Russia And China Both Want To 'Protect Children'; Both Want To Do It By Increasing Censorship

As expected, Russia has passed a law that will allow Web sites to be blacklisted, ostensibly to "protect children". According to this AFP report, the very vague "harmful information" category has been narrowed somewhat, but future threats remain: 

On Techdirt.

UK Government Wants To Give Itself Power To Change Copyright Law Without Full Parliamentary Scrutiny

A common feature of democracies is that new laws are scrutinized and debated by representatives of the people before they are passed -- the hope being that bad proposals can be amended or discarded. Laws giving governments the power to change other laws with only minimal oversight are therefore generally regarded as a Bad Thing. But that's exactly what the UK government plans to introduce, as this article on the Out-Law.com site explains: 

On Techdirt.

Is The EU's Proposed Reform Of Music Licensing Doomed From The Start?

Music collection societies often figure in Techdirt thanks to their attempts to wring licensing payments from people on absurd grounds, like trying to make them pay for playing music to horses, or for singing old folk songs. But in Europe, there's another issue. Because each country has its own music collection society, digital music startups wishing to operate across Europe must negotiate not one, but dozens of separate licenses – a major obstacle to overcome. 

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South Korea Gives Mobile Operators Permission To Ignore Net Neutrality By Surcharging Or Blocking VOIP Services

Net neutrality arguments are often couched in rather theoretical terms, and many people can't really see what all the fuss is about. A recent decision in South Korea gives a handy example of what the loss of net neutrality means in practice: 

On Techdirt.

Are Books Printed With Disappearing Ink Really The Best Way To Make People Read Them?

As Techdirt has noted, the main threat to artists is not piracy, but obscurity -- the fact that few know they are creating interesting stuff. As passive consumers increasingly become creators themselves, and the competition increases, that's even more of an issue. For writers, there's a double problem: not only do people need to hear about a work, they also have to find the time to explore it once acquired, and that's often a challenge in our over-filled, stressed-out lives -- unless we're talking about haiku. Here's an unusual approach to encouraging people to find that time to read books: 

On Techdirt.

India Moves Even More Of Its Healthcare Away From Western Pharma

A few years back, Techdirt noted that India had 16,000 licensed drug manufacturers in the 1990s, and became a net exporter of pharmaceutical products. Things changed somewhat when India joined the WTO, which forced it to recognize pharmaceutical patents, but more recently it has started moving back towards generics, notably with the compulsory licensing of a kidney and liver cancer drug that was being sold by Bayer in the country for around $70,000 a year. 

On Techdirt.

DCMS: Who Cares What the Public Thinks?

The UK government's communications review is likely to have a big impact on the digital world. As part of that investigation, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DMCS) is organising five seminars to canvas people's views on various aspects of communications. These are:

On Open Enterprise blog.

What Happens If File Sharing Can Also Be Prosecuted As Trademark Infringement?

In the arguments over ACTA, one criticism seemed widely accepted: that it tries to bundle together two quite different challenges -- tackling counterfeit goods, like fake medicines, and dealing with unauthorized file sharing. One popular suggestion was that ACTA should be split in two in order to handle those separately – for example, David Martin, the politician who played a key role in convincing the European Parliament to reject ACTA this week, supports this approach. 

On Techdirt.

ACTA's Back: European Commission Trying To Sneak In Worst Parts Using Canada-EU Trade Agreement As A Trojan Horse

Even in the face of a resounding rejection of ACTA by the European Parliament last week, the European Commission seems determined to keep pushing for its eventual adoption. Techdirt noted some ways in which it might try to do that, but an important article by Michael Geist lays out what seems to be an alternative approach that is already close to fruition: 

On Techdirt.

Help Stop Software Patents in Europe (Again)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the danger that the Unitary Patent would usher in software patents to Europe. The proposal was supposed to be voted upon last week in the European Parliament's plenary session, but was postponed, thanks to our very own David Cameron.

On Open Enterprise blog.

UK Ministry of Defence Close To Gaining Patent On Key GPS Technology; US Not Amused

Normally, we think of the US as the champion of patenting "anything under the sun that is made by man," while the UK is generally more reticent. So it's rather surprising to find the roles reversed in the following story about a new standard for the GPS navigation system: 

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The Warehousing And Delivery Of Digital Goods? Nearly Free, Pretty Easy, Mostly Trivial

One of the most important moments in the rise of a radical idea is when the fightback begins, because it signals an acceptance by the establishment that the challenger is a real threat. That moment has certainly arrived for open access, most obviously through moves like the Research Works Act, which would have cut off open access to research funded by the US government. That attack soon stalled, but the sniping at open access and its underlying model of free distribution has continued. 

On Techdirt.

EU Directive On Orphan Works So Bad It Makes Things Worse

Orphan works (or maybe that should be "hostage works") have become a really hot area in the copyright debate. That's because increasing numbers of people have realized how insane the current situation is whereby millions of older works, that are out of print and have no obvious owners, remain locked away because of copyright. This has led to various proposals around the world to liberate them, while still protecting the copyright holders if they later appear and assert ownership. 

