26053412
submission
superglaze writes:
Against the backdrop of governments and courts around the world ordering ISPs to block file-sharing sites, European commissioner Neelie Kroes has said people have started to see copyright as "a tool to punish and withhold, not a tool to recognise and reward". "Citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it," the EU's digital chief said, adding that the copyright system also wasn't rewarding the vast majority of artists.
20107016
submission
superglaze writes:
Google has been found liable in an Italian court for defamatory comments made against an anonymous plaintiff — the complainant's name, when googled, elicited autocomplete suggestions that translate as "con man" and "fraud". Google was found not to qualify for EU 'safe harbour' protection because the autocomplete suggestions were deemed to be Google's own creation, and not something merely passing through its systems.
9964076
submission
superglaze writes:
The European Commission is "not supporting and will not accept" any attempt to have Acta (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) force countries to disconnect people for downloading copyrighted material, a spokesman for the new EU trade commissioner has said.
All the signs are that the new commission, which took office earlier this month, intends to take a hardline stance against US proposals for a filesharing-related disconnection system. 'Three strikes' is allowed in EU countries, but not mandated by the European government itself, and it looks like the new administration wants to keep it that way. From trade commssion spokesman John Clancy, quoted in ZDNet UK's article:
"[Acta] has never been about pursuing infringements by an individual who has a couple of pirated songs on their music player. For several years, the debate has been about what is 'commercial scale' [piracy]. EU legislation has left it to each country to define what a commercial scale is and this flexibility should be kept in Acta."
7399648
submission
superglaze writes:
A pub owner in the UK has been fined £8,000 because someone downloaded copyrighted content over their free Wi-Fi hotspot, according to a Wi-Fi firm chief quoted in ZDNet UK. The details of the case are still hazy because the quoted source is not yet ready to specify the pub in question, and because legal experts are of the opinion that he or she shouldn't have been held liable anyway. Still, the story provides something to worry about for any business running open Wi-Fi in the current, crackdown-happy copyright environment. As internet law professor Lilian Edwards warns in a follow-up story, such hotspot operators should "watch out for the pile of copyright infringement warnings" their way.
7240130
submission
superglaze writes:
UK mobile broadband providers currently have no way of telling which subscribers are file-sharing which copyrighted content, ZDNet UK reports. This represents something of a problem for new laws that have been proposed to crack down on unlawful filesharing. According to the article, databases could be built to make it possible to identify what specific users are downloading, but the industry is loath to fund this sort of project itself.
Also, as an analyst points out in the piece, prepay users are mostly anonymous in the UK, which creates a new challenge for the government's plans. And if that isn't enough, connection-sharing apps like JoikuBoost would make identification pretty much impossible anyway.
