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Deutsch: Deutscher Bundesgerichtshof: Entscheidung im Fall RapidShare

A file-hosting site could be partially liable for the content uploaded by others in Germany.

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Deutsch: EP: Bericht zum Online-Vertrieb audiovisueller Werke birgt Überraschu...

On 10 July 2012, the Culture and Education (CULT) Committee in the European Parliament (EP) voted on the own initiative report of Jean-Marie Cavada (EPP, France) on the online distribution of audiovisual content.

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Deutsch: Kultur: Globaler Wandel in Produktion und Konsum

The Green MEPs Eva Lichtenberger, Sandrine Bélier and Helga Trüpel hosted an event on 7 June 2012 in the European Parliament on the global changes in production and consumption of cultural goods.

The first speaker at the event was Frédéric Martel, writer, journalist, researcher and book critic who worked at the French Embassy in Boston as head of the French cultural and academic services. The mutation is due to two different phenomena: globalisation and digitalisation.

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Deutsch: Spanien: Google verstößt nicht gegen Urheberrecht

The Spanish Supreme Court ruled on 3 April 2012 that Google was not in breach of copyright with its browser and cache services.

Getting rid of the copyright’s aspect in ACTA as Mrs Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (German Federal minister of justice) suggested would fail to solve ACTA’s inherent problems.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of issues that will not be solved by political sleight of hand.

A fair balance between protecting intellectual property rights and preserving fundamental rights would still not be achieved. As confirmed by the European Economic and Social Committee, ACTA's approach is aimed at further strengthening the position of rights holders vis-à-vis the "public".

For decades, committed pro-European politicians and academics have wished for a number of ingredients that would be necessary for the credibility of the European institutional framework. They wanted an effective, representative and democratic European Parliament. They wanted a European Parliament that was not just theoretically an equal player in the institutional framework in Brussels, but a Parliament that was a genuine counterweight to the Council (the Member States) and the European Commission. Finally, and most difficult to create, pro-European thinkers dreamed of the possibility of pan-European political campaigns driven by pan-European political movements.

After all of the announcements of ACTA's death, one would wonder why anybody would have felt the need to turn up to the anti-ACTA demonstrations today. In April, the European Parliamentarian in charge of the ACTA dossier said that ACTA was dead.[1] In May, the European Commissioner for the Information Society, Neelie Kroes, said that ACTA was dead.[2] Now, in June, four different European Parliament Committees rejected ACTA.[3] Was tumbleweed going to be the only participant at the ACTA demonstrations?

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Deutsch: EDRi-Stellungnahme zur Konsultation über Abgaben auf Privatkopien

In November 2011, the European Commissioner Michel Barnier appointed Mr Antonio Vitorino – former EU Commissioner – as mediator in the dialogue on private copying levies. A public consultation was (quite discreetly) launched by Mr Vitorino in April 2012. The consultation deadline, to which EDRi answered, was last Thursday.

In its answers, EDRi underlines the incoherence of having a levy on private copying when there is no consistency in EU regarding the scope of private copying.