Now US Wants Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement With European Union To Include Turkey: Who's Next?

Last week we wrote about the important news that Mexico is asking to join what began as a bilateral trade agreement between the US and Europe, with the suggestion that Canada might follow suit. Now, via @FFII, we learn that even before Mexico's announcement, the US has been encouraging other countries to join: 

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Giant Pharma Company Claims Releasing Data On Drug Safety Is Illegal As It's Confidential And 'Commercially Sensitive'

One of the initiatives gaining momentum around the world is open data -- the idea that, for example, non-personal data affecting the public should be made freely available. That's partly to improve transparency, so that citizens are more informed about what is happening, and partly to stimulate new kinds of business that build products and services based on that data. 

On Open Enterprise blog.

Why TAFTA Matters, and What We Should Do About It

Back in January, I wrote about what I called the "Trans-Atlantic Partnership Agreement", by analogy with the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, TPP, whose negotiations have already dragged on for several years. The formal announcement of what is now variously called the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) or Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), took place just over a month ago, but already Mexico has stated that it wishes to join, and there are rumours Canada might tag along too.

On Open Enterprise blog.

UK Politician Says EU Site Wants To 'Brainwash' Children With Propaganda About Democratic Principles

The UK is famous for its tabloid newspapers and their particular brand of journalism. Here's a fine example from the Daily Express, under the headline "EU attempts to brainwash children with 'sinister Soviet-style propaganda'": 

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Publishers Have A New Strategy For Neutralizing Open Access -- And It's Working

Over the last few years, Techdirt has been reporting on a steady stream of victories for open access. Along the way publishers have tried various counter-attacks, which all proved dismal failures. But there are signs that they have changed tack, and come up with a more subtle -- and increasingly successful -- approach. 

On Techdirt.

Reading the Google Reader Tea-leaves

If you were online late last night - and especially if you were on Twitter - you may have noted an enormous wave of pain and anger sweeping across the network. Here's what caused it:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Mexico Will Ask To Join US-EU Transatlantic Trade Agreement

Things are moving fast with the proposed US-EU transatlantic free trade agreement (TAFTA). It was only a few weeks ago that the formal announcement was made, and already another country wants to join, as pointed out by @PostActa (original in Spanish): 

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If Microsoft Shuts Down Google Maps In Germany, How Does That Benefit The Public?

Most sane human beings have stopped trying to keep up with the interwined legal actions arising out of the smartphone patent wars between Apple, Google, Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft and all the rest. The cases, though, are still grinding through the courts, which periodically throw out their verdicts. According to Florian Mueller, one such decision in Germany is imminent: 

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Public Well-Being Must Be 'Primary Measurement' Of US-EU Trade Agreement

Now that the US and EU have officially announced the start of talks on a new bilateral free trade agreement -- sorry, a "trade and investment partnership" -- groups in both regions are trying to work out what this will mean for them and their constituents. Arguably the most important constituency of all is the public, and yet it is also the one that until now has been systematically shut out of previous negotiations for things like ACTA or TPP. One representative of that huge group -- though not, obviously, the only one -- is the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), which describes itself as follows: 

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Is This What Google Really Thinks About Privacy?

I've been writing quite a lot about the current Data Protection regulation that is being considered in the European Parliament. As I've noted, this has led to an unprecedented level of lobbying from US companies, who are keen not to have to follow strict EU rules when it comes to our privacy. So far, I've not singled out any particular company in this context, but having read somewhat belatedly this post by the privacy expert Simon Davies, I feel a need to talk about one that is clearly right at the heart of this battle: Google.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Why Site Blocking Orders Need To Be Challenged In Court

There is an extremely dangerous trend to remove proper judicial review from cases involving alleged copyright infringement. Sometimes that means "voluntary" actions by ISPs -- the SOPA and ACTA approach. Sometimes, it means appearances before tribunals by members of the public without adequate legal representation, as is happening under New Zealand's "three strikes" law. And sometimes it might involve a judge, but consist of the latter simply agreeing to requests from the copyright industry, without anyone challenging the grounds for doing so. 

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Australian Recording Industry Continues To Fight The Technology That Is Saving It

There have been many posts on Techdirt about the copyright industry's hatred for new technologies that eventually turned out to be important sources of additional revenue -- the VCR being perhaps the most famous example. Here's a splendid column from Adam Turner in the Sydney Morning Herald about the same thing happening again in Australia. 

On Techdirt.

What the EU Pornography Ban is Really About

It began last week, with an article by the Pirate Party MEP Christian Engström, who wrote about a vote that will take place in the European Parliament (possibly tomorrow):

On Open Enterprise blog.

