The EU Directorate General for External Policies has issued a report on ACTA in advance of this fall’s debate over ratification. Its primary recommendation is that “unconditional consent would be an inappropriate response from the European Parliament given the issues…
China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei announced at a press conference that the nine-month “Special Operation Against IPR Infringement and Counterfeiting,” which ran from October 2010 to June 2011, led to over 150,000 investigations, which yeilded 9031 arrests and…
On July 11, 2011, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) presented the results of a study (prepared by Capital Trade, Inc.) on the value of fair use in the U.S. economy. The study—which was conducted using a methodology developed…
The EC has published a 22 page “synthesis” of the 380 comments it received on the Report on the Application of Directive 2004/48/EC on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. Roughly half of the comments came from consumers or individuals,…
Associations representing content owners have announced an agreement with ISPs to establish a “common framework of ‘best practices’ to effectively alert subscribers, protect copyrighted content and promote access to legal online content.” A fact sheet from the newly created Center…
A group of intellectual property professors (around 90 as of this writing) led by Mark Lemley, David S. Levine, and David G. Post have delivered a letter to Congress urging rejection of the PROTECT-IP Act of 2011 (S. 968). The…
Last week, “IP Czar” Victoria Espinel was featured as a keynote speaker at the World Copyright Summit, organized by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. The Wall Street Journal and Tech Dirt report that she described an…
On May 27, the International Anti-Piracy Caucus published its 2011 Country Watch List, identifying Canada, China, Russia, Spain and Ukraine as countries “that continue to lag in efforts to combat piracy.” The caucus was formed in 2003 and is currently…
On May 24, 2011, the European Commission unveiled a new initiative to modernize intellectual property protection. Noting that “in the last few years, technological change and, in particular, the growing importance of online activities, have completely changed the world in…
Steve Crocker, David Dagon, Dan Kaminsky, Danny McPherson, and Paul Vixie have authored a white paper warning that the DNS filtering requirements of the PROTECT IP Act would be ineffective in reducing piracy, but would harm the security of the…
A “Review of Intellectual Property and Growth” by Cardiff University Professor Ian Hargreaves, commissioned by UK Prime Minster Cameron in November 2010, finds that “copyright law has started to act as a regulatory barrier to the creation of certain kinds…
The EC Directorate General for Trade is reviewing its Strategy for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property rights in Third Countries, and it plans to update its current policy with “the adoption of a new Commission Communication by the end of…