Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Handbook on European data protection law

FRA - EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, here.

Comments Received on Green Paper "Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy"

Here.

Gawker: Tarantino should blame himself for Hateful Eight script leak

TheGuardian.com, here.

Time to get Angry about Data Protection!

Paulbernal.wordpress.com, here.

Access to data protection remedies in EU Member States

FRA– European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, here.

Las indemnizaciones de daños derivadas del cártel del azúcar

F. Marcos, aquì.

Commentary to the Marrakesh Treaty on accessible format copies for the visually impaired

M. Ficsor, here.

Google's DeepMind acquisition might be about search, not robots

TheVerge.com, here.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Extraction automatisée des données et des textes : Savoirscom1 s’engage pour une exception!

Savoirscom1.info, ici.

The New Disruptors at Sundance

T. Wu, here.

Premier League steps up TV battle

SportingLife.com, here.

Connected Televisions - Convergence and Emerging Business Models

OECD Digital Economy Papers No. 23, here.

Judge Rules in Favor of DOJ Finding Bazaarvoice / PowerReviews Merger Anticompetitive

McDermott Will & Emery, here.

Self-Replicating Technologies and the Challenge for the Patent and Antitrust Laws

D. Lim, here.

Netflix Says It'll Be Fine Without Net Neutrality Rules; But What About The Next Netflix?

TechDirt.com, here.

Statement of South Africa on Access to Essential Medicines

Keionline.org, here.

Google Awarded Patent For Free Rides To Advertisers’ Locations

TechCrunch.com, here.

How Google controls Android's open-source software

TheGuardian.com, here.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Big Data and the Future of Privacy

Whitehouse.gov, here.

At the Intersection of Antitrust & High-Tech: Opportunities for Constructive Engagement

R. Hesse, here.

Net neutrality just got a boost in Europe, thanks to a consumer rights committee

Gigaom.com, here.

Pope Francis says the internet is a 'gift from God'

Theverge.com, here.

Lisbon Council and Nesta Launch the Think Tank "European Digital Forum"

Lisboncouncil.net, Press Release here.

Circumventing a protection system of a games console may, in certain circumstances, be lawful

C-355/12, Nintendo and Others v PC Box Srl and Ot, Press Release here. Full text here.

Droit d'auteur : un recueil de tweets retiré de la vente

Livreshebdo.fr, ici.

Droit de citation à l'ère numérique: quels nouveaux enjeux ? De toute façon, en Europe, encore loin d'être harmonisé, voir le Rapport De Wolf/CRIDS, ici (p. 473).

Open Data in Natural Hazards Management

V. Vescoukis, and C. Bratsas, here.

Law and Economics of Antitrust Enforcement in Russia

S. Advasheva, P. Kryuchkova, here.

Standard-Essential Patents

J. Lerner, J. Tirole, here.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Assessing Innovation Effects in U.S. Merger Cases: An Empirical analysis

B. Kern, R. Dewenter, W. Kerber, here

New open-access mandates in the US

P. Suber, here.

Les processus de normalisation et de certification sont-ils pro-concurrentiels?

Autorité de la concurrence, ici (avis à rendre).

Open Data Can and Will Shift the Power Balance

Blogs.gartner.com, here.

The next episode: can Dr. Dre's Beats Music take on Spotify?

TheVerge.com, here.

UK IP Bill: Second Reading

Official Report, columns 38-84, here.

Norms and Values in Digital Media: Rethinking Intellectual Property in the Digital Age

World Economic Forum, here.

Una sentencia obliga a cortar Internet a un usuario por compartir música

ElPais.com, aquì. Ver también aquí.

EU Data Protection Reform Proposal and NHS Database

Telegraph.co.uk, here. See also here.

Antitrust in Chicago (Law School): Syllabus and Materials

R. Picker, Fall 2013, here.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Sharing Economy

World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, here.

The awkward copyright collision of Fair Use and Creative Commons

Blogs.scientificamerican.com, here

Les juges allemands réaffirment la licéité du marché des logiciels d'occasion

Cio-online.com, ici.

Shedding Some Light on the Dark Matter of Competition: Insights from the Strategic Management and Organizational Science Literature for the Consideratio n of Diversity Aspects in Merger Review

B. Kern, M. Ackermann, here.

Competition Commission of India launches second FRAND antitrust investigation against Ericsson

Fosspatents.com, here.

