30 June 2012
Stop Software Patents in Europe [Updated]
As I wrote yesterday, one of the most pressing problems the open source community faces in the near future is the Unitary Patent proposal, which is likely to bring in software patents to Europe. Here's the background, and what we can do about it.
On Techdirt.
Student Fined For Providing Free Film And TV Subtitles; Yet Another Business Opportunity Thrown Away By Copyright Industries
Mike recently reminded us that for some people, bizarrely, stopping "piracy" is more important than making money. Here's another example, this time from Norway:
On Techdirt.
EU Parlamentarian Gallo: ACTA Dissent 'A Soft Form Of Terrorism'
Marielle Gallo is probably best known for the Gallo Report, which Techdirt described back in 2010 as a "similarly draconian intellectual property enforcement" to ACTA, with which it has much in common. So it's no surprise that Gallo has been one of the few vocal supporters of ACTA, and it was widely expected that the EU's Legal Affairs (JURI) committee she chairs would support her draft opinion calling for ACTA to be ratified. As we now know, that didn't happen, and JURI formed one of five committees that all recommended that ACTA should be rejected.
On Techdirt.
Greenpeace Parody Site Censored Using Copyright Infringement Claim
One of the the reasons why legislation like SOPA and treaties like ACTA are so dangerous is that their loose definitions allow measures intended to deal with copyright infringement to be used to censor inconvenient opinions. Unfortunately, that's not just a theoretical problem with future legislation, but one that is already happening, as this post from Rick Falkvinge makes clear:
On Techdirt.
Four Big Battles for EU Openness Happening Now
Something seems to be going on in the European Union. Over the next few weeks a range of really important debates and votes are taking place, all connected with openness in some way. Quite why everything is happening at once is not entirely clear - unless politicians are trying to get everything out of the way before their summer hols, perhaps....
On Open Enterprise blog.
EU Commissioner Reveals He Will Simply Ignore Any Rejection Of ACTA By European Parliament Next Week
The day before the EU's International Trade committee (INTA) recommended that the European Parliament should reject ACTA, the EU commissioner with responsibility for the treaty, Karel De Gucht, had given a speech to its members, trying to win them over. Although it was short, it turns out to be highly revealing about the European Commission's future ACTA strategy. Here's what he said:
On Techdirt.
Japan Criminalizes Unauthorized Downloads, Making DVD Backups -- And Maybe Watching YouTube
There's a fairly constant pattern in the world of copyright enforcement. The media companies claim that piracy is "destroying" their industries, although they never offer any independent evidence to back this up. They "demand" that governments "do something" -- by which they mean introduce harsher penalties for unauthorized downloads. Because of the hypnotic effect that musicians and artists seem to have on politicians, governments happily oblige, even though there is no evidence that such laws will help artists. After the laws come in to force, online sharing may dip for a while, but soon returns to previous levels, so the media companies start whining again, and demand yet tougher penalties.
On Techdirt.
23 June 2012
Why Basic Company Data Must Be Open
Last year I wrote about the OpenCorporates project, which describes itself as follows:
On Open Enterprise blog.
ACTA Update XIX
Once more, there's good news on the ACTA front. Today, the important European Parliament committee responsible for handling international trade issues, INTA, voted to recommend that the European Parliament reject ACTA when it comes to a plenary vote on 4 July.
On Open Enterprise blog.
Fifth EU Committee Recommends Rejection Of ACTA By European Parliament
Another major milestone has been achieved in the push to get ACTA rejected by the EU: a fifth parliamentary committee has recommended that the European Parliament should refuse to ratify it when it is put to the vote on July 4th, effectively killing it in Europe. The other committees – on legal affairs, civil liberties, industry and international development – recommended rejection a few weeks ago, but today's vote by the international trade committee (INTA) was seen as the most important.
On Techdirt.
Your Genome, Your Data
The computing revolution is not the only one driven by constant scaling of technologies: the field of genomics -- the study of DNA sequences -- has also enjoyed rapid falls in basic costs over the last decade and a half. This means that whereas the first human genome cost around $3 billion to sequence, we are fast approaching the point where it will cost first a few thousand, and then a few hundred dollars to sequence anyone's complete DNA. An interesting post on the Health Affairs Blog points out that neither the law nor society is ready for this.
On Techdirt.
