after Spain was threatened of being included on US trade blacklist, allows for the blocking of allegedly infringing sites based on reports from copyright
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: 9. Juni 2012: Europäischer Aktionstag gegen ACTA
On 9 June, there will be another day of action which will give protesters the opportunity to gather across Europe to voice their opposition to the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Civil society protests erupted in February 2012 to express concerns regarding ACTA's impact on fundamental rights and encouragement for Internet surveillance.
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: ENDitorial: Europäisches Parlament verteidigt sich und die Demokratie...
The decision of this week of the European Parliament not to refer ACTA to the European Court of Justice was a decision which has ramifications far beyond the ACTA dossier itself. It is one which will have long-term effects on the institutional standing of the European Parliament.
The functioning of the EU decision-making process relies on a broadly equal balance between the three main institutions - the Commission, the Parliament and the Council (Member States). The European Parliament is the only directly elected institution.
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Deutsches Gericht entscheidet über Netzfilter
A Higher Regional Court in Hamburg ruled on 14 March 2012 that the file-hosting site RapidShare had to proactively filter the files uploaded by its users. A court's press release stated RapidShare was required to block its users from uploading a list of 4 000 files allegedly infringing copyrights.
The present ruling comes to confirm three separate previous rulings by a lower court in cases brought by German booksellers, book publishers and a music rights group.