Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Read Any Good Web Sites Lately? Book Lovers Talk Online

Nytimes.com, here

Which countries receive the most in royalty and license fees?

World Bank, here.

Pratiques anticoncurrentielles dans le secteur de l'abattage et de la commercialisation du porc charcutier sanctionnées

Autorité de la concurrence, ici

La farmacia en el supermercado

ElPais, aquì

Spanish Tribunal Supremo on "screen scraping"

RYANAIR LIMITED v  ATRAPALO, S.L, here (Spanish).

Dutch government will end protection of non-original works to modernise copyright law

Futureofcopyright.com, here

Oracle vs Google legal war begins a new chapter

Newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com, here

Materials from the GCLC lunch talk on Google

ChillingCompetition.com, here

FRAND, RAND, and SEP: Why These Acronyms Are Important

Techpolicy.com, here

BGH legt EuGH Frage zum technischen Schutz von Schutzmaßnahmen für Videospiele vor

Institut für Urheber- und Medienrecht, hier

Mining the Digital Gold Rush: The Legal (L)ore around France’s Data-Mining Tax

Iposgoode.ca, here

Yelp Defeats Legal Challenge to Its User Review Filter

E. Goldman, here

Monday, February 11, 2013

Responses of Creative Commons to House of Lords comments concerning the CC BY license

Here

U.S. appeals judges quiz lawyers on rules for patenting software

Newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com, here

Access and the Public Domain

R. Picker, here.

Of particular interest to me is how broad access issues are likely to shape the "scale and scope of competition in the provision of the public domain". 

Efectos del carácter restrictivo de la normativa comercial sobre la competitividad de la economía catalana

Autoritat Catalana de la Competència, aquí.

IP, Antitrust and Looking Back on the Last Four Years

R. Hesse, here

EU antitrust control and patent abuses

M. Mariniello, here (Video, 6:58).

Counting couch potatoes

TheEconomist, here

L'Open Data fragilisé par le droit sur les bases de données

Numerama.com, ici

LobbyPlag - Wie Konzerne Gesetze diktieren

Heute.de, hier

Antitrust Litigation: What’s Changed in Twenty-Five Years?

W. Kolasky, here

Innovation Nation at War (Posner and patents)

Nytimes.com, here

Un passo indietro per il software libero

A. Meo, qui

“Students are heavily dependent on studying from photocopies”

Thehindu.com, here

EU Personal Data Protection "Reform Package":Tracking Lobbyists' Influence

Europlag.eu, here. See also the background article to this project here (German).

Friday, February 08, 2013

IFLA Principles for Library eLending

Here

What Software Is Patentable? Federal Court To Consider In CLS Bank Rehearing

TechCrunch.com, here

Macmillan settles with DOJ, and Apple is last man standing in ebook pricing case

PaidContent.org, here.

Interesting to academia and beyond:
"Electronic versions of academic textbooks” are removed from the settlement’s “requirements and prohibitions” because the DOJ antitrust case focused only on trade books.

The Digital Economy

OECD, Competition Committee, DAF/COMP(2012)22, here.

Coup de coeur: the French contribution to the October 2011 hearing, p. 75 ff.

Google, the ACCC and the High Court

Core Economics, here

La BnF accusée de privatiser des oeuvres du domaine public

Lexpress.fr, ici

Charlottesville anti-drone resolution sparks similar action across US

Wired.co.uk, here

Protection of personal data

ECHR, Factsheet, here

Court of Appeal takes a punt on database rights

The1709blog.blogspot.com, here

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Ireland deputy data protection Commissioner to take up Apple job

Irishtimes.com, here.

The Patent-Antitrust Interface: Are There Any No-No’s Today?

Venable.com, here

New Year Will See More Policing of Patent Conduct By US and EU Competition Agencies

Skadden.com, here

Ed O'Bannon vs. the NCAA: The antitrust lawsuit explained

Sbnation.com, here

PRIVATE ACTIONS IN COMPETITION LAW: A consultation on options for reform - government response

UK Government, here

OFT chief calls for more competitive banking sector

Telegraph.co.uk, here

EU Commission sends Statement of Objections to J&J and Novartis on delayed entry of generic pain-killer

Press Release, here.

Recommendations Resulting from the Mediation on Private Copying And Reprography Levies

A. Vitorino, here

What's wrong with data protection?

A Greens/EFA hearing, January 31, 2013, here (archived video available here).
Stallman:  neither using most of the available Internet services, nor possessing a mobile phone...too dangerous, he says. 

