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

Member States

Now that there is a European Copyright Directive  (2017) this section may look out of date. At the time when most of these articles were written - 2008-2012 - matters were more fluid. Several Member States were look at how they could implement laws to address the problem of the day, which was peer-to-peer file sharing.  For those who are studying this area of policy, it's an important part of the context for the 2017 law, and indeed for subsequent developments that may not deal with copyright, but do seek to enforce against content using similar measures.

This section of Iptegrity.com discusses Internet policy initiatives in the EU Member States, between 2008-2012, with the exception of France and Britain which are discussed in individual sections of the site.

If you like the articles in this section and you are interested in how policy for Internet, copyright, and net neutrality is made in the EU Member States, 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’

If you are interested in EU policy on Internet governance,   you may like my book The Closing of the Net .

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

What is the real objective of this proposed Italian copyright enforcement law? Is there a hidden attack on the E-commerce directive?

 A proposed new law in Italy threatens to reverse the E-commerce directive and ask  ISPs to  filter all content for copyright enforcement purposes. Without any subtelty at all, the proposed law attacks all  the core principles of the Internet, not to mention freedom of expression and other fundamental rights such as privacy and due process. Its structure is very simple, but in terms of its content, it contains the entire basket of measures which the rights-holders are asking for all around Europe and in Brussels.

Read more: Italy tables ‘basket case’ anti-download law

For 15 years the United States has been pressing the Italian government for tougher IPR enforcement measures. Eye-opening  revelations  in a new batch of leaked US diplomatic cables from Wikileaks describe how the American government, via its embassy in Rome, attempted to manipulate Italian domestic policy for intellectual property and copyright. Not only did they work with the Italian copyright industries, but their political tentacles even stetched into  the judicial system .

Read more: The Italian job - USG sensitised the magistrates

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.

Contact  me to use  iptegrity content for commercial purposes

 

States v the 'Net? 

Read The Closing of the Net, by me, Monica Horten.

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" essential read for anyone interested in understanding the forces at play behind the web." ITSecurity.co.uk

Find out more about the book here  The Closing of the Net

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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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