Ouverture des données et des contenus culturels, le défi à venir des établissements culturels

C. Domange, ici.

Wie die EU Kommission die Netzneutralität abschafft

Netzpolitik.org, hier.

NHS patient data to be made available for sale to drug and insurance firms

Theguardian.com, here.

Innovation and competition: a survey

M. Gomellini, here.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Google purchases Nest for $3.2 billion

TheVerge.com, here.

Against the "Making Available" Right

G. Lunne, Statement, Committee on the Judiciary,  Hearing:The Scope of Copyright, here.

Identifying a Maverick: When Antitrust Law Should Protect a Low Cost Competitor

T. Owings, here.

Incentive Scoring Methodology for Merger Analysis

S. Moresi, S. Salop, here (pdf download).

Uber car attacked as Paris taxi strike turns violent

Verge.com, here.

EU Commission investigates restrictions affecting cross border provision of pay TV services

Press Release, here. J. Almunia's Statement here.

Hohe Bußgelder wegen Preisabsprachen bei Bier

Faz.net, hier.
Pressemitteilung des Bundeskartellamtes, hier

Quel statut légal pour le data-mining ?

Scoms.hypotheses.org, ici.

UK consultation on draft regulations for orphan works

Consultation document here.

Barnier on the Unified Patent Court and the risk of patent trolls

Answer to a MEP's question to the Commission, here.

La protection juridique d’une application mobile

Journaldunet.com, ici.

We should be worrying about Google’s assimilation and consolidation, and here’s why

Gigaom.com, here.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Scribd Responds to Writer Beware on Pirated Content

Publishersweekly.com, Here.

5 Industries Facing Disruption In 2014

Project-disco.org, here.

Bitcoin explained

Qz.com, here.

Open Data Licensing (With Emphasis on the Italian Public Sector): Guidelines for Choosing and Applying the Most Suitable License

C. Piana, S. Aliprandi, Presentations's video and slides here.

The Thomson Reuter Commitment Decision

Kluwercompetitionlawblog.com, here.

The Comparative Law and Economics of Standard-Essential Patents and FRAND Royalties

T. Cotter, here.

How the Google Consent Order Alters the Process and Outcomes of Frand Bargaining

E. Dorsey, M. McGuire, here.

The ‘Anti-Amazon Law’ Is About To Become A Reality In France, But It’s Not A Bad Thing

Techcrunch.com, here.

Crowdfunding sans licences libres = piège à gogos ?

Scinfolex.com, ici.

Top Ten Internet Law Developments Of 2013

Forbes.com, here.

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

La CNIL condamne lourdement Google à 2 minutes d'amende

Numerama.com, ici.

Patent Litigation Reform: Who Are You Calling a Troll?

J. Brill, here.

Use of meta search engine for data scraping infringes database right

Taylorwessing.com, here.

The Proposed EU Data Protection Regulation Two Years Later

C. Kuner, C. Burton and A. Pateraki, here.

Previous update (September 2013) here

Allowing parodies within Hong Kong's copyright law: the benefits of an exception for user-generated content

P. Yu, here

Google’s Europe Foes Show No Sign of Letting Up in 2014

Blogs.wsj.com, here. ICOMP Report here (pdf download). 

Telematics data sharing, competition law and privacy rights

Out-law.com, here

The rise of the reputation economy

World Economic Forum (blog), here

Safe to be open: Study on the protection of research data and recommendations for access and usage

L. Guibault, A. Wiebe (Eds.), here

Hollywood studios sign up for W3C membership

Zdnet.com, here

Apple seeks removal of court-appointed antitrust monitor

Reuters.com, here

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Bundesregierung: Das reine Betrachten eines Videostreams ist keine Urheberrechtsverletzung

Irights.info, hier.

Suivi des missions relatives au secteur culturel et au numérique après le rapport Lescure

Lasic.fr, ici.

When FRAND meets FOSS: Bottom Up or Top Down?

Consortiuminfo.org, here.

Standard-Essential Patents and the Problem of Hold-Up

J. Kattan, C. Wood, here.

Global Congress Declaration on Fundamental Public Interest Principles for International Intellectual Property Negotiations

Adopted at the Third Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, University of Cape Town, December 13, 2013, here.

2014 copyright policy tactics: Hollywood's stronger engagement with academic institutions and professors

Hollywoodreporter.com, here.