Open Access versus Traditional Journal Pricing: Using a Simple “Platform Market” Model to Understand Which Will Win (and Which Should)


M. McCabe, C. Snyder A. Fagin, here.

Digital music rights - Baby got backlash

TheEconomist.com, here

Friday, January 25, 2013

SAS Institute/World Programming: UK Ruling After The Reference

[2013] EWHC 69 (Ch), Justice Arnold, here.
You can read my brief paper here for some background information.

U.S. firms, officials resisting Europe’s push for stronger digital privacy rules

WashingtonPost.com, here.

Cloud computing, cookies y protección de datos

Seminario APEP-Derechotics, Audios aquì

Bundesgerichtshof erkennt Schadensersatz für den Ausfall eines Internetanschlusses

Bundesgerichtshof III ZR 98/12, Pressemitteilung hier.
Aus der Pressemitteilung: 
"...Nach der Rechtsprechung des Bundesgerichtshofs muss der Ersatz für den Ausfall der Nutzungsmöglichkeit eines Wirtschaftsguts grundsätzlich Fällen vorbehalten bleiben, in denen sich die Funktionsstörung typischerweise als solche auf die materiale Grundlage der Lebenshaltung signifikant auswirkt"...."Demgegenüber hat der Senat dem Kläger dem Grunde nach Schadensersatz für den Fortfall der Möglichkeit zuerkannt, seinen Internetzugang für weitere Zwecke als für den Telefon- und Telefaxverkehr zu nutzen. Die Nutzbarkeit des Internets ist ein Wirtschaftsgut, dessen ständige Verfügbarkeit seit längerer Zeit auch im privaten Bereich für die eigenwirtschaftliche Lebenshaltung typischerweise von zentraler Bedeutung ist. Das Internet stellt weltweit umfassende Informationen in Form von Text-, Bild-, Video- und Audiodateien zur Verfügung. Dabei werden thematisch nahezu alle Bereiche abgedeckt und verschiedenste qualitative Ansprüche befriedigt. So sind etwa Dateien mit leichter Unterhaltung ebenso abrufbar wie Informationen zu Alltagsfragen bis hin zu hochwissenschaftlichen Themen. Dabei ersetzt das Internet wegen der leichten Verfügbarkeit der Informationen immer mehr andere Medien, wie zum Beispiel Lexika, Zeitschriften oder Fernsehen. Darüber hinaus ermöglicht es den weltweiten Austausch zwischen seinen Nutzern, etwa über E-Mails, Foren, Blogs und soziale Netzwerke. Zudem wird es zunehmend zur Anbahnung und zum Abschluss von Verträgen, zur Abwicklung von Rechtsgeschäften und zur Erfüllung öffentlich-rechtlicher Pflichten genutzt. Der überwiegende Teil der Einwohner Deutschlands bedient sich täglich des Internets. Damit hat es sich zu einem die Lebensgestaltung eines Großteils der Bevölkerung entscheidend mitprägenden Medium entwickelt, dessen Ausfall sich signifikant im Alltag bemerkbar macht."
Volltext hier

Antitrust's Democracy Deficit

H. First, S. Weber Waller, here

Fair Use 2.0: The Rebirth of Fair Dealing in Canada

A. Katz, here

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Vie privée : Les entreprises US gagnent en commission "consommateurs" au Parlement européen

Laquadrature.net, ici.
Avis de la Commission Marché intérieur et protection des consommateurs ici.

Georgia State and Fair Use: Copyright on Appeal

K. Crews, here

Google and the FTC: the implications

Econsultancy.com, here

The Sky Is Rising 2 - Regional Study: Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain

Techdirt.com, here.

The European Commission vs. Gazprom: An Issue of Fair Competition or a Foreign Policy Quarrel?

N. Sartori, here

Elargissement du domaine de l'exception pédagogique envisagé en France

Actualitte.com, ici

MPI on the Proposal for a Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights

Here

Leistungsschutzrecht – nein danke!

J. Haucap, hier

Albrecht Draft Report on the Right to Data Portability: Blurring the Legal Contours?

A much debated element of the EU Personal Data Protection reform package is the proposal to introduce a right to data portability, as put forth in Article 18 of the draft Regulation.

Art. 8(2) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights states that” everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified.” Pursuant to Article 12 of the currently applicable Data Protection Directive, individuals already have the right to access their personal data, and in particular to obtain from the data controller communication “in an intelligible form of the data undergoing processing,” but the form of the communication is not specified, and the way in which that right can be exercised varies considerably from country to country within the EU, and access has become particularly challenging especially in connection with the online environment.

