Shortly before the next elections in Germany which will take place exactly a year from now, the German government set into motion the adoption of a new copyright law that, if it passed parliament, would be unique in the world. Unique, however, in every negative sense of the word. In essence, the German government would…
As CCIA Geneva Representative Nick Ashton-Hart writes in his IP Watch op ed this week, the entire intellectual property community knows there are problems with the World Intellectual Property Organization. “WIPO’s accountability, transparency, and governance are not fit for purpose in the 21st century,” he said. The piece goes on to offer brief details on six reforms…
Brussels is a town full of diplomats, civil servants, lobbyists….and a few politicians. We know that most diplomats are very discreet and that politicians are, well, noisy. But what about trade associations? In my experience most associations here dilute their work because of a reluctance to speak ‘loud and clear’ on the issues of the…
In copyright online, anyone can claim to own the rights of others and profit by it … and all too often, they do. Copyright owners in the creative sector are very vocal in demanding payment for their rights – and removal of material that isn’t licensed – both of which they are of course entitled…
Notice-and-takedown (NTD) procedures and practices just recently caught renewed attention as a result of two events involving Google and its subsidiary YouTube. First, a video of Curiosity’s Mars landing, posted by NASA, disappeared from YouTube due to a wrongful copyright claim. The takedown was a result of certain imperfections in YouTube’s Content ID system that…
From July 16th to 25th, the world’s copyright decision-makers met, as they do twice each year, at the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) in Geneva. Are you sleeping yet? It sounds dull – and these meetings can be – but they may prove to be the key to ensuring that the worldwide copyright system’s legal…
Last week the European Parliament (EP) rejected ACTA in its plenary session in Strasbourg. What might seemed very unlikely only a few months ago, in the final vote a total of 478 MEPs were against the agreement, with 39 voting in favor and 165 representatives abstaining from a vote. There is a broad agreement that this result…
All around the world, a debate rages over the protection of users’ actions and information online. In the developed world, this is seen primarily through the lens of personal privacy protections: how and when users’ data on popular services like Google and Facebook may be used commercially. Elsewhere in the world, the issues are often…
Last week the European Commission initiated a public consultation titled: “A clean and open Internet: Public consultation on procedures for notifying and acting on illegal content hosted by online intermediaries”. As the name suggests, the consultation addresses rules and procedures for notifying and acting (N&A) on illegal content hosted by online intermediaries. This consultation is…
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