The European Court of Justice today canceled the blank cheque that allowed the transfer of personal data to US companies. This is an overdue step towards better data protection: Whether sensitive data is adequately protected and its transfer thus permissible must now be determined on a case-by-case basis. The court empowered the Irish Data Protection […]
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Dear European governments: don’t endanger free and open WiFi networks!
tl;dr: Projects building open communications networks using custom router software are playing an important role in providing refugees with Internet access. Last year, largely unbeknownst to the public, a new EU directive was passed on the regulation of radio equipment. This directive may limit the software that can be run on WiFi routers to those […]
more ›Why academics need to lobby for copyright reform – now
This speech was given at EPIP 2015 in Glasgow, UK on September 2nd, 2015
I would like to thank CREATe for giving me the opportunity to speak at a conference dedicated to what has proven to be the strongest asset in my personal quest for copyright reform: Scientific evidence. Ian Hargreaves is to be congratulated […]
more ›EU parliament defends Freedom of Panorama & calls for copyright reform
Today the European Parliament with a broad majority adopted my copyright evaluation report. The plenary decisively removed the controversial proposal to restrict the so-called Freedom of Panorama, the right to use pictures of public buildings and sculptures without restriction, which had previously been inserted by the Legal Affairs Committee.
The parliament has listened to […]
more ›Last-minute attempt to sneak “snippet tax” into copyright report
A last-minute amendment by German EPP member Angelika Niebler is threatening to undermine my report for a progressive copyright reform:
The freedom to hyperlink is at stake, should amendment 1 be adopted during Thursday’s final plenary vote. Although her attempt at introducing a call for an ancillary copyright for press publishers to my report was […]
more ›Was a shadowy lobby behind the attack on freedom of panorama? The truth is more worrying.
Over the past week, the people of Europe have spoken loud and clear: No to restricting freedom of panorama, no to royalties on public space.
More than 200,000 people (and counting) are supporting a petition against these ideas. 4,247 German Wikipedians signed an open letter. At least 11 professional organisations representing creators have renounced the proposal.
Where did this […]
more ›Freedom of Panorama under threat
On Tuesday, June 16, the legal affairs committee voted on my report on the review of EU copyright rules. While I managed to negotiate compromises with all political groups on most of my proposals, one area where we couldn’t agree to a compromise was the right to publish pictures of public buildings and artworks such […]
more ›Trade secrets could undermine fundamental rights: I voted against.
The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee on Tuesday voted on draft legislative proposals on the protection of trade secrets. While the Parliament’s proposals are a slight improvement on the original Commission proposals, my demands on improving transparency requirements were not heard.
Constance Le Grip’s report was adopted with eighteen votes in favour, two against and […]
more ›Reda Report adopted: A turning point in the copyright debate
Today, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament passed an amended version of my copyright evaluation report with a broad majority. (Find the detailed breakdown of the votes on my overview page. The final adopted text is not yet available – I will link to it as soon as it goes online.)
The amended report was supported by all […]
more ›Last call to save copyright reform
Tomorrow (Tuesday June 16th), the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament will vote on my copyright evaluation report.
There are some issues on which it will come down to every single vote – if these are important to you, today is your final chance to call your representative and let them know! Every single […]
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