ACTA Update XVIII
On the not-very-scientific basis of several calls to MEPs yesterday, the impression I get is that the right-of-centre ECR group on the INTA committee will be pushing for delay until after the ECR has delivered its judgement. That could be in more than a year's time, and would be a big problem in terms of getting ACTA rejected, since all of the momentum that has built up over the last six months would be lost.
On Open Enterprise blog.
Copyright Ratchet In Action Again: UK Introduces Yet Another Unjustified Extension
Until recently there has been an unchallenged assumption that the more copyright, the better. Although people have begun to realize that's not the case – and that extending copyright diminishes the public domain because we must all wait longer for works to enter it -- governments around the world continue to make copyright longer, stronger and broader.
On Techdirt.
Proposed Licensing For Newspaper Snippets Could Threaten Users Of Blogs, Facebook And Twitter In Germany
A few months ago we wrote about a really bad idea that was being floated in Germany: making companies like Google pay for the use of news snippets in services such as Google News. Unfortunately, that idea has now been turned into a concrete proposal for a new law; remarkably, it is even worse than the original plans.
On Techdirt.
Monsanto May Be Forced To Repay Brazilian GM Soybean Royalties Worth Billions Of Dollars
When the history of modern Brazil comes to be written, a special place will be reserved for the soybean, the powerful farmers that grow it -- and the deforestation it is driving. And at the center of that tale will be Monsanto, with its patented "Roundup Ready" crop, so called because it has been genetically modified to withstand the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as Roundup.
On Techdirt.
Stopping ACTA: INTA Committee
So, we arrive at the penultimate stage of the battle to stop ACTA in Europe. Before the final plenary vote in the European Parliament in July, there is a vote in the International Trade committee (INTA) this Thursday. As its home page explains:
On Open Enterprise blog.
Slovak Collecting Society Sends Village Invoice For Singing Folk Song About Itself
Performing rights societies probably don't have the best reputations here on Techdirt, but just when you think they can't get any more outrageous in their demands, they do. Here are two stories from the Slovak Republic, both involving SOZA, the Slovak Performing and Mechanical Rights Society:
On Techdirt.
The Battle For Net Neutrality Flares Up Again: But Which Countries Still Have It?
Net Neutrality has suddenly become a hot topic again. Partly, that's thanks to some awful ideas about regulating the Internet coming from the International Telecommunication Union, notably those proposed by the ETNO -- the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association -- discussed recently on Techdirt. New information from WCITLeaksWikileaks(found via the Net neutrality in Europe site) provides us with the following details (pdf):
On Techdirt.
Draft Communications Data Bill: Daft and Dangerous
We knew it was coming, and here it is: the Communications Data Bill (.pdf.). First the good news:
On Open Enterprise blog.
UK 'Snooper's Charter' Seeks To Eliminate Pesky Private Communications
As expected, the UK government has published its Draft Communications Bill (pdf) -- better known as the "snooper's charter," since it requires ISPs to record key information about every email sent and Web site visited by UK citizens, and mobile phone companies to log all their calls (landline information is already recorded).
On Techdirt.
Double Standards: EU Commissioner De Gucht Is 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty'; EU Citizens Are 'Guilty Until Proven Innocent'
The Belgian EU Commissioner Karel De Gucht is the driving force behind ACTA, and is apparently really keen to combat crimes like counterfeiting and piracy. It also seems he has a slight problem with the tax authorities:
On Techdirt.
After India And Brazil, Now China Takes Steps To Allow Cheap Versions Of Patented Drugs
In recent months, Techdirt has reported on an important development in the world of medicine, as both India and Brazil have allowed local companies to produce cheap generic versions of drugs covered by patents. In an even bigger blow to Western pharmaceutical companies, it looks like China is following suit:
On Techdirt.
ACTA Update XVII
Since my last ACTA update, quite a lot of good stuff has happened. For a start, all four European Parliament committees have recommended that ACTA should be rejected when the plenary vote takes place at the beginning of July. That just leaves one more committee - that for International Trade, or INTA - to make its recommendation, which should take place next week. I'll be writing more about this vote soon.
On Open Enterprise blog.
10 June 2012
Beyond the BBC Micro
Recently, an interesting report entitled "The legacy of the BBC Micro" appeared (freely available online). For those of you too young to remember this trail-blazing UK computing project from the dawn of microcomputers, here's some background from the report:
On The H Open.
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