Blog
On June 15, the Representation of the state North-Rhine Westphalia to the EU hosted a panel of renowned experts and high-level representatives from the European Commission and the industry, all gathered in Brussels to answer a daunting question: does the EU data economy need an industry data protection right?
big data, copyright, industry data protection right, Internet of Things
Things that caught our eye
“Roses are red
Violets are blue
I love the TPP
And so should you”
That’s how the Global Intellectual Property Center’s open love letter to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) starts off. The Global Intellectual Property Center is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which confusingly is not a government agency, but an ordinary lobbying group.
The Center is deeply in love with all aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, including its chapter on intellectual property enforcement: “My creative and innovative talents need your protection. Without trade agreements like you, it would be a long, hard journey to jumpstart our economies.”
As of now, there are no signs the Center will have its heart broken. The Obama administration is seeking “fast track” authority, or “trade promotion authority”, to further negotiate the TPP without much intervention by the U.S. Congress. It’s now up to Congress to decide whether it will grant that authority. Discussions in Congress have already started.
Hat tip to EFF.
copyright, intellectual property, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Things that caught our eye
This news is just in: Google is taking down its in Spain. Google says that its decision is the result of new Spanish legislation requiring “every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not.”
On 16 December Google will pull to the plug on its news service:
“As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable. So it’s with real sadness that on 16 December (before the new law comes into effect in January) we’ll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain.”
Read more on this issue on Google’s Europe Blog.
copyright, google news, google tax, para-copyright
Things that caught our eye
That is what Arabian Business writes. In an exclusive interview with the business magazine, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley explains why Youtube was targeted by television broadcasters:
“I feel the [broadcasting] industry was making a lot of noise because they’re more scared about losing control, not necessarily just of creation of content, because everyone has a camera in their hand, but also the distribution of that content.”
One series of cases that jumps to mind is the Viacom v. YouTube saga, in which Viacom unsuccessfully sued YouTube for many copyright infringements.
Read the full story here.
copyright, youtube
Blog
TV-over-Internet service Aereo suffered a major defeat yesterday, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided its service infringed on ABC’s copyrights. Aereo offers its subscribers free-to-air TV programming over the Internet. The service depends on thousands of antennas housed in a central warehouse. On Aereo’s website subscribers can select a TV show that will then be tuned into and streamed to the subscriber’s device. For every user watching, Aereo dedicates one antenna, and in order to transcode and stream the show, Aereo stores a copy of the show in a subscriber-specific folder on its servers. Thus, instead of setting up an own antenna to pick up free-to-air TV, one “rents” an antenna from Aereo’s antenna-park to remotely pick up a specific TV show, which is then streamed to an Internet-connected device. More…
