EDRI - Copyright

ENDitorial: Lessons from the failure of Licences for Europe

bogdan — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 18:35:52 +0000

Now that the Licences for Europe has failed so comprehensively, it is time to reflect on what types of voluntary or self-regulatory initiatives are likely to work and which are likely to fail.

Last May, at the Stockholm Internet Forum, EDRi ran an “unconference” session, which brainstormed about what characteristics a self-regulatory initiative would need to have in order to be likely to succeed. Participants produced eight criteria. To avoid failures or counterproductive outcomes of such projects in the future, it would be valuable for the Commission to develop a comprehensive methodology for analysing the context and potential for success.

Mapping the public domain – a priority for France

bogdan — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:32:17 +0000

On 7 November 2013, during the closing session of the “Transmission of culture during the digital era” event, Aurélie Filippetti, the French Minister of Culture and Communication, announced a R&D partnership between her ministry and the Open Knowledge Foundation France meant to create a French public domain calculator.

The project will thus develop a tool to help establishing the legal status of cultural works, giving the cultural sector the possibility to use it as a pedagogical tool in order to better know the status of a work and to help users in realizing whether they have passed out of copyright into the public domain.

“We often say that a work has “fallen” into the public domain, as though it falls into a state of disuse, abandonment or oblivion.

Failure of "Licenses for Europe"

bogdan — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:26:38 +0000

Ahead of the last meeting of the “Licences for Europe” initiative, EDRi together with other four European civil rights organisations – Centrum Cyfrowe, Kennisland, Modern Poland Foundation and La Quadrature du Net – released, on 13 November 2013, the following joint press release reaffirming the urgent need of an European Copyright reform.

Today, the Licenses for Europe experiment comes to an end.

Failure of "Licenses for Europe" underlines the need for reform of the EU copyright framework

kirsten — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 09:53:15 +0000

Today, the Licenses for Europe experiment comes to an end. This initiative, launched almost a year ago was ostensibly an attempt to 'explore the potential and limits of innovative licensing and technological solutions in making EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age'.

At the end of this process we are compelled to conclude that 10 months of meetings have largely failed to identify any solutions which can be backed by all, or even the majority of, stakeholders involved. It is evident that there is very little consensus among stakeholders about the appropriate approach to making EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age.

ENDitorial: EP draft report on private copy levies – serious or satire?

bogdan — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 18:35:08 +0000

French Socialist MEP Françoise Castex published her draft report on private copying levies on 9 October. The biggest question that the document raises is... are you serious, Ms Castex?

The policy issue being addressed is that “creators” are meant to be “compensated” for private copies that are made of legally acquired content, such as music or printed material. In some EU countries there are no levies, in some EU countries there are low levels of levies.

European Parliament draft report on private copy levies – serious or satire?

joe — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 09:03:22 +0000

French Socialist MEP Françoise Castex published her draft report on private copying levies on 9 October. The biggest question that the document raises is... are you serious, Ms Castex?

The policy issue being addressed is that “creators” are meant to be “compensated” for private copies that are made of legally acquired content, such as music or printed material. In some EU countries, there are no levies, in some EU countries there are low levels of levies.

After 3 years: French authority Hadopi keeps proving its uselessness

bogdan — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 18:00:31 +0000

After three years of existence, Hadopi French authority in charge with the infamous three-strikes gradual response system, has succeeded in proving nothing but a large waste of public money.

To mark its 3-year anniversary, Hadopi has issued its activity report which shows that, to the day, it has succeeded in ordering 1 sole Internet disconnection and, on the other hand, it has experienced large bureaucratic problems and issues with identifying subscribers.

Hadopi has sent a total of 1.912 million notifications to French Internet subscribers as strike one, 186 153 follow-up letters as strike 2 and has caused 1 disconnection as strike 3.

Only for 2013, Hapodi costs the French taxpayers 5.4 million Euro, large part of it spent to answer subscribers who make request regarding

Increased level of online censorship in Italy

bogdan — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 17:57:56 +0000

AGECOM, Italy’s independent Electronic Communications Authority, is on the verge of undertaking the power of ordering the removal of any online content that it deems to be in violation of the copyright law, without the need of the parliament or court approval.

Despite strong criticism from NGOs, ISPs, other companies or legal practitioners, the authority’ new Draft Regulation on Copyright Protection on Electronic Communication Networks allows it to black out foreign sites and take down Italian ones alleged to have infringed the copyright law, within 48 hours, without any court decision.

The legislation is to be passed definitively in November 2013 after a decision from the European Union.

AGCOM’s bill will give the authority the power to order Internet access provid

ENDitorial: Licences for Europe – user generated content and Commission-generated users

bogdan — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:38:19 +0000

While the entire “Licences for Europe” project has been through a lot of turmoil and subsequently criticised for its lack of credibility, the so-called “Working Group 2 on User-Generated Content” takes absurdity to a whole new dictionary-changing level.

One of the “user” groups that was invited by the Commission, at the request of Neelie Kroes's DG Connect, is “Together against Cybercrime”. Even the name of the organisation raises warning flags – user-generated content (however that can be defined) is not a crime.

At the first meeting of the group, Yuliya Morenets was listed as giving a presentation and was on the agenda as representing the UN's Youth Internet Governance Forum (Youth IGF).

LSE report: file-sharing is rather beneficial to music industry

bogdan — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:36:35 +0000

A new report shows again file-sharing is not detrimental to the entertainment industry sales, but quite the opposite. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has released a new policy brief asking the UK Government to take into consideration more than the industry lobbying efforts when deciding on the copyright enforcement policies such as the Digital Economy Act (DEA).

The report states there is strong evidence that file-sharing is helping, rather than hurting the entertainment industries. There have been several research reports during the last years showing that file-sharing can have positive effects but they have always been counter-attacked by industry lobbyists.