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