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Deutsch: ENDitorial: ACTA, die Resolution des Europäischen Parlaments und poli...

The European Parliament adopted a widely-reported Resolution on ACTA on 10 March. It contained several positive elements. For example, it insists that the Agreement not go beyond the requirements of existing EU law and demands an impact assessment of ACTA's implementation on fundamental rights and data protection.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Richard Stallmann in Bern über „Urheberrecht vs. Öffen...

On 11 February 2010 the auditorium at the University of Berne was packed for a talk by Richard Stallman on copyright issues. Stallman is better known as the founder of the GNU free software system which, together with the operating system kernel named Linux, is very popular as GNU/Linux.

His talk was to be on software patents, but then he decided that when in Berne, he wanted to protest against aspects of the Berne Convention which constitutes the primary instrument of international law with regard to copyright.

EDRi has prepared an FAQ on the recently leaked ACTA digital chapter. It is available from: http://www.edri.org/files/acta_faq_100222.pdf.

The document covers moves to bring about self-regulatory measures by ISPs to introduce "three strikes" systems, the relationship of ACTA with the existing EU regulatory framework and the potential wider impact of ACTA on fundamental rights.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Europarat belebt untotes WIPO Abkommen wieder

On January 28 and 29, the Council of Europe held a consultation meeting on the launch of work on a new international instrument that would create neighbouring rights for broadcasting organisations. The purpose of this initiative is to take up the work of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) which, following twelve years of negotiation has been unable to reach any agreement on the objectives and scope of a proposed treaty for the protection of broadcasters and cablecasters.

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Deutsch: ACTA: Umstrittenes Urheberrechts-Abkommen im Nebel

The secrecy on the closed international agreement on Intellectual Property issues - ACTA - is making everyone suspicious on the content of the new treaty, which could contain dangerous legislation for digital civil rights.

After the end of talks on ACTA in Mexico, there was little information on the actual topics discussed and issues to be adopted.

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Deutsch: Das Public-Domain-Manifest

A new public manifest called the Public Domain Manifesto was launched on 25 January 2010, as a document developed within COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain, during the last two years.

According to the network, The Public Domain ensures that the principles of Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits") can be fully enjoyed by everyone across the world.

The document outlines a series of general principles (opening with: the Public Domain i

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Deutsch: EDRis Antwort auf die Beratung der Europäischen Kommission über urhe...

EDRi submitted a response to the European Commission's (EC) consultation on "content online".

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Deutsch: IP-Kapitel des EU-koreanischen Freihandelsabkommens ist im Wesentliche...

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) calls upon the EU Parliament and member states to remove the intellectual property rights chapter from the EU - Korea Free Trade Agreement. According to the FFII analysis, the free trade agreement is a threat to software companies, companies that use software, and free software projects; this undermines innovation, competitiveness and legal certainty.

In October 2009, after more than two years of secret negotiations, the EU and the Republic of Korea initialled their free trade agreement.