TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘European Commission’ Category

By Paul Biba

From the Open Rights Group:

With the European Parliament set to vote on 23 March on extending the term of copyright for sound recordings, key European experts opposing the extension have released a new letter to MEPs warning of the dangers. Highlighting that the costs to the public are likely to exceed €1 billion the academics warn:

If Europe wishes to keep its ability to innovate, it must not lock in the current industry structure at a moment of great technological change, it must not inhibit digital creators and archives in the exploration of music - music which has been paid for once already, during the existing term!

The public will not be fooled. If copyright law, cynically, departs from its purpose, piracy becomes an easy option.

We urge the European Parliament, and the governments of member states of the European Union, to consider carefully the independent evidence on copyright term extension, and reject the Directive in its proposed form.

Your MEPs need to know that their voters are concerned and paying attention - use our guide to lobbying your MEPs (click to download) and a briefing pack (click to download).

We can’t overstate it: get in touch with your MEPs now and use our new banners and buttons to spread the word.

By Paul Biba

I guess today is Europe day for postings. The following is from DigitalKoans:

Here’s an excerpt from “European Commission CIP-ICT Policy Support Programme: Digital Libraries Information Day, Luxembourg, 17th February 2009.”

A budget of 25 million euros is allocated to digital libraries in the 2009 call. The main goals of this call are contributing to Europeana (the European digital library) and maximizing the impact of European research results. The specific objectives are:

* Developing services to improve the usability of Europeana
* Aggregating content for Europeana
* Digitising content for Europeana
* Open access to scientific information
* Use of heritage content for education

By Paul Biba

The following from Euractive:

The European Commission is set to put proposals to tackle online piracy on ice until the end of its current mandate, following heavy pressure from telecoms companies and consumer organisations alike, EurActiv has learned…. The most ancipated measure was a follow-up to a Communicationexternal on online content, presented at the beginning of 2008, which hinted at restrictive measures to curb online piracy. Proposals included a mandate for Internet service providers (ISPs) “to suspend or cut access to the web for those who illegally file-share,” the so-called three-step model proposed by France (EurActiv 10/12/07).

Brussels had planned to present actual proposals in the form of a recommendation in April. But now the plan has been frozen “after a radicalisation of the debate which has left no space for manoeuvre,” a Commission official told EurActiv, referring to strong lobbying by the content industry (in particular music), supported mainly by France, in negotiations over the telecoms package. …