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Deutsch: UK: Schuldlose User der Verletzung von Urheberrechten bezichtigt

ACS:Law having sent tens of thousands of cash demands to make supposed copyright infringement lawsuits go away, has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Group for "bullying and excessive conduct".

The referral was the result of a coordinated work of wrongly accused people and of consumers groups such as Which? and BeingThreatened.com. However, Andrew Crossley, the principal of ACS:Law, goes regularly to court against thousands of individuals he states are infringing his clients' copyrights, although he presents no solid proof for his allegations.

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Deutsch: Deutschland: YouTube wegen Verletzung von Urheberrechten verurteilt

On 3 September 2010, the German Hamburg state court ruled that Google's subsidiary YouTube had to pay damages for not having prevented and blocked the upload by its users of several videos of Sarah Brightman's performances, thus violating its copyright.

Although YouTube uses a standardized form to users regarding their right to publish materials, the court did not find this enough and considered YouTube as legally responsible for the content uploaded, especially as the platform can be used anonymously, in the court's opinion.

YouTube uses Content ID, an anti-pirating technology to check out video

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Deutsch: Französische Behörden wollen Nutzer zur Installation von Spyware ver...

Hadopi (the French Authority for the implementation of the 3 strikes law) did not make public the document regarding the draft specifications of the security measures for the Internet (part of the three strikes system), although the document should lay at the basis of a public consultation.

However, under the pretext that the document was a preparatory one, the authority decided to treat it as confidential.

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Deutsch: Niederländischer Internetdienste-Anbieter muss The Pirate Bay nicht s...

The Court of The Hague, in a decision of 19 July 2010, dismissed a request by Dutch copyright enforcement organisation Brein to order Internet provider Ziggo to block access to The Pirate Bay.

In its decision in summary proceedings, the court states that it is only possible to grant a blocking order with regard to The Pirate Bay if Brein also shows that Ziggo's customers are using The Pirate Bay to infringe copyright.

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Deutsch: Deutschland: Hosting-Unternehmen müssen keine Wortfilter einsetzen

The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf decided on 21 July 2010 that RapidShare, as a hosting company, is not guilty of copyright infringement.

RapidShare has faced several cases in court for copyright infringement and in December 2009 lost a case in a local German court to Capelight Pictures movie studio which accused the site of not having taken all reasonable measures to counter the illegal distribution of one of its films.

However, after RapidShare appealed the decision, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf overturned the 2009 decision.

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Deutsch: Belgische ISPs müssen The Pirate Bay nicht sperren

Two Belgian ISPs have won their court battle against an anti-piracy group which had demanded that they block the access to The Pirate Bay.

On 9 July 2010, the Antwerp Commercial Court rejected the blocking demands made by the Belgium Anti-Piracy Federation against the two ISPs, considering that the measure would be "disproportionate".

The entertainment industry has exerted pressures recently on ISPs to block the Pirate Bay but most of them are refusing to comply.

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Deutsch: Zwei britische ISPs bringen Digital Economy Act vor Gericht

The two big UK ISPs, BT and TalkTalk, have asked the High Court to carry out a judicial review of the most controversial aspects of the Digital Economy Act, in order to establish whether it is in contradiction with existing privacy and electronic communication laws.

The law will force ISPs to disconnect their customers deemed by intellectual property rights holders to have allegedly infringed copyrights.

"The companies share a concern that obligations imposed by the Act may not be compatible with important European rules that are designed to ensure that national laws are proportionate, protect users' priva

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Deutsch: ACTA – Neue Sanktionen für die nicht-gewerbliche Nutzung von Urhebe...

A new round of negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is in progress until 1 July 2010 at Luzern, Switzerland between 11 parties including the EU.

A document leaked from the EU Presidency dated 7 April 2010 shows that EU member states intended to introduce under ACTA more criminal sanctions for copyright infringements even for non-commercial reasons.

The EU Presidency document stated that the position of the EU Member States is still under examination with regard to article 2.14.1 covering copyright or related rights infringements.