Big tech accountability? Read how we got here in  The Closing of the Net 

IPR Enforcement

IPR enforcement on the Internet is highly contrversial as measures may entail some form of content blocking and  impose new liabilities on  ISPs and content platforms.  Blocking measures immediately engage the right to freedom of expression.

This section  monitors  aspects of EU policy which relate to IPR and copyright enforcement from 2009. It covers a variety of industry-led proposals, including early moves against Internet providers. Iptegrity provided almost exclusive coverage of the European Commission's proposed Notice and Action Directive. It was  subsequently shelved - but will it re-appear? The section also logs industry moves which may influence the policy agenda and seeks to understand ways in which European  IPR enforcement policy could change or evolve.

If you like the articles in this section and you are interested in copyright enforcement policy in the EU, you may like my books A Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms and The Copyright Enforcement Enigma - Internet Politics and the ‘Telecoms Package’

You might also like my latest  book 'The Closing of the Net' which examins corporate power and Internet policy, including 3 chapters on copyright.

The European Union held a seminar today on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. Hot on the discussion list was what to do about those organisations involved in online selling of counterfeit goods and services (for which read that they are targetting eBay and peer-to-peer file-sharing).

The meeting was held behind closed doors but they obviously could not resist revealing just a little of what they were doing.

 

Some 200 people were invited to the meeting  which was hosted in Stockholm by the Swedish Presidency. The press release from the European Commission did its best to position counterfeiting and piracy as a

Read more: Beware "voluntary" cooperation on IP

The EU is stepping up  the pressure on eBay at the same time as secretly negotiating criminal sanctions within the ACTA, as part of  a long-term IPR enforcement strategy.

 

The European Commission is holding talks about a notice and take-down procedure for online auction and ecommerce sites. The objective of the measures under discussion is to enable large rights-holders and trade-mark owners to get auction listings and sellers removed and to force liability for individual listings onto auction site owners  so that they  will police their users.  The major auction site owner is of course, eBay. The IPRED directive is being wielded at  eBay, as the EU's weapon of choice if eBay does not  agree.

The existence of the talks was disclosed 

Read more: EU plans emerge for eBay & ACTA

The European Commission is secretly talking  with industry on Europe-wide 3-strikes measures. In what would appear to be British-inspired intiative, it wants to broker agreements between broadband providers and rights-holders, threatening EU legislation if they do not co-operate.

 

 

A meeting was held on 6 July, attended by rights-holders, trade unions, and Internet providers. The Commission's agenda was to start of series of talks to set up ‘voluntary agreeements' for dealing on online copyright protection of ‘creative content' which is defined as ‘books, films and music'.  ‘Sanctions and remedies' were discussed, as well as

Read more: European Commission secret move on 3-strikes

Iptegrity in brief

 

Iptegrity.com is the website of Dr Monica Horten. I’ve been analysing analysing digital policy since 2008. Way back then, I identified how issues around rights can influence Internet policy, and that has been a thread throughout all of my research. I hold a PhD in EU Communications Policy from the University of Westminster (2010), and a Post-graduate diploma in marketing.   I’ve served as an independent expert on the Council of Europe  Committee on Internet Freedoms, and was involved in a capacity building project in Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine. I am currently (from June 2022)  Policy Manager - Freedom of Expression, with the Open Rights Group. For more, see About Iptegrity

Iptegrity.com is made available free of charge for  non-commercial use, Please link-back & attribute Monica Horten. Thank you for respecting this.

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Copyright Enforcement Enigma launch, March 2012

In 2012, I presented my PhD research in the European Parliament.

 

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