As the Zapatero  government winds down and hands over to his rival Mariano Rajoy, the winner of the November 20 Spanish election, there is a little matter of copyright law to sort out. This is the so-called Ley Sinde ( Sinde’s law) which provided for blocking of websites deemed to infringe copyright.

Read more: Will Spain ditch its anti-downloading law?

The so-called ‘Centemero law’ – proposed recently in  Italy  and named after the MP who tabled it- would appear to put ISPs under a duty of care to filter for the purpose of enforcing copyright.  On the basis of an English translation,  the Italian proposal  would put ISPs under  an onerous obligation  which would radically alter the Italian implementation of the E-commerce directive ‘mere conduit’.  Indeed, it would reverse mere conduit. And it would be the most draconian, if unimplementable, copyright enforcement law in Europe.

Read more: Italy's Centemero law would give ISPs a duty to filter

Will Germany cut off Internet users without a court ruling?

A German MP is in a hurry to make his name by tabling a copyright enforcment law before Christmas. The law will be a variant on the graduated response – 3-strikes – model, where Internet users are sent warnings  after which their Internet access will be cut off. Only it is missing the second ‘strike’ so German activists are calling it a 2-strikes law.  The proposal is that

Read more: German MP wants 2 strikes before Xmas