Narrative Report: WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), 26th session

Infoclio.ch, here.

Schlussbericht der schweizerischen Arbeitsgruppe zum Urheberrecht (AGUR12)

IPI.ch, hier.

Copyright Exhaustion Rationales and Used Software

A. Rubi Puig, here.

Google's Open Automotive Alliance: the battle for the dashboard is now

The Verge.com. here

Antitrust Marathon V: When in Rome Public and Private Enforcement of Competition Law

P. Marsden, S. Weber Waller, P. Fabbio, here

Monday, January 06, 2014

Patent trolls & damages

Webinar presentation slides, here

Infringement Risk in Copyright-Intensive Industries

J. Band, J. Gerafi, here

EU favours licensing over copyright reform for libraries in latest international negotiations

IFLA.org, here

The Google Book project: is it fair use?

B. Sookman, here

Australian privacy law reform

Oaic.gov.au, here

Fashion and Intellectual Property

EuropeanaFashion.eu, here

What technological developments (and related legal issues) will 2014 bring?

Taylorwessing.com, here.

Competition law, intellectual property rights and dynamic analysis: Towards a new institutional “equilibrium ?”

F. Jenny, I. Lianos, H. Hovenkamp. F. Marshall, S. Sivaramjani Thambisetty, here.

Chapters, in detail:

I. Lianos, Introduction
S. Thamisetty, WHY PATENT LAW DOESN’T DO INNOVATION POLICY
H. Hovenkamp, INSTITUTIONAL ADVANTAGE IN COMPETITION AND INNOVATION POLICY
F. Jenny, ANTICOMPETITIVE ABUSES OF PATENT SYSTEMS AND THE ROLE OF COMPETITION AUTHORITIES
F. Marshall, A STUDY OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH COLLABORATION

From Hydrogen Peroxide to Comcast: The New Rigor in Antitrust Class Actions

J. Keyte, P. Eckles, and K. Hoffman Lent, here

Monopsony 2013:Still Not Truly Symmetric

J. Jacobson, here

EU Competition Law Procedural Issues

I. Vanderborre, T. Goetz, here

JDownloader2: Neues Licht in der Frage wer, wann für Open Source Software haftet

Ifross.org, hier

Saturday, December 14, 2013

TPP and IP, A Brief Note

P. Krugman, here

Unglue.it opens a new chapter – a bookstore for books that want to be free

Libraries.wright.edu, here

Google's European antitrust fight: Still battling

TheEconomist.com, here

Gazprom Submits Draft Proposals to EU in Antitrust Probe

Online.wsj.com, here

Canada’s Competition Bureau Escalates Google Antitrust Investigation

Searchengineland.com, here

The Politics of the EU Court Data Retention Opinion: End to Mass Surveillance?

Freedom-to-tinker.com, here

Bye bye Internet, la settimana nera delle nuove tecnologie

G. Scorza (IlFattoQuotidiano), qui

Ribaudo: "Consumatori indenni dal compenso SIAE". Come?

Dday.it, qui

Il Trattato di Marrakesh per favorire l'accesso alle opere da parte di persone con difficoltà di lettura: aspetti applicativi

S. Vezzoso (this blog's author), here

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Commercialising Public Research: New Trends and Strategies

OECD, here (DRM protected). 

"At the Crossroads" (consumer privacy in the commercial sphere v. citizens’ privacy in the face of government surveillance)

J. Brill, here

Offre légale : la Hadopi invente l'offre "d'apparence légale"

Numerama.com, ici.

Big Data: New Tricks for Econometrics

H. Varian, here

Open data and the creation of digital public services

L. Maxwell, Video here

Data isn't a four-letter word

N. Kroes, here

Report on Legal Rights Objection Procedure (gTLDs)

WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, here

The World’s Most Popular Song Goes to Court

Blog.davismcgrath.com, here

Data Protection Principles for the 21st Century - Revising the 1980 OECD Guidelines

F. Cate, P. Cullen, V. Mayer-Schönberger, here (pdf download).

Visualizing TPP Negotiating Positions with New Leaks: Salt Lake City

Topromotetheprogress.wordpress.com, here

EU's Almunia says Gazprom antitrust proposal due this week

Globalpost.com, here

Comment Lovecraft inventa les Creative Commons un siècle avant tout le monde

ActuaLitte.com, ici

Monday, December 09, 2013

Stiglitz to TPP Negotiators

Letter, here

Memo For Sr. Almunia, A Patent Assertion Entity Is Not Necessarily A Patent Troll

