• Apr 28, 2022
  • Glyn Moody
  • Censorship, Copyright, General Privacy News, Social Media, Surveillance,

How New Copyright Laws Threaten Privacy and Freedom of Speech

There’s a new US bill that everyone in the privacy world should know about — it goes by the name of “Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies Copyright Act of 2022” or the “SMART Copyright Act of 2022” for short. Although the bill is mostly geared toward tackling copyright infringement, the way it does so … Continue reading “How New Copyright Laws Threaten Privacy and Freedom of Speech”

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  • Sep 19, 2018
  • Derek Zimmer
  • Copyright, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Articles 11 and 13 in the New EU Copyright Directive Enable More Surveillance

Privacy activists were caught off guard last week when the EU passed its controversial copyright legislation. The new law has far reaching consequences that technical experts and internet companies alike have strongly advised would damage EU businesses and change fundamentally how the Internet works. This article is intended to show you WHY these two directives … Continue reading “Articles 11 and 13 in the New EU Copyright Directive Enable More Surveillance”

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TV Addons: Legal battle against Canadian media giants demonstrates severe consequences facing developers accused of copyright infringement

Earlier this year, a coalition of Canadian media groups including Bell, Rogers, Quebecor, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, presented a controversial proposal to the Canadian telecommunications regulator to implement a website-blocking system and independent agency to respond to online piracy.  While the “FairPlay Coalition” is seeking additional tools to respond to piracy and copyright infringement, … Continue reading “TV Addons: Legal battle against Canadian media giants demonstrates severe consequences facing developers accused of copyright infringement”

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  • Aug 23, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • Copyright, General Privacy News,

Is the copyright industry above the law and exempt from respecting human rights? Some companies seem to think so

When what evolved into modern copyright was first drawn up in the eighteenth century, it was designed as a legal weapon to be deployed against printers that made infringing copies of published texts. It was not used against the public for the simple reason that ordinary people had no means of making infringing copies: printing … Continue reading “Is the copyright industry above the law and exempt from respecting human rights? Some companies seem to think so”

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  • Jul 17, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • Copyright, General Privacy News, Governments,

EU copyright reform goes from bad to worse

Privacy News Online has written a couple of times about the major review of copyright law currently underway in the European Union. It’s pretty bad: there are proposals to bring in a “snippet tax” as well as a requirement for sites to filter all uploads. The hope was that as the draft text passed through … Continue reading “EU copyright reform goes from bad to worse”

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  • Jul 9, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • Copyright, Cybersecurity, Encryption, General Privacy News,

Encrypted Media Extensions: Copyright, DRM and the end of the open Web

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets standards for the Web, has released what it calls a “disposition of comments“, designed to address objections to the controversial Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). EME is officially “a common API that may be used to discover, select and interact with content encryption systems”. In practice, for the … Continue reading “Encrypted Media Extensions: Copyright, DRM and the end of the open Web”

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  • Jun 29, 2017
  • Glyn Moody
  • Copyright, General Privacy News,

Global publishing giant wins $15 million damages against researcher for sharing publicly-funded knowledge

It’s not every day that one of the world’s largest publishing companies is awarded $15 million in damages for copyright infringement against a site set up by a Kazakh neuroscientist. That makes the almost total lack of wider coverage of Elsevier’s win in New York against Sci-Hub surprising. But it is only the latest development … Continue reading “Global publishing giant wins $15 million damages against researcher for sharing publicly-funded knowledge”

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  • Aug 22, 2016
  • Caleb Chen
  • Copyright, General Privacy News, Governments,

In India, accessing a blocked website potentially carries a 3 year sentence

According to a government sanctioned warning on blocked torrent sites, using the Internet to access a blocked website in India could result in a ~$4,500 USD fine as well as imprisonment for 3 years. This is the same government that has denied Internet access to Jammu and Kashmir for over a month. Up until a … Continue reading “In India, accessing a blocked website potentially carries a 3 year sentence”

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  • Aug 18, 2016
  • Caleb Chen
  • Copyright, General Privacy News, Governments,

Court rules that ISPs do not need to give up information on alleged pirates, copyright infringers

An American Internet Service Provider (ISP) has received validation that it does not have to give up personal details of alleged copyright infringers. The Eastern Virginia District Court has denied copyright holder BMG Rights Management a permanent injunction against Cox Communication that would force the ISP to match personally identifiable information such as email address, … Continue reading “Court rules that ISPs do not need to give up information on alleged pirates, copyright infringers”

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As 3D printers break through, EU expands copyright to furniture and extends term by a century

The UK has just changed its copyright-and-patent monopoly law to extend copyright to furniture and to extend the term of that copyright on furniture with about a century. This follows a decision in the European Union, where member states are required to adhere to such an order. This change means that people will be prohibited … Continue reading “As 3D printers break through, EU expands copyright to furniture and extends term by a century”

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