Pursuant to the proposed Art.18 of the Regulation, data subjects could, first, obtain a copy of their personal data “processed by electronic means and in a structured and commonly used format.” The copy itself must be “an electronic and structured format which is commonly used and allows for further use by the data subject.” Further, individuals would be granted the explicit right to transfer “personal data and any other information provided by the data subject and retained by an automated processing system” into another automated processing system “where the data subject has provided the personal data and the processing is based on consent or on a contract.” The transfer should be “without hindrance by the controller”, and data should be “in an electronic format which is commonly used.”Article 18(3) gives the Commission the power to specify the electronic format and the "technical standards, modalities and procedures for the transmission of personal data.”

Art. 18 should be read against the background of Article 15 of the draft Regulation, that provides for the “general” right of access for the data subject. Article 15 states that the data subject has the right to obtain from the controller communication of the personal data undergoing processing, but the main difference is that Article 18 specifically deals with the condition for reuse of the data, by the data subject herself and/or by another automated processing system.

As seen above, Art. 18(2) introduces the right to export personal data and other information provided by data subject to another service “without hindrance” by the controller. It is not clear, however, if this would involve an affirmative obligation on the controller to transfer data directly to another service, i.e. to provide for some degree of interoperability between electronic processing systems. The data that the individual has the right to trasfer should be in electronic form. As mentioned before, the Regulation would give the Commission the power to specify the electronic format and the further technical requirements for allowing the transmission of personal data.

The contours of the data portability right as foreseen by Article 18 of the draft Regulation are not totally clear, though, in particular because most of the critical “technicalities” (i.e. electronic format and the technical standards, modalities and procedures for the transmission of personal data) are left to later clarifications by the Commission. In this highly sensitive area, however, negative implications on innovation processes should be carefully avoided by abstaining from imposing microregulation on technological solutions to ensure data portability. Moreover, in the rather remote event that the language of Article 18 remains largely unaffected by the various negotiation phases the reform package is currently going through, the effectiveness of the new right will critically depend on the interpretation of rather vague legal concepts like “without hindrance.”

Even more uncertainty could be the result of the negotiations surrounding the reform package, though. A good example of this is the amendment proposal put forth by the rapporteur for the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (“Albrecht Draft Report"). According to the proposal, Article 18 should be merged with Article 15. The Albrecht draft, however, blurrs the legal contours of the right to export personal data and other information to another service even further, in so far as it foresees that the right should be exercised “where technically feasible and appropriate”. The critical change in the text would appear to be at least partially in line with the amendments suggested by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and already contained in the Draft Opinion of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

Verordnung zur Markttransparenzstelle fertig

Brennstoffspiegel.de, hier

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Monday, January 07, 2013

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

'Troll' warning as EU gets unitary patent scheme, after decades of failure

Zdnet.com, here

Collusion through joint R&D: An empirical assessment

T. Duso, L.-H. Röller, J. Seldeslachts, here

Report on a Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy

European Parliament, Rapporteur: M. Schaake, here.

Page 7: "Recognises the role of artistic freedom, and the freedom to imitate and reuse, as cornerstones for creativity and freedom of expression and ideas; is aware of the significant presence of exceptions and limitations in the copyright ecosystem, especially in the areas of journalism, quotation, satire, archives, libraries and ensuring access to and usability of the cultural heritage"

GODZILLA vs MECHAGODZILLA - Antitrust and Intellectual Property Rights−the Ultimate Counterweapon?

F. Juckniess and S. Larimore Wahl, here

In re Books

J. Grimmelmann (blogs.publishersweekly.com), here

Austrian rights holders want levies on Dropbox, Google Drive

Gigaom.com, here

More data about copyright removals in Transparency Report

F. von Lohmann, here

Your Data is Yours

Blog.yworld.com, here

Understanding bias in computational news media

Niemanlab.org, here

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Sunday, December 09, 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Friday, November 23, 2012

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Data protection in a cloud computing environment


Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the Commission's Communication on "Unleashing the potential of Cloud Computing in Europe", here.

Report: FTC Likely To Abandon “Vertical Search” Antitrust Claims Against Google

Searchengineland.com, here

ECN Model Leniency Programme: 2012 revision

In Final Stretch Of Drafting Of WIPO Treaty For The Blind, Tensions High

Ip-watch.org, here. November 21 version of WIPO treaty for the blind negotiating text from keionline.org, here.

EPO: Inventors' handbook

Epo.org, here

Ireland: General PSI License

Psi.gov.ie, here

Monday, November 19, 2012

Canada Set to Endorse the Concept of a WIPO Treaty for the Blind

Excesscopyright.blogspot.ca, here

EU at SCCR/25 on VIP Issues

"Mr. Chairman, the EU and its Member States are now also in
the position to negotiate the conclusion of an instrument
including a binding treaty," here

Sunday, November 18, 2012

That Was Fast: Hollywood Already Browbeat The Republicans Into Retracting Report On Copyright Reform

TechDirt.com, here.
"Three Myths about Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix it" here (keionline.org).