Forbes.com, here

France's sovereign patent fund takes aim at LG and HTC in the US and Germany

Iam-magazine.com, here

Turning Government Data into Gold': The Interface between EU Competition Law and the Public Sector Information Directive – With some Comments on the Compass-Case

B. Lundqvist, here or here.

Maverick: Making Sense of a Conjecture of Antitrust Policy in the Lab

C. Engel, A. Ockenfels, here

Some brief comments on SEPs and Art.102 TFEU (Moscow Conference)

This blog's Author, here

Cartel Fines imposed by the EU Commission - Statistics

Ec.europa.eu, here

Intellectual property and competition policy

J. Almunia, here. Important update on (too?) many open issues: SEP, patent trolls, Google Search, etc.

Seminario sobre Propiedad Intelectual: Google and the World Brain

Uoc.edu, aquì

Global Patent Filings See Fastest Growth in 18 Year

WIPO, here. 2012 World Intellectual Property Indicators Report, here

UK Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit goes global in its pursuit of illegal websites

Cityoflondon.police.uk, here

The European Union Public Licence (EUPL)

P.-E. Schmitz, here

Protection Of Handicrafts Gains Global Interest; Challenges Persist In The South

Ip-watch.org, here

Open Innovation 2.0 – A New Paradigm

EU Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group (OISPG), here. Presentations here. Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 here.

Second release of secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement document

Wikileaks.org, here

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Study on business models for Linked Open Government Data

Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA) Programme of the European Commission, here

Thursday, December 05, 2013

On the relation between surveillance practices in the EU and the US and the EU data protection provisions

C. Moraes, J. Albrecht, here.

House of Representatives passes widely supported bill to fight patent trolls

TheVerge.com, here.

The Holy See on the TPP


Statement, 9th Session of the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization
Bali, here (p.4-5).

Complexities evident in today's oral argument in Oracle v. Google (API and copyright)

J. Band, here. See also my take on the District Court's ruling in a comparative perspective, here

Public Consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules

Here.Press Release, here.

Some highlights:

"The principle of EU exhaustion of the distribution right applies in the case of the distribution of physical copies (e.g. when a tangible article such as a CD or a book, etc. is sold, the right holder cannot prevent the further distribution of that tangible article). The issue that arises here is whether this principle can also be applied in the case of an act of transmission equivalent in its effect to distribution (i.e. where the buyer acquires the property of the copy). This raises difficult questions, notably relating to the practical application of such an approach (how to avoid re-sellers keeping and using a copy of a work after they have “re-sold” it – this is often referred to as the “forward and delete” question {The UsedSoft ruling had an answer to that} as well as to the economic implications of the creation of a second-hand market of copies of perfect quality that never deteriorate (in contrast to the second-hand market for physical goods) {also, technical solutions possible?}


Finally, the question of flexibility and adaptability is being raised: what is the best mechanism to ensure that the EU and Member States’ regulatory frameworks adapt when necessary (either to clarify that certain uses are covered by an exception or to confirm that for certain uses the authorisation of rightholders is required)? The main question here is whether a greater degree of flexibility can be introduced in the EU and Member States regulatory framework while ensuring the required legal certainty, including for the functioning of the Single Market, and respecting the EU's international obligations. {pretty straightforward answer: yes, on all accounts}.

Teaching (exception)
Some argue that the law should provide for better possibilities for distance learning and study at home {indeed: my longish take here, Italian only}.

Marrakesh Treaty
The EU and its Member States have started work to sign and ratify the Treaty {how far advanced are they, really? }This may require the adoption of certain provisions at EU level (e.g. to ensure the possibility to exchange accessible format copies across borders). 

A specific Working Group was set up on this issue in the framework of the "Licences for Europe" stakeholder dialogue. No consensus was reached among participating stakeholders on either the problems to be addressed or the results. At the same time, practical solutions to facilitate text and data mining of subscription-based scientific content were presented by publishers as an outcome of “Licences for Europe”. In the context of these discussions, other stakeholders argued that no additional licences should be required to mine material to which access has been provided through a subscription agreement and considered that a specific exception for text and data mining should be introduced {following some proposals at State level...Shouldn't it be the other way round?} possibly on the basis of a distinction between commercial and non-commercial. 








Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Henry Ford, Patent Trolling, & the Goodlatte Innovation Act in Cartoon Form

Patentlyo.com, here.

Open Data in Transition: Intellectual Property, Competition, and Regulatory Issues

Thursday 19th December 2013
University of Trento
Venue: Department of Economics and Management
Conference Programme here

Privacy and Facial Recognition Technology

Ntia.doc.gov, here

UK Competition Network (UKCN): Statement of Intent

Here

Digitising copyrighted film, books and music is probably going to become legal - it's about time

Newstatesman.com, here

Five Stages of Data Grief

Open Data Institute, here

Avis sur la situation de la concurrence dans le secteur des autoroutes

Autorité de la Concurrence, ici.

Utiliser les irrépartissables des sociétés de gestion collective pour financer la numérisation du domaine public ?

Scinfolex.com, ici. 

United Kingdom: interim injunctions in competition litigation

Kluwercompetitionlawblog.com, here

New F.C.C. Chief Promises He Will Protect Competition

NYTimes.com, here

LG Berlin: Urteil vzbv vs. Google im Volltext

Legalmemory.blogspot.com, hier.

Monday, December 02, 2013

Indistinguishable from Magic: A Wizard's Guide to Copyright and 3D Printing

J. Grimmelmann, here.

EU-Ministerrat: Deutsche Beamte bremsen Europas Datenschutz aus

Spiegel.de, hier

Internetvertrieb und vertikale Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen

G. Kallfaß, hier

Could Digital College Textbooks Become Free in the USA?

Publishingperspectives.com, here

Fair use, Georgia State, and the rest of the world

Blogs.library.duke.edu, here

How a 2-page letter led to American Airlines' antitrust settlement with the feds

Dallasnews.com, here

Drug detectives: scientists want to crowdsource the discovery of new antibiotics

TheVerge.com, here

La CNMC multa con 15 millones de euros a Mediapro y a cuatro clubs de fútbol

CNMC.es, aquì

Ending the Book Famine: How Does the WIPO Treaty Help?

S. King, Presentation here

When Algorithms Grow Accustomed to Your Face

NYTimes.com, here

Startup Cities To Become Reality (ZEDE - Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico)

EdanYago.me, here

Open Government Guide

The Transparency and Accountability Initiative, here

Thanks for the tip, I’ll get it on Amazon

Macleans.ca, here

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Google Books: Eight Years Later...

Publishersweekly, here

Bundeskartellamt erwirkt Änderung des Händler-Rabattsystems bei GARDENA

Bundeskartellamt.de, hier

Competition Policy for Modern Banks

L. Ratnovski, here.

Film Producers and Distributors Obtain Site Block from Paris Court

The1709blog.blogspot.co.uk, here

Israeli Publishers and Hebrew University Reach Historic Agreement on Fair Use

ArielKatz.org, here

Rivals can create copycat software through testing developers' software and interpreting their user manuals, rules UK court

Out-law.com, here

Bundesgerichtshof zur Nutzung urheberrechtlich geschützter Werke auf elektronischen Lernplattformen von Universitäten

Urteil vom 28. November 2013 - I ZR 76/12 - Meilensteine der Psychologie, Pressemitteilung hier

Regulatory context of Machine to Machine (M2M)

M. Delecluse, Presentation here

Google’s Growing Patent Stockpile

MIT Technology Review, here

Your medical data in their hands - concerns mount over new NHS IT project

Opendemocracy.net, here

Pour le respect des droits fondamentaux des lecteurs dans un environnement numérique

Association des Bibliothécaires de France, ici

Monday, November 25, 2013

European citizens and Intellectual Property: perception, awareness and behaviour

OHIM, here

The European Commission and Open Access

J.-F. Dechamp, Presentation here, video here

Government of Canada Quietly Changes Its Approach to Crown Copyright

MichaelGeist.ca, here

Competition in Road Fuel

OECD Roundtable, here

Creative Commons to European Commission: No restrictions on PSI re-use

CreativeCommons.org, here

Proposition de loi concernant les stratégies abusives de réappropriation du domaine publique

Actualitte.com, ici

Lobbyarbeit im Datenschutz: Ex-Kommissar auf schräger Mission

Sueddeutsche.de, hier

The Changing Textbook Industry

J. Band, here

A US Court Issues Second Ruling Determining RAND Rate for Standard Essential Patent (Innovatio)

M. Carrier, here

Tracas en perspective pour Google Maps ?

