IFRRO

Several EU Member States signed ACTA

Last updated on: Mon, 30/01/2012 - 16:31

Most of the 27 member states of the European Union signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on 26 January 2012 in Tokyo, joining the United States, Japan and other ACTA partners. However, several EU countries, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, The Netherlands and Slovakia, still have to sign the agreement.

PEER Economics Research: Final Report now available

Last updated on: Mon, 23/01/2012 - 15:02

The PEER Economics Research Team headed by Professor Paola Dubini, ASK Research Center, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy has completed the economics research commissioned by PEER.

PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research) is investigating the effects of the large-scale, systematic depositing of authors’ final peer-reviewed manuscripts (so called Green Open Access or stage-two research output) on reader access, author visibility, and journals, as well as on the broader ecology of European research. PEER is an EC sponsored project led by STM.

Golan v. Holder: U.S. Supreme Court affirms that copyright can be extended to foreign works once in public domain

Last updated on: Fri, 20/01/2012 - 11:42

On 18 January 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld U.S. Congress’s right to extend copyright protection to millions of books, films and musical compositions by foreign artists that once were free for public use, affirming the decision of the 10th Circuit and upholding the restoration legislation. The decision can be found here.

Priorities of the Danish EU Presidency

Last updated on: Mon, 16/01/2012 - 13:28

Among Denmark’s priorities for its EU presidency (January-June 2012) are advancing intellectual property rights, research and innovation.

According to the document of its priorities (available here), Denmark plans to focus on education, research and innovation programmes, while highlighting, inter alia, IPR enforcement, standards, e-commerce, creativity and accessible online content as priorities.

New Anti-Piracy Measures in Spain

Last updated on: Fri, 13/01/2012 - 11:37

On 30 December 2011, the new Spanish government published a Decree to fight against digital piracy, in order to make the procedure to block access to non-authorised works offered on the Internet easier and faster.

A new body within the Ministry of Culture will be in charge of managing and coordinating the process, which is independent from any other civil or criminal procedure. An individual rightholder or a collective management organisation can address this body and request that the website provider is asked to remove unauthorised content.

European Commission published action plan and consultation on e-commerce

Last updated on: Wed, 11/01/2012 - 16:04

Based on the Green Paper consultation “Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments” adopted today, the European Commission seeks the views of stakeholders as to which obstacles hinder further market integration and how these could be resolved. The deadline for submitting contributions to the consultation is 11 April 2012.

Contributions to EU report on the implementation of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions

Last updated on: Wed, 11/01/2012 - 11:57

The EU has the legal obligation to report on the implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions and asks for contributions from European civil society organisations.

CWWCS sues Apple for unauthorised distribution of copyrighted material

Last updated on: Tue, 10/01/2012 - 13:35

As reported by the Chinese financial newspaper Caixin, the IFRRO member, China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) has filed a formal suit against Apple, claiming that the company’s iBooks electronic book store is distributing the works of a consortium of Chinese writers without their permission. The suit seeks 11.91 million yuan (about US$1.9 million) in compensation for infringement of 37 works (see: http://english.caixin.com/2012-01-06/100346586.html).

Case Austro Mechana versus Amazon - Reference for preliminary ruling before CJEU

Last updated on: Mon, 09/01/2012 - 13:04

The following case has been forwarded to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling: Case C-521/11 Austro-Mechana Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung mechanisch-musikalischer Urheberrechte Gesellschaft m.b.H., Vienna v (i) Amazon.com International Sales Inc., (ii) Amazon EU S.á.r.l., (iii) Amazon.de GmbH, Munich, (iv) Amazon.com GmbH (in liquidation) and (v) Amazon Logistik GmbH.

The referring court is the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court, Austria) and it asks the following questions concerning 'fair compensation' for private copying purposes:

Private Copy in Spain: Towards another system

Last updated on: Thu, 05/01/2012 - 12:37

On 30 December 2011, a new regulation on private copying was adopted by the new Spanish government.

The compensation for private copying will no longer be paid by manufacturers or importers. Instead, the Spanish government will pay an amount based on the estimation of the damage caused by the private copying. The money will be deducted from the national budget.

The details of this new system, which came into effect on 1 January 2012, will be approved by a Decree to be adopted in the following months.