Category Information and Communications Technology/ Broadcasting

Electronics Manufacturers Use US Legal System to Thwart Hardware ‘Hacks’

Electronics manufacturers are taking legal action against users in the United States who communicate how to unlock or “hack” hardware devices. However, manufacturers’ use of their hired legal guns to crack down on hacking, which they say infringes on their intellectual property ownership rights, is a point of debate.

Submissions To US Unilateral IP Enforcement Process Highlight Piracy, Health, and ACTA

Submissions to the United States annual review of how well it says the rest of the world is protecting US intellectual property are being assessed this week, with marked changes from previous years.

USTR Offers Answers To Some Thorny Questions On ACTA

A letter from the United States government answering a variety of sticky questions about the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has been released online. The 28 January letter is addressed to Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat, Oregon) from US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Technologies Of Dissent: A Primer From Yale A2K4 Conference

Leaps forward in technology can bring with them dramatic social changes; in particular the expansion of digital and social media has both democratised the power to record information and to be heard, but it has also simultaneously made it easier than ever before for public institutions to intrude upon private lives.

ACTA Negotiators: Maximal Protection Proposals Unlikely In Final Text

The chapter on copyright protection in the digital environment under negotiation in the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is still in an embryonic state, said negotiators coming back from the recent ACTA negotiations in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Contradictory Court Rulings, Continuing Tension On Internet Liability In EU

In its 2010 digital music report, the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said that despite the availability of 400 legitimate online music offerings worldwide and significantly higher 2009 revenues, the music sector remains hard-hit by peer-to-peer and emerging forms of copyright infringement.

Year Ahead: Reforming Global IP Systems – Trends In A2K In 2010

Ensuring public access to knowledge while supporting intellectual property rights cuts across broad areas such as internet availability, public health, education and culture, climate change, and basic technical standards. And while the non-profit movement that has worked to encourage access is facing serious challenges this year, they are set to fight it out in the various fora related to essential drugs, books and academic journals, and software again in 2010.

Droit d’auteur 2010 : entre une application modèle et des limitations plus strictes

L’Accord commercial anti-contrefaçon (ACAC), objet de négociations secrètes, est aujourd’hui au centre des débats internationaux sur le droit d’auteur. Tel est aussi le cas d’un potentiel nouveau traité international sur l’accès pour les déficients visuels aux livres en ligne, qui…

Google Book Deal Still Needs Work, US Justice Department Says

The United States Department of Justice yesterday told the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that progress had been made on its concerns in the settlement allowing internet search giant Google to scan millions of books into a database. But the government lawyers continue to have doubts on copyright, class certification and antitrust issues, they said.