Zdnet.fr, ici

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Sustainability of Open Source software communities beyond a fork: How and why has the LibreOffice project evolved?

J. Gamalielsson, B. Lundell, here.

Brussels to launch antitrust probe into sales of pay-TV rights


Financial Times, here.

"Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, last year sanctioned a “fact finding” effort in light of the (Murphy) ruling to see whether barriers to cross-border access merited antitrust scrutiny and possible enforcement action.

Some investigators are now poised to step up their inquiries into whether “absolute territorial protection clauses” break competition law. These stop licensees from selling to other countries or accepting unsolicited demands from overseas customers to pay to access the content.

......

Maurits Dolmans, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb, said the 2011 Premier League case concerned satellite sports broadcasting and the court left open whether it could be applied at all to other distribution channels and other forms of content.

“The Commission will have to take into account different economic factors,” he said. “Forcing EU-wide licensing may be attractive for consumers in richer countries, who may pay less, but not necessarily for consumers in poorer countries, who might be forced to pay more.”

Friday, November 22, 2013

Creative Economy Report 2013

UNESCO, here.

Intellectual Property chapter of TPP poses threat to Open Access

Mysciencework.com, here.

Le policy universitarie in materia di Accesso Aperto alla scienza: l’esperienza dell’Università di Trieste

Seminario, 27 novembre 2013, Università di Trento, qui.

Programma
14.30
Saluti della Rettrice - prof.ssa Daria de Pretis

14.40
Introduzione – prof. Roberto Caso, delegato della Rettrice per l’Open Access e le politiche contro il plagio

15.00
La policy dell’Università di Trieste in materia di accesso aperto – prof. Fabio Benedetti, Presidente della Commissione di Ateneo per l’accesso aperto dell’Università di Trieste

15.30 - 16.00
Dibattito

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Delivering the Benefits? Efficiencies and Airline Mergers (US Airways-American)

AAI White Paper (D. Moss), here

India's PM (also) on competition policy

Inaugural address at the 3rd BRICS International Competition Conference, here

A Brazilian State Takes Open Data To Another Level

Techpresident.com, here

After a year of threats, first suit is filed over hated “scanner patents”

ArsTechnica.com, here

Die Open-Data-Bewegung - Das Verhältnis von Praktiken, Zielen und Selbstbild der Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland

S. Baak, hier.

Defying the logic, forgetting the facts: the new European proposal for data protection in the police sector

J. Cannataci, here

Living with Uncertainty in IP Law

JIPLP Editorial, here.

HarperCollins, Curriculet Test New School E-book Model

PublishersWeekly.com, here

That Google Books decision: good, but only second best?

The IPKat, here

Software patent reform just died in the House, thanks to IBM and Microsoft

Washingtonpost.com, here

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Hidden efficiencies: On the relevance of business justifications in abuse of dominance cases

H. Friederiszick, L. Gratz, here

Schienenkartell: ThyssenKrupp zahlt Millionenentschädigung an Deutsche Bahn

Spiegel.de, hier. Sueddeutsche.de, hier

Convention 108 with Additional Protocol and Modernisation proposals

CAHDATA, Council of Europe, here

Big data can improve health outcomes, say experts

Out-Law.com, here

Patent Reform 2013: Measured Reform Proposals from the Senate

Patentlyo.com, here

How Self-Publishing Led Amazon to German Ebook Dominance

PublishingPerspectives.com, here

Base de données : caractère non substantiel des investissements de constitution

Legalis.net, ici.

Comments Received on Copyright Green Paper

Ntia.doc.gov, here

Marking Up the TPP

Project-disco.org, here.

Numérisation : L'Etat ne suppléera pas "les partenaires privés réticents"

Actualitte.com, ici

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Rise of Innovative Business Models: Content Delivery Methods in the Digital Age

Hearing, Committee on the Judiciary, here.

The Internet of Things: Privacy and Security in a Connected World

E. Ramirez, here. FTC workshop's page here

Google's vertical search proposals: what will be EC antitrust chief's verdict?