European Parliament Considers Banning All Pornography, Blocks Emails From EU Citizens Protesting Against Censorship

A few weeks ago we wrote about Iceland's thoroughly daft idea of trying to block porn there. Bad proposals for the Internet always seem to spread, and so it should perhaps come as no surprise that the European Parliament will be considering a similarly unworkable proposal, but in a rather more covert way, as the Pirate Party politician Christian Engström noted on his blog: 

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What Happens To Drones When They Fall Out Of The Skies?

For obvious reasons, stories about drones concentrate on what they can do while they are airborne. But they have to come down at some point, and sometimes emergency landings mean that they cannot return to base. An interesting story from Italy recounts what happened there in these circumstances: 

On Techdirt.

Swedish BitTorrent User Accused Of Sharing Beyonce Album, Hit By $233,000 Lawsuit From Sony

Lots of news regarding file-sharing has come out of Sweden over the years, but as TorrentFreak points out, until now, there's never been a prosecution for alleged unauthorized sharing using BitTorrent. The current case is unusual in a number of other respects: 

On Techdirt.

Is Mozilla "Undermining the Openness of the Internet"?

One of the core areas that Mozilla is working on is user privacy, and one important aspect of this is controlling cookies. Most people are now aware that sites they visit seek to place cookies - small strings of information - on their systems as a way of tracking when and what they visit on that site. What many may not know is that so-called "third-party" cookies are also widely used: these allow people to be tracked as they move from site to site, and effectively enable a detailed picture of their use of the Web to be built up.

On Open Enterprise blog.

EU Copyright Dialogue: The Great Sham(e)

In an implicit acknowledgement that the Europe-wide protests against ACTA indicated that there was a problem with copyright in the digital age, the European Commission announced back in December what it called "an orientation debate on content in the digital economy." This is what that meant, apparently:

On Open Enterprise blog.

If It Comes With A Gagging Clause, It's Not Open Data

One of the richest seams of open data concerns transport. After all, by their very nature, transport systems generate huge amounts of new data every day -- times, routes, travel options. Similarly, huge numbers of people use multiple means of transport, which means there is a big potential audience for analyses of that data. And it's definitely in the interest of transport operators to make that information freely available so that developers can use it in new ways, since that is likely to make traveling easier, and lead to increased custom. 

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Could Open Source Software Be Put Into The Public Domain Instead?

There are dozens of free software and open source licences -- many would argue rather too many. Different licenses impose different conditions. For example, the best-known and most widely-used is the GNU General Public License, which is designed to ensure that anyone building on GPL'd software and distributing it should make the modified program available under the same license. Others, such as the BSD license simply require the copyright and license notices to be included with any code that is used. 

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German Newspaper 'Snippet' Law Passes: Watered Down, But Still Stupid

For a year now, Techdirt has been following the sorry saga of Germany's attempt to make search engines and others pay for licenses to show even small excerpts from online newspapers. The main motivation seems to be to take money from Google for being successful, and to give it to the German publishers that are struggling. 

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Stop ICANN's Plans for Closed Generic Domains

As I noted recently in the context of the BBC inexplicably supporting the introduction of DRM into the HTML5 specification, openness lies at the heart of the Web and the Internet. One of the problems with true openness is that it has to be at every level: if any part of a system is closed, it interferes with the openness of the whole.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Spain Considers Making Digital Copyright Law Worse: Pleasing The US Again?

We wrote a couple of weeks ago how some were arguing that Spain ought to go back on the "naughty" Special 301 list for failing to show any "positive developments" on the copyright front recently. By an interesting coincidence, the Spanish Internet Association has just published a leaked draft of proposals to make digital copyright law in Spain even harsher. Here's how the Web site ADSL Zone describes them (original in Spanish): 

On Techdirt.

Online Polish Loses Some Of Its Polish

If it is to be true to its name, the World Wide Web ought to reflect the planet's full cultural and linguistic diversity. Currently, though, many sites and tools remain optimized for English and its character set, although that's gradually changing as other countries with different languages and writing systems come online in greater numbers. 

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Top German Police Officer: 'Anyone On The Internet Has Left The Private Sphere'

The Internet as a mass medium is still relatively young, so it's no surprise that its function in society and in our daily lives is still being defined. One important question concerns the nature of our actions online: to what extent are they public? Here's one rather extreme view, expressed by Jürgen Maurer, vice-president of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, as reported by Der Spiegel (original in German): 

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