EU revisits copyright levy conundrum
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The European Commissioner in charge of the single market, Charlie McCreevy, said Thursday he is restarting a consultation with industry with the aim of simplifying the European Union&#39;s approach to copyright levies.
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The decision by a group of European labels to legally challenge the European Commission's approval of the Sony/BMG merger could raise questions for future deals.
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Case dismissal challenges European copyright law banning code that breaks DVD copy-protection.
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The European Parliament  called on Monday for binding rules to regulate the bloc&#39;s  online music market and protect less powerful artists, but the  proposal was rejected by the bloc&#39;s executive.
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Wednesday was the first day in the life of a new Central License Agreement for music copyright holders throughout Europe. Now, license authorities and music publishers have agreed to dismantle their "home territories" and recognize each other's copyrights. Is this the prototype for the EU's new single software patent authority?
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A European judge must sort through competing ideas on the balance between intellectual property and fairness to decide whether antitrust penalties against Microsoft (Quote, Chart) should be suspended.
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Can the act of file sharing take place "passively," without the users' direct involvement; and if so, can they no longer be held liable for copyright infringement? That's the question a US district court is preparing to consider.
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U.S. copyright officials say legislators should amend the law so firms that profit from others' infringement of copyright materials can be held liable for their actions. Tech companies and digital-rights activists say proposed changes go too far. By Katie Dean.
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The European Parliament urged the European Commission Tuesday to propose a law that would force the dismantlement of the current method of distributing online copyright fees to songwriters and musicians in Europe.
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Negotiations for a trade agreement between the U.S. and Australia are raising a ruckus among Aussie digital rights activists. At issue is a plan to enact a law there modeled on the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By Patrick Gray.
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Legal costs associated with resolving software patent disputes will double if the European Union ratifies proposals to introduce US-style intellectual property laws, an industry group has warned.
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The acquisition by Microsoft and Time Warner of a company with a significant portfolio of patents covering digital rights management technologies generates scrutiny by European antitrust regulators. The main focus of the investigation: Microsoft. By Wendy M. Grossman.
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Should creators insist on copy protection and other technologies to block the unauthorized spread of their works? That's the first question in a week-long debate on Bits between Rick Cotton, the general counsel of NBC Universal, and Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School.
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A Canadian court has ruled against levies charged on iPods, blank media and other devices in that country. Canadian copyright law charges a levy on blank media, such as audio tapes and optical discs.
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Should creators insist on copy protection and other technologies to block the unauthorized spread of their works?
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(InfoWorld) - A Belgian Internet service provider has appealed a ruling that it must block illegal file-sharing on its network in a case that tests two European Union directives concerning copyright and the extent of responsibility that ISPs have for transmitted content. The appeal contestsÂ a rulingÂ in June by Belgium's Court of First Instance against Scarlet Extended, an ISP formerly owned by Tiscali. Scarlet Extended was ordered to install within six months filtering technology made by software vendor Audible Magic Corp. The company makes software that can identity and block copyright content based on the characteristics of a file, which it calls "digital fingerprints." The ruling has brought into focus two E.U. directives, which E.U. states are required to incorporate into their national laws. While the E.U. E-Commerce Directive says that ISPs are mere conduits and not liable for monitoring content on their networks, the court disagreed, ruling that filtering is not the same as monitoring. "It's a distinction that the judge makes with very little explanation," said Struan Robertson, senior associate with Pinsent Masons and editor of the legal Web site Out-law.com. The judgment "simply says the mere conduit defense is irrelevant in the circumstances." The judgment appears to reinforce the E.U.'s Information Society Directive, also known as the copyright directive, which says a copyright owner should be able to obtain an injunction against an intermediary that's used for piracy. While the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said after the June ruling the case could set a precedent, it's unclear how the case could influence other European piracy-related cases. "Outside Belgium, other courts might be influenced by this ruling, but they are not bound by this ruling," Robertson said. "Other courts with the same facts might come to a different conclusion." The lawsuit against Scarlet Extended was originally filed in 2004 by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers, known as SABAM. The organization requested an injunction against Scarlet Extended, then known as Tiscali, for allowing music files to be traded on peer-to-peer networks. Â
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European Parliament is pushing for changes in how musicians collect online copyright fees.