TheGuardian.com, here

These charts show how the U.S. could lose its edge in scientific research

Washingtonpost.com, here

Rémunération proportionnelle du partage: la Hadopi s'associe à des universitaires

Numerama.com, ici

Open Access to science and data = cash and economic bonanza

N. Kroes, here

New group fights digital theft with personal touch

Usatoday.com, here.

EPIC Urges FCC to Investigate AT&T’s Practice of Selling Consumer Phone Records

Epic.org, here

Rights Protection Mechanisms for New gTLDs

ICANN Generic Domains Division, here.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Revisiting antitrust institutions: The case for guidelines to recalibrate the Federal Trade Commission’s section 5 unfair methods of competition authority

J. Wright, here

Frank La Rue (Onu): “Incostituzionale una riforma Agcom su diritto d’autore online”

Lastampa.it, qui

Neelie Kroes calls for modernising copyright for the digital age

Futureofcopyright.com, here

Kick the data secrecy habit and everyone wins

Newscientist.com, here

Comments Received To South Africa’s Process For New IP Policy

IP-watch.org, here

Study on Intellectual Property and Brain Drain - A Mapping Exercise

WIPO Secreteriat, peer-reviewed by F. Lissoni, here

Information Resellers - Consumer Privacy Framework Needs to Reflect Changes in Technology and the Marketplace

US Government Accountability Office, here

Law Professors Call for Public Process for Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Chapter

Infojustice.org, here

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Google Books Litigation Update

A. Ahsir, here.

Italy: Open Data Action Plan

Department for Public Administration in cooperation with the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID), here.

Apple maps: how Google lost when everyone thought it had won

Theguardian.com, here

Competition in the online world

J. Almunia, here

Content Creation, Access to Information, Open Internet

Workshop, Internet Governance Forum, Transcript here

Copyright research and innovation policy

European Parliament, Brussels, 12 November 2013, Programme here, streaming here

The Art of Persuasion: Competition Advocacy at the Intersection of Antitrust and Intellectual Property

R. Hesse, here

La legge italiana sull’accesso aperto agli articoli scientifici: l’inizio di un percorso normativo

R. Caso, P. Galimberti, here

A few words about copyright

G. Brandis, here

Friday, November 08, 2013

Is Auto Parts Evolving into a Supercartel?

J. Connor, here

YouTube Comments Changes Spark Petition For Privacy

Inquisitr.com, here.

The new Competition and Markets Authority: how will it promote competition?

D. Currie, here.

Ads Could Soon Know If You’re an Introvert (on Twitter)

MIT Technology Review, here.

US loses Unesco voting rights after stopping funds over Palestine decision

TheGuardian.com, here

Felines jumping from OHIM to General Court: puma and designs

IPKat, here

Ideology Matters in the Antitrust Debate

M. Lao, here

The Landscape of Proposed Patent Law Amendments – A Comparative Look

J. Contreras, here

The quest for behavioural Antitrust. Beyond the label battle, towards a cognitive approach

L. Arnaudo, Agcm Collana "Temi e problemi", qui

Credit Cards in Canada: What Role for Competition Law?

Kluwer Competition Law Blog, here

U.S. spying harms cloud computing, Internet freedom: Wikipedia founder

Reuters.com, here.

"It's not always fun to live in an authors' rights country"

B. Hugenholtz, Flexing Authors’ Rights, Peter Jaszi Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property, Video here (from 1:14:16).
"It's not always fun to live in an authors' rights country" at 1:23:38.

Highly recommended, in the following some notes I took:

Who could be against "fair" use in Europe and elsewhere?

A number of historic reasons:
- civil law tradition: the law should be made by the people, the judge should be no more than "la bouche de la loi" (mouthpiece of the law)
- authors' rights: different rationale, constitutions at national level hardly ever mention intellectual property: there to protect authors as a matter of natural justice; exceptions narrowly interpreted. As part of that, the moral rights' tradition.

Broader concerns:
- affecting legal certainty
- opening the floodgates to piracy
- fear of US legal imperialism ("fair US to us")

Legal arguments:
- fair use in conflict with the Berne Convention, with TRIPS

But:

- civil law is already dominated by general principles, and unwritten law also a source of law
- generally, moral rights do not impede the introduction of more flexible norms
- public interest and balancing of rights already part of the discussion
- fair use is not wild, it is fairly predictable, despite being open
2010 "Vorschaubilder" case involving thumbnails: German Court looking for ways to justify them, and cooked up a theory of "implied consent." Reasonable solution, but we need more legal certainty.
- three-step test as a safety net

Legal transplants rarely work, but in Europe we need more flexibility, and the European and international legal frameworks do tolerate it (problems exist, but are not insurmountable).

