It’s Monday again, so here’s a
brief few bits and pieces about what’s been happening last week in the IP
world.
Australian Digital Alliance
released two interesting reports written and researched by leading consultancy
Lateral Economics, both discussing copyright and the economic contribution to
Australia of industries relying on limitations and exceptions to copyright. You
can take a look at the reports’ findings here,
one of the major conclusions being that an Australian copyright reform would
bring a potential $600m annual economic boost.
EU Commissioner
Neelie Kroes held a great speech on innovation in the creative industries and
the need for copyright reform that you can read here. Although the speech has
been warmly welcomed by the media and public opinion, there is still an urgent
need for actual changes and measures. Following the speech, we’ve wondered what
is going to happen with the Digital Economy Act in the UK and whether the
revisions from Brussels are going to be taken into account.
On another note,
an unexpected ruling in the Netherlands has generated a lot of negative buzz in the media, as the judge
decided that one of the most popular websites in the country
which linked to content which was ‘leaked’ is guilty of breach of copyright as
well as breach of privacy. If linking can mean a breach of copyright and
privacy, then this could potentially have a great impact on online journalism.
Another pretty
amazing piracy case concluded with a Minnesota woman being ordered to pay $222,000 for 24 illegally
downloaded tunes, this meaning $9,250 per
song. The Federal Court’s decision handed therefore the music industry a victory in a case
stretching past its sixth year.
The French Hadopi anti-piracy system appears to be rather unsuccessful, as the first person fined with £150 is a man whose ex-wife downloaded an illegal Rihanna song, using his internet connection.
The French Hadopi anti-piracy system appears to be rather unsuccessful, as the first person fined with £150 is a man whose ex-wife downloaded an illegal Rihanna song, using his internet connection.
Google and YouTube copyright infringement system fails once
more as well, as the recording of a pianist playing a piece by Mozart has been
taken down mistakenly on copyright grounds.
Interestingly enough, in another
piracy case, US District Court held that a
person owes no duty in securing their wireless network to a copyright holder
whose works are illegally downloaded over the network. Read more