About: Copyrights Archives

Over a million jobs and up to €240 billion in business could be lost in the European Union over the next five years as a result of illegal downloading, according to a new study into Internet piracy.

Cross-border crimes, such as money laundering or counterfeiting, should be defined in the same way across all EU countries, according to the bloc's new Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who will outline her long-term ambitions at a conference in Brussels today (18 March).

An upcoming global trade agreement on copyright and counterfeiting, known as ACTA, will not rewrite EU rules on the liability of internet service providers, a leading European Commission official told EURACTIV, denying media reports that suggest otherwise.

Talks in Brussels to streamline so-called private copying levies yesterday (7 January) reached a standstill when collecting societies and global ICT companies could not agree on bringing the levies up to speed with the demands of digital reproduction.

Governments and companies pushing for greater monitoring of Internet activity pose a major threat to freedom and democracy, according to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

Published works from the US, UK, Australia and Canada only will be included in Google's digital book search project, Google and book industry representatives agreed on Friday (13 November).

The European Commission will establish "simple and cost-efficient rights clearance systems" on the digitisation of published works and their availability on the Internet, it announced this week (19 October).

The EU's proposed telecoms package is anti-innovation and infringes users' fundamental freedoms, Jeremie Zimmerman, founder of Internet civil liberties group La Quadrature du Net, told EURACTIV in an interview.

The EU's telecoms package is set to relinquish control of the Internet to network operators, say Web activists, who are busy lobbying ministers and MEPs ahead of an imminent third reading of the legislation.

Google, supported by the American Author's Guild, has appealed for EU support for their digital book initiative ahead of a European Commission hearing on alleged copyright violations next Monday (7 September).

The EU is renewing threats to impose trade sanctions against the US if Washington does not change copyright rules to guarantee protection for European authors, the European Commission said in a report.

The French Constitutional Council has invalidated parts of a draft French bill to crack down on Internet piracy, clearing the way for negotiations on the EU telecoms package to resume after ministers clashed with Parliament on Internet users' rights. 

European newspapers yesterday (18 May) voiced concerns that a decision by Google News to sell advertising on the site will hit publishers' revenues. But Google denied that it was planning to introduce adverts on its European service.

The EU institutions yesterday (29 April) reached a political deal on provisions to counter piracy over the Internet, which had been the last outstanding obstacle to the final adoption of the telecoms package.

Legislators in the European Parliament rejected France's tough approach against illegal file-sharing on the Internet. If their views were to become EU law, the so-called "three strike" approach, where consumers could see their Internet access cut off, could be outlawed.

A controversial decision by a Swedish court against online file-sharing site Pirate Bay last week has led to a surge in membership of a related political movement, the Pirate Party, turning it into Sweden's fourth largest political force ahead of the European elections in June.

The French parliament's lower house passed proposals last Thursday (2 April) to introduce a three-step approach to dealing with Internet users who illegally download music or videos. Under the new rules, the toughest in Europe, serial offenders could see their connections suspended, but it remains unclear how culprits will be identified.

As cultural content migrates online on a massive scale, legal battles are multiplying to prevent piracy, protect copyright and make money out of this growing business.

The European Commission is set to put proposals to tackle online piracy on ice until the end of its current mandate, following heavy pressure from telecoms companies and consumer organisations alike, EURACTIV has learned.

The European Commission will reopen the 'Pandora's box' of online copyright protection with a new legislative initiative on e-commerce, after attempts to filter Web traffic failed during negotiations over the telecoms package.

Despite strong pressure, the European Commission decided to ban certain copyright handling practices, triggering angry reactions from rights managers.

European composers and songwriters threatened yesterday (3 July) to "play havoc" with the music market by withdrawing their catalogues if the European Commission goes ahead with its plan to introduce more competition between collecting societies.

The European Parliament urged member states to adopt newly drafted EU rules on copyright protection, introducing harmonised criminal sanctions across Europe for activities ranging from illegal downloading to the sale of counterfeit medicines.

The European Commission has reopened the sensitive dossier of copyright levies with the launch of a public consultation to simplify the way the tax is imposed across the 27 EU member states.