Evidence pointing in the direction of flexibility:

- Recital 2, InfoSoc Directive: "The European Council, meeting at Corfu on 24 and 25 June 1994, stressed the need to create a general and flexible legal framework at Community level in order to foster the development of the information society in Europe."

Limitations and exceptions (LE) rather loosely circumscribed, rather like prototypes (eg., art. 5(3)(d) InfoSoc Directive: "quotations for purposes such as criticism or review"; (i) incidental inclusion of a work or other subject-matter in other material; (k) use for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche; not even the French know what pastiche means...perhaps user generated content?), with ample room for maneuver (Sweden, very broad quotation exception: quote to the extent necessary for the purpose, in accordance with proper uses).

Three-step test not that much of a problem:
- "certain special cases": flexible norms can be reasonably predictable, eg fair use is not all encompassing
- "prejudice the legitimate interests of the rightholder": flexible norms do not necessary prejudice authors' and rightholders' rights
- nobody has ever complained to the WTO about the US fair use rule.
- the Berne three-step conceived against the background of all LE existing at that time, fair use included (US not part of Berne at that time, but future adherence was already part of the picture).

Discussions on flexibilities in the EU

Luckily, the idea of introducing more flexibility is gaining momentum at the EU political level, inspired by the UK and Irish examples among others. Also the Netherlands is forcefully making that point in Europe.

Irish Copyright Review Report suggesting the introduction of some sort of fair use, complementing exiting LE.

Kind of flexibilities that work: two approaches
- Extend existing LE to create more room for maneuver
- the South Korean/Irish approach: flexibility alongside circumscribed LE (civil law) - rule of complementary flexibility; similarly, the Wittem project - European Copyright Code advocating it, at article 5.5:
"Further limitations
Any other use that is comparable to the uses enumerated in art. 5.1 to 5.4(1) is permitted provided that the corresponding requirements of the relevant limitation are met and the use does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author or rightholder, taking account of the legitimate interests of third parties."

Who cares about flexibilities in copyright? Everybody is infringing copyright anyway on a daily basis (only speaking for the Netherlands)

Law abiding citizens, and students.
Institutional users (such as libraries) and innovators: chilling effects.
Authors themselves.
Everybody  believing in copyright, and Prof. Hugenholtz certainly does: increasing gap between social norms of the people "in Internet" and the law of copyright; social legitimacy of copyright currently under serious threat.

German court stays Google-Apple FRAND rate-setting case, invites EU Commission to participate

Fosspatents.com, here

Urheberrecht: Große Koalition will Haftung von Sharehostern verschärfen

Heise.de, hier.

Strategic Underinvestment as an Abuse of Dominance under EU Competition Rules

P. Merlino, G. Faella, here

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Microsoft Is Making An Astonishing $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties

BusinessInsider.com, here..

Big Data for Europe

N. Kroes,here.
What is Big Data? Memo, here

The Guardian on Google' s Leaked Settlement Proposals

Here.
Commitments from Bits.blogs.nytimes.com, here.
Questionnaire from .consumerwatchdog.org, here

"Strategic Patent Acquisitions" in Review

The Antitrust Source, here.

Rockstar vs. Google: Software patents as a license for privateering

FSFE.org, here

User Generated Content under Canadian Copyright Law Symposium Videos

Osgoode Hall Law School, here

Inspiring Creativity - Promoting Culture and Creative Industries across Europe

European Territorial Cooperation, here

Antitrust damages in EU law and policy

J. Almunia, here

Five Arguments Laid to Rest after Actavis

M. Carrier, here

Des "services culturels numériques" sous le joug du CSA ? Refus de l'ASIC

Numerama.com, ici

Startups Pitching A “Netflix For E-Books” May Have A Tough Sell

TechCrunch.com, here

Department of Commerce Seeks Input on Digital First Sale

Thedigitalshift.com here.
Supplementary info published on the Federal Register, here (p. 2 ff.)

Behavioural Economics in Competition and Consumer Policy

Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, here. Presentations from the book's launch here.