Germany's culture minister has become enamoured of the copyright industries and is calling for copyright enforcement measures that look remarkably like a kind of ‘3-strikes and you're fined'.   But will he find himself in conflict with his Ministerial colleagues?

 

Bernd Neumann, Germany's Culture Minister last week called for a form of graduated response copyright enforcement measures. Speaking at  a Christian Democrat Media Night, to an audience of  copyright industry lobbyists, Herr Neumann said that German copyright law should be extended to incorporate what he called a Warnhinweismodell  (‘warnings and notification model). He also called for the ISPs to be made liable for copyright enforcement.

 

Herr Neumann's speech was typical of what we are now seeing policy-makers do in this area. They daren't come out publicly with what they are really planning, for fear of a PR backlash, so they couch it in words which are vague.  The model he described in his speech  suggests that

Read more: Rücksprung durch Technik - will Germany shift to 3-strikes?

Hungarian Media Law - commission amendments -  web-based media are still required to register, under threat of a fine for non-compliance.  

 The European Commission  struck an eleventh hour deal with Hungary whilst the Commissioner herself was in the air between Milan and Brussels, and only  minutes  before a vote in the European Parliament criticising the Hungarian government's media law.  Commissioner Neelie Kroes, still a little breathless it seems, after rushing from the airport, told the Parliament that she would not shy away from defending media pluralism.

 Nevertheless, it seems the Commission's strong stance has weakened since Mrs Kroes first wrote to the Hungarian government in December. And after Mrs Kroes' dash from the airport, the European Parliament failed to vote on its  Resolutions  - apparently after some confusion  as to what it should do.

The agreement  was produced last Wednesday and  seems to

Read more: European Commission shows a weak hand to Hungary

400925 11.5606 Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

A letter written by European Commissioner for Information Society, Neelie Kroes, has seriously criticised the Hungarian Media Law on the basis that it could be incompatible with EU law. The Commission indicates that the law is disproportionate  and that it may create  a restriction on free speech.

 

Neelie Kroes  letter is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary, Tibor Navracsics. It is dated 21 January 2011, and leaked via a Hungarian website yesterday.

 

The letter is critical of  the Hungarian Media Law on three counts: the obligation for

Read more: Leaked Commission letter blasts Hungarian Media Law