On Techdirt.

So We Won on ACTA Yesterday: Now What?

Well, we did it: ACTA was resoundingly defeated in the European Parliament yesterday by 478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions. That's largely because so many of us contacted our MEPs, wrote emails and even took to the streets. Leaving aside the victory in itself, that's important too because people across Europe have worked together on a massive scale in the defence of the Internet and its freedom. 

On Open Enterprise blog.

UK Pensioner Could Face Arrest For Atheist Poster

Along with ridiculous libel cases, the UK is also infamous for laws that are designed to stop people hurting the feelings of others. Maybe that's a laudable aim, but the end-result is that they can cast a chill over freedom of speech. Here's a classic case from the English town of Boston in Lincolnshire: 

On Techdirt.

ECJ Decision: You *Do* Own Software That You Buy

Although all eyes have been on the European Parliament this week, that doesn't mean things have stopped elsewhere in the EU machine. In particular, the European Court of Justice, the highest in the EU, has just delivered a stunning and really quite unexpected judgment that could have major implications for the digital world.

On Open Enterprise blog.

European Parliament Declares Its Independence From The European Commission With A Massive Rejection Of ACTA. Now What?

In a plenary vote today, the European Parliament has rejected ACTA by 478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions. That followed a failed attempt by the right-of-center EPP Group to call for a postponement. Although the final result was not totally unexpected, since the signs had been pointing this way for a time, it nonetheless represents a huge victory for campaigners who had more or less given up hope of stopping ACTA in Europe even a few months ago. So the question now becomes: what are the ramifications? 

On Techdirt.

ACTA: Last-Minute Appeal to EPP Group

If you watched the stream of the plenary session in the European Parliament yesterday, you will know that what we saw was an incredible parade of politicians from all parties denouncing ACTA - with one exception. The centre-right EPP Group is asking for a decision on ACTA to be postponed until after the European Court of Justice hands down its judgement on the compatibility of the treaty with EU law. That's likely to take a year or two, and amounts to a massive delaying tactic, as I've explained before.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Defeating ACTA: Now or Never

Well, never a dull moment in the world of ACTA. After I wrote yesterday's column summing up what I thought was the final state of play, things got very interesting in Strasbourg. Rumours swirled that the right-of-centre EPP Group would be trying to use the agenda meeting last night to call for ACTA to be postponed. After a flurry of excitement, nothing happened then. But a little later, this tweet was posted on the EPP Group account:

On Open Enterprise blog.

ACTA Supporters In Europe Fighting To The Bitter End

As Techdirt has reported over the last few months, the passage of ACTA through the European Union's approval process has been little short of extraordinary. At the end of last year, ACTA seemed almost certain to be approved without difficulty. Then, inspired by the Internet community's success in stopping SOPA, European citizens woke up to ACTA's problems and took to the streets in huge numbers. 

On Techdirt.

ACTA Update XX: The Final Act

So, here we are: the final decisive week that is likely to determine the fate not just of ACTA, but also the course of digital copyright law in the world for the next few years (for the full background to how we got here, and what has happened along the way, see previous ACTA Updates.) That's because ACTA is not a law as such, but a treaty that sets the context for future laws of its signatories. It's why ACTA is so dangerous: it effectively neuters the sovereign power of nations - and hence of their citizens.

On Open Enterprise blog.

James Watson, Co-Discoverer Of DNA's Structure, Says 'Patenting Human Genes Was Lunacy'

Techdirt has been covering the important Myriad Genetics case for a while. Although the CAFC decided that isolated genes could be patented, the Supreme Court has asked the appeals court to review the case in light of the former's rejection of medical diagnostic patents. 

On Techdirt.

UK's 3-Strikes Plan Continues To Grind Through The System; Still Not In Force, Still Awful

As Techdirt reported in 2010, the passage of the Digital Economy Act was one of the most disgraceful travesties of the UK parliamentary process in recent times; it was badly drafted, hardly revised and then pushed through with almost no debate in the dying moments of the previous government. Since then, two UK ISPs -- BT and TalkTalk -- have challenged the Act in the courts, but lost earlier this year. 

On Techdirt.

How Extending Patent Protection For Antibiotics Creates Perverse Incentives To Render Them Useless

We take antibiotics and their ability to kill practically all bacteria for granted. But scientists are increasingly warning that we may be about to leave what might come to be seen as a golden age for anti-bacterial drugs, and enter a post-antibiotic era. As the World Health Organization’s Director-General said, quoted in an article on the Citizen Vox site: 

On Techdirt.

Intellectual Ventures Loses Its Shine: Will Its Business Model Ever Work?

Techdirt has always been sceptical about Nathan Myhrvold's business plan for Intellectual Ventures (IV) -- build up a huge portfolio of patents, simply so that it can then license them to those that will, and sue those that won't. Others, however, have been dazzled by Myhrvold's pedigree as an extremely wealthy ex-Microsoft manager, and by the fact that patents have undeniably become a central concern for the tech industries in recent years, which suggests that there is plenty of money to be made from them. 

On Techdirt.