EU withdraws copyright reform plan
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The European Commission said Wednesday it had withdrawn plans that could end copyright levies on electronic equipment but denied it had done so under pressure from the French government.
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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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BRUSSELS  - The European Union executive body dropped disciplinary action against serial deficit offenders France and Germany, ending a three-year standoff that left the eurozone&#39;s budget rules crippled.
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Authors and composers have until July  9 to comment on proposed new EU rules loosening restrictive  territorial contracts for copyright registration on the  Internet, satellite and cable retransmission of music.
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Reformers shift battleground to Court of Justice The European Commission has quietly iced plans to reform copyright levies, just days before they were due to go into effect.â¦
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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 European Commission has delayed a  decision on whether to reform a tax on gadgets such as MP3  players that can reproduce copyright material, the European  Union executive said on Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - 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. The Commission also wants to change the fee distribution regime to open up the market to greater competition. However, it has said it would be enough for collecting societies, which operate in each European country on behalf of artists and publishers, to reform the way they work online themselves. But in a show of hands rather than an actual vote count at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg Tuesday, a large majority of parliamentarians said this wasn't enough. "I am not happy with the softer approach taken by the Commission in regulating this area, which is of growing economic importance," said Hungarian Socialist member of the European Parliament, Katalin Levai. "It requires more than just soft law to open up this market. A binding legal instrument is needed," said Federico de Girolamo, a spokesman at the Parliament. At the moment musicians and publishers must choose the collecting society in the country where they are based to handle the collection of the royalties generated from both online and offline music distribution. These collecting societies collect royalties generated from around Europe on behalf of the artists in their countries. They argue that this form of cooperation is sufficient to create a properly functioning, competitive single market across the 27 countries in the EU. The Commission has been examining the way collecting societies operate for many years. It stopped short of proposing a law to pry open the market because it said this might stifle progress in the fast-evolving space. "The Commission wishes to note that the online market is still only in a stage of development -- we need to be especially careful not to limit its potential by adopting an overly inflexible approach," said Vladimir Spidla, the European commissioner for employment, who was standing in for Single Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy at a meeting with members of the European Parliament Monday. Parliamentarians Monday rejected Spidla's fears. "We don't want unrestrained competition at any cost. We feel a law is needed to ensure competition, while at the same time guaranteeing cultural diversity around Europe and protecting the interests of smaller, lesser-known artists who might suffer if competition drove down royalties too far," said de Girolamo. The Commission didn't rule out introducing a proposal for a law along the lines the Parliament is calling for. However, people close to Commission president Jose Mauel Barroso said the Commission -- the EU's executive body -- has no appetite for pursuing a law. "Barroso has been approached by companies in the music industry who have urged him to avoid proposing a law," said one source close to the Commission who asked not to be named. In a separate but related matter concerning copyright levies charged on blank CDs, photocopiers, printers, and the like, Barroso last year ordered McCreevy to abandon a plan to harmonize rules across the EU after he was lobbied heavily both by copyright owners, including record companies, and by the French government. The Parliament stopped short of giving precise instructions to the Commission concerning an online copyright law. "It's not for us to dictate the content of the framework directive we want to see. That's for the Commission to do," de Girolamo said.
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[JURIST] BBC News is reporting that incoming EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has withdrawn his proposed slate of Commissioners from consideration by the European Parliament after a dispute over the inclusion of controversial Justice portfolio
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European Union ministers on Tuesday  postponed the adoption of controversial new rules on patenting  computer inventions after Poland said it needed more time to  consider the issue.
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Will downloaders go to jail? The European Parliament's committee for legal affairs meets today to vote on proposals for criminal penalties to be imposed on those who infringe intellectual property (IP) rights.â¦
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The U.K. is looking to change copyright laws that make it illegal to copy music for personal use and for libraries to archive material under copyright.
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Opponents of the proposal say Poland's move delivers a serious blow to attempts to make software patentable in Europe.
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The European Commission changed its mind Wednesday and abandoned its earlier plan to permit laboratory-made seeds in food without being labeled as such.
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The future of the controversial European Union (E.U.) software patent directive was thrown into doubt Wednesday after the Polish government indicated it could no longer support the legislation in its current form.
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Blog: A ruling by the top court in the European Union deals another blow to the recording industry's efforts to fight the distribution of copyrighted recordings through file-sharing networks.
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The European Commission on Tuesday announced it had abandoned plans to ban the use of pints, pounds and miles in Britain and Ireland, in the face of overwhelming public opinion.