24
MAY
2013

The benefits and (copyright) drawbacks of 3d-printing

In the past months, the 3d-printing technology’s popularity has gained an immense boost. The first working 3d-printed gun has been covered in the news all around the world and has led to great commotion. Today, doctors announced to have rescued a baby’s life by 3d-printing and implementing a substitute tracheal implant. These examples display only a few of the many ways in which this technique...
23
MAY
2013

European Parliament gives green light to start TAFTA-negotiations

Today, the European Parliament gave the green light for the Commission to start negotiations with the U.S. on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), also known as the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA).  TAFTA has been met with fierce resistance, especially concerning the intellectual property clauses included in the document. Adversaries of the agreement fear...
23
MAY
2013

Penguin reaches settlement in U.S. e-books price-fixing case

Book publisher Penguin has reached a settlement with the U.S. Attorney General and other parties over a longstanding e-book price dispute. Penguin will pay $75 million (approximately €58 million) in consumer damages in order to end the antitrust claims regarding e-book prices made against them in the U.S.  Penguin, along with Apple and major publishers Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins...
22
MAY
2013

Dutch music collecting society Buma/Stemra publishes annual report

Last week, the leading Dutch collecting society responsible for collecting and dividing the royalties for musicians, Buma/Stemra, issued its 2012 annual report. Interestingly, it is reporting that, although a lot of the consumed music in the Netherlands is distributed online, the collecting society only gains a small amount of its revenues through the Internet. It follows from this report that...
21
MAY
2013

UK proxy services anticipate on more ISP blocking of copyright infringing sites

This week it was announced that the British music industry is considering new lawsuits to request British ISP’s to block access to a wide range of copyright infringing sites.  After the successful request for a blocking order against Usenet indexing site Newzbin2, this legal route has become the model through which ISPs can be forced to bar their customers from accessing copyright...