One bright day in the middle of the night…: Reactions to my copyright evaluation report

 What do you see?

This could be the beginning of a reform of copyright which finally takes into account the needs of people in the 21st century.
–Marcin Maj, Dziennik Interautów

The losers [of the report’s proposals] are European individuals […]: they lose protection over their own words and images, becoming second class global […]

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EU copyright rules maladapted to the Internet, upcoming Parliamentary report finds

This is the press release summarizing the report. To view the blog post, click here.

EU copyright rules are maladapted to the increase of cross-border cultural exchange facilitated by the Internet, an upcoming European Parliament own-initiative report evaluating 2001’s copyright directive finds. The draft released today by Julia Reda, MEP for the German Pirate Party, […]

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Report: EU copyright rules are maladapted to the increase of cross-border cultural exchange on the web

This is the core finding of my draft report for the European Parliament evaluating 2001’s copyright directive:

Although the directive was meant to adapt copyright to the digital age, in reality it is blocking the exchange of knowledge and culture across borders today.

Europe would benefit from a copyright that promotes creativity not just […]

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I raised €1 million to demonstrate security and freedom aren’t opposites

When a politican talks about security, they’re usually coming for your civil rights.

When a politican talks about security technology, they’re usually coming for your civil rights. Suspicionless mass surveillance, secret internet blocklists, arduous security theatre at airports: Safety and freedom are presented as trade-offs — and many politicians are all too willing to sacrifice more and […]

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Oettinger seeks EU copyright expansion for press publishers in spite of its abject failure in Germany and Spain

At today’s debut meeting of the European Parliament’s copyright working group, digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger expressed his wish for an EU-wide ancillary copyright law for press publishers, citing it as an example area of copyright where action was required at an EU level.

Julia Reda, Pirate Party MEP and Greens/EFA representative in the working group, […]

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TISA trade agreement threatens net neutrality, data protection and consumer rights

The newest leak on the TISA trade agreement once again confirms the danger that free trade agreements pose to our democracy. Like ACTA, CETA and TTIP before it, TISA demonstrates that these intransparently negotiated treaties are driven by the interests of multinational corporations and risk undermining the efforts of the European Parliament to ensure consumer […]

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My upcoming report on EU copyright

Update: The draft report has now been published. This page is out of date!

The European Parliament’s first contribution to the upcoming copyright reform is going to be a report on the implementation of the previous directive on this matter from 2001 (the so-called “Infosoc Directive”).

The Parliament has appointed me rapporteur of the report. This […]

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MEPs establish Intergroup on the Digital Agenda for Europe

More than 70 MEPs today established an interparliamentary group that will work on the Digital Agenda for Europe. Amongst the founders of the Intergroup are Michał Boni (EPP), Josef Weidenholzer (S&D), Marietje Schaake (ALDE) and Julia Reda (Greens/EFA). They all emphasize the need for an integrated approach toward furthering the digital market and discussing […]

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European Copyright Lawyer Investment Plan Already a Success Story

This is from the Department of Who-could-have-seen-this-coming:

As a reaction to a change in Spanish copyright law (Article 32.2) effectively requiring payment for the right to link to newspapers, for example as part of a news aggregator, Google has announced today it is going to shut down “Google News” in Spain and will remove links to […]

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“Breaking up Google” – or just bankrolling publishers at Google’s expense?

Today the European Parliament passed a resolution introduced by the two large groups, EPP and S&D, on “consumer rights in the digital single market”. This resolution had caused quite a stir in the international press since last weekend – before it was even formally submitted to the Parliament. Multiple news outlets created the impression that […]

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