Friday, November 16, 2012

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Regolamento "Rating di legalità"

AGCM, qui

Transparency in EU Retail Energy Markets


Working Group Report prepared for the 5th Citizens' Energy Forum, here.

Kansas : une bibliothèque en colère contre la politique de prêt d'ebooks

Actualitte.com, here

Android Rises to 90% of Smartphone Market in China

Techinasia.com, here

Privacy considerations of online behavioural tracking

Enisa.europa.eu, here

Bundesgerichtshof zur Haftung von Eltern für illegales Filesharing ihrer minderjährigen Kinder

Juris.bundesgerichtshof.de, hier

Weakening the OA policy in the EU

P. Suber, here

Japanese Antitrust and Compliance: The Fair Trade Commission, no longer a toothless tiger?

Cliffordchance.com, here

La presse suisse rejoint le front de la Lex Google

Numerama.com, ici

Price Comparisons on the Internet

Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, here

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: When IP Does Not Seem to Matter

Ipfinance.blogspot.com, here

Quels remèdes pour les abus de position dominante ?

P. Bougette, F. Marty, ici

On German ancillary copyright for media publishers

Ences.eu, Press Release, here

La CNC sanciona por primera vez a una persona física por infringir normas de defensa de la competencia

Diariojuridico.com, aquì.

Does Oracle/UsedSoft ruling breach WIPO Copyright Treaty?

The1709blog.blogspot.com, here

Implementing Antitrust's Welfare Goals

H. Hovenkamp, here

New briefs complicate Supreme Court pay-for-delay conundrum

Newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com, here

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Competition, Standards, and Patents

P. Hellstrom, T. Kramler, here

Monday, November 12, 2012

Google's Appeal Brief in Google Books Case

Here

The Regulatory Turn in IP

M. Lemley, here

Four More Years: What Obama’s Reelection Means for United States Antitrust Policies

Competitionpolicyinternational.com, here

L'exploitation numérique des livres indisponibles du XXe siècle - Point d'étape

Syndicat national de l'édition, Présentation ici

Bibliothèques, musées : exemples de bonnes pratiques en matière de diffusion du domaine public

Scinfolex.wordpress.com, ici

Der Wandel des deutschen Buchmarktes in Zeiten von Digitalisierung und Mobilisierung. Eine institutionenökonomische Analyse

S. Putzig, Abstract zur Dissertation, hier (pdf File). 

Warum „Do not Track” den Datenschutz nicht retten wird

Telemedicus.info, hier

Der Streit mit Apple schwemmt Millionen in die SBB-Kasse

Tagesanzeiger.ch, hier

The Role of the Efficiency Claims In Antitrust Proceedings

OECD, Background Note by the Secretariat (Fiorenzo Bovenzi and Anna Pisarkiewicz), here

Leniency for Subsequent Applicants

OECD, Issues paper by the Secretariat, here

Limitations and constraints to International Co-operation

OECD, Issues Paper by the Secretariat (A. Capobianco), here

Digitally binding


J. Poort,  I. Akker, N. van Eijk, B.van der Sloot, P. Rutten, here in English and here in Dutch.

Multi-Stakeholder Discussions à la Internet Governance Forum For WIPO?

Ip-watch.org, here.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Randy Picker Examines Market Power and Advertising During AEI’s Discussion of Google and Antitrust

Techpolicy.com, here

Exclusionary Vertical Restraints and Antitrust: Experimental Law and Economics Contributions

C. Landeo, here

Random House and Penguin merge to take on Amazon, Apple

Reuters.com, here

Leistungsschutzrecht als Taschenspielertrick

Politik.eco.de, hier

§ 52a UrhG wird wohl verlängert, aber vermutlich nicht entfristet

Iuwis.de, hier

Privacy Takes Center Stage in Uruguay

EFF.org, here

US-Supreme Court: Richtungsweisende Entscheidung zum Secondhand-Handel erwartet

Urheberrecht.org, hier

Buyer Power and Suppliers' Incentives to Innovate

C. Koehler, C. Rammer, here.

Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley Oral Arguments

Transcript here. Audio file here

NYC regulators propose rules for taxi apps

Theverge.com, here

Zur Reform des europäischen Datenschutzrechts

S. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, here

Substitutes & football: a primer in market definition

R. Trindade, R. Smith, here

Lex Google : Hollande préfère un petit accord entre amis...

Numerama.com, here

The Annual Privacy Forum 1st edition

Privacyforum.eu, Presentations here

Would "Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality" work?

A. Acquisti, Presentation here

Good Things Come in Threes? DOJ, FTC and EC Officials Wax Eloquent About FRAND

Patentlyo.com, here