Per today's ruling, injunctions against European ISPs requiring them to apply filtering tools that monitor traffic to prevent copyright infringement officially violate EU law. The Scarlet decision puts a major stick in the wheel of wholesale copyright holders fighting against file sharing activities. With the expected implementation of the ACTA in mind, this ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will likely affect both prospective copyright legislation in Europe and offensive strategies of rights holders in their operations against intermediaries. Read more about The ECJ's Scarlet Decision: No Broad Filtering Duty for European ISPs
Schleswig-Holstein is a small German state located at the very northern tip of the Federal Republic. It is home for enchanting cities such as Kiel and Lübeck, long coastlines overlooking the Baltic See to the east and the North See to the west. Other than scenic landscape, rich culture and a border with Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein also has a dynamic privacy commissioner. Dr. Thilo Weichert heads the ULD, which translates as the SH’s Independent Center for Privacy Protection. His administration published last week a press release (English version here) that has been attracting much attention since (e.g., here and here). Read more about Why German Privacy Officials Don’t Like Facebook’s “like” Button
Valérie Laure Benabou, a law professor at the University of Versailles and an esteemed expert on French and international copyright law, kindly agreed to share her thoughts on the Google vs. SAIF case decided yesterday by the Paris Court of Appeals:
An important decision of the Paris Court of Appeal was rendered yesterday in a litigation between Google and a French Collective Society for Visual Works (SAIF). The Collective Society claimed that Google was infringing on the copyright of its authors members by reproducing and displaying their works in the form of thumbnails on the pages of Google Image service and also by reproducing their works through Google caching system. Before the Court of First Instance, the Judge considered the applicable law to be the U.S. Copyright Act, and consequently, the court applied the fair use defense in line with the Arriba and Perfect 10 decisions. Read more about Who Said France Does Not Have Fair Use?
The term open access is often used roughly to describe free circulation of academic and scholarly contributions over electronic media. The basic idea is to enhance speed and lower costs of access to new research and cutting-edge scholarship, as well as to improve collaboration between researches and allow them to benefit from the work and critique of their peers. Read more about Access-Right over Open Access
The tension between Google and data protection agencies intensified over the last two days. The Data Protection Commissioner in Hamburg is apparently unhappy with the changes Google has introduced to Google Analytics intending to square it with European data protection regulation. The problem seems to be that the "opting out" tool the new GA version offers cannot be applied with some Internet browsers such as Safari.
There will be surely more to come on this. Meanwhile, legal counsels begin to warn their German large-sites-based clients against possible sanctions for using GA. Read more about Data Protection Commissioner to go after Google Analytics
I am a little late with this comment on the ECJ’s decision released two weeks ago that tackles issues of copyright levies in Europe. In a nutshell, the idea behind copyright levies is to compensate rights holders (via collection societies) for activities roughly described as “private copying” by imposing charges on media and equipment that enable such activities. Read more about The European Court of Justice Rules on Copyright Levies
[I am happy to have Thorsten Feldmann as a guest blogger here. Thorsten is a well-known expert on German data protection law and a blogger in his own right.]
Privacy protection in the global information society is today, perhaps more than ever before, a hotly-debated topic in Germany. I had the opportunity last week at a conference held in Berlin to exercise my free speech right while speaking on my favorite topic these days: Data Protection v. Free Speech law. Read more about Data Protection and Free Speech in Germany
As of yesterday, Google’s new policy concerning registration of trademarks as keywords for triggering contextual advertisement in many European countries went into effect. The new policy, which strongly relies on the recent ECJ decision on Google’s potential liability for TM infringement via its adwords practice, demonstrates a notable shift in Google’s approach. Read more about Google's New Adwording Policy in Europe