ACTA Signed By 22 EU Countries, Still A Fight To Be Ratified In EU Parliament
At a signing ceremony in Tokio, representatives from the European Union and 22 member states have signed the controversial ACTA treaty. Signatories include the UK, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. The five remaining member states -- Cyprus, Germany, Estonia Netherlands and Slovakia, are also expected to sign soon.
ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a proposed international treaty that would establish standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights to prevent digital and physical counterfeits. The treaty calls for the creation of an "ACTA committee" to make treaty amendments, for which public or judicial review are not required, according to Wikipedia. The panel would also operate outside of the scope of the World Trade Organizations or the United Nations.
BookaBooka Halts Business To Find Agreement With Finnish Copyright Agencies
Back in April we wrote about how BookaBooka, the Finnish book lending service, had received a cease-and-desist letter from the Finnish copyright agencies. Now BookaBooka decided to halt their business to work out the legal aspects of their lending business to keep the copyright agencies at bay.
The initial contacts from the Finnish copyright agencies weren't exactly co-operative. I had an e-mail chat with the founder of BookaBooka, Jussi Riku, and he confirmed that they were asked to stop their business on threat of 2 years behind bars. After this BookaBooka agreed to direct their SMS revenues to the copyright holders through the way that would be the best possible for the copyright agency. This was not negotiable and thus they were back to square one. According to Riku, all the discussions between BookaBooka and the copyright agencies were had in public media and thus the talks were not very fruitful.
The Pirates Of Sweden
Since the recently held European Election I keep getting questions about the Swedish Pirate Party and the Pirate Bay trial. I agree it might get a bit confusing trying to follow the evolving news on both, and while adding the newly enabled IPRED law to the equation one starts to wonder if, and how, it's all connected. Here's a summary hoping to bring some light into the current events. (Note: All link sources are in English, unless otherwise noted, mostly referring to The Register and Wired, who, imho, have been doing a very good job covering both stories outside Sweden.)
Firstly, to clear things up, The Pirate Party is unaffiliated with the Piratbyran, "The Piracy Bureau", which lies behind "the world's largest Bit Torrent tracker", The Pirate Bay. For example, Peter Sunde, the spokesperson of The Pirate Bay, has never been a member of the Pirate Party and voted for the Green Party at the recent European Election.
As widely reported, the European Election was a huge victory for the Swedish Pirate Party receiving 7,1% of the Swedish votes leaving three other established parties behind, as well as resulting to at least one seat in the European Parliament.
BookaBooka Sent A Cease And Desist Letter From Finnish Copyright Agencies
The Finnish book renting service targeted at students, BookaBooka, has been sent a cease and desist letter (in Finnish only) by the Finnish copyright agencies claiming that the company is breaking the law. The service has quietly received a lot of attention among students as a place to put your books into use - rent them for a monthly fee.
I first heard of BookaBooka about half a year ago and thought the concept was interesting, but it did not quite amaze me too much. The service has become successful among the most needy - the students who do not want to spend their few earned euros for expensive books. Very understandable - I didn't either when I was in university.
