stories filed under: "norway"
Norwegian Consumer Council Wants Special Complaint Board For Copyright Lawsuits
from the interesting-proposal...-but... dept
Earlier this year, we wrote about how the Norwegian Consumer Council, an independent organization financed by the Norwegian government, was telling people not to sign letters the recording industry was demanding ISPs send to users, which would put liability for file sharing on those users without any sort of due process. Now the NCC is back suggesting a special independent committee to handle copyright infringement cases. From what's written, it sounds like it would act as a separate process for copyright holders to bring charges of copyright infringement, that avoids an expensive and overcrowded court systems, while still allowing individuals due process and a guarantee of other basic rights. The NCC proposes that this is a much better solution than, say, cutting off accused file sharers with no due process.The idea definitely sounds a lot better than what's out there now -- but there could be unintended consequences as well. Here in the US, for example, we set up a special Federal Appeals court for patent lawsuits (CAFC), because of complaints about patent lawsuits clogging up courts where judges knew little about patent law, leading to bad outcomes. However, what happened was that CAFC became dominated by former patent attorneys (if not in numbers, in terms of influence) who significantly shifted the scope of patent law towards patent holders. In setting up a special court or arbitration system to deal with copyright infringement, there's a risk that it, too, could become dominated by interests focused solely on strengthening copyright law. While I definitely think it's a more interesting and productive proposal than most others out there, it's worth wondering if there would be unintended consequences. It still seems like the better long-term solution is for copyright holder to simply start embracing better business models.
Filed Under: arbitration, consumer council, copyright, norway
Norway To Move Forward In Trying To Force Apple To Open Up iTunes
from the this-ought-to-be-interesting dept
What began as a minor squabble over the terms of service that went with iTunes in Norway quickly blew up into a bigger deal, with Norway blasting Apple for locking songs bought via iTunes only to the iPod via FairPlay DRM. While we can understand the frustration that some might have about this, it is still a user's choice to buy from iTunes, knowing that the music won't work with other digital music players. It's why I don't buy music from iTunes, for example. And these days, we're seeing more open competitors hit the market, such as Amazon's MP3 store. Thus, Apples use of DRM hardly seems like a reason for the government to force the company to open up.However, that's exactly what's happening with Norway, as the government is moving forward with a case against Apple that might force the company to either open up FairPlay or shut down iTunes in Norway. If the latter is the end result, it's difficult to see how anyone actually benefits. If Apple wants to limit its own market, that's Apple's decision. It doesn't make sense for Norway to get involved.
Prince Sues Musicians For Making A Tribute Album For His Birthday
from the happy-birthday! dept
It's been really disappointing watching how Prince has squandered what had been seen as a enlightened view of how music works in this day and age. Instead of continuing to embrace that, and use it to his advantage, Prince has become fantastically anti-fan, and day-by-day seems to be destroying his reputation. It started with threatening fan sites, quickly followed up by lawsuits against YouTube, eBay and the Pirate Bay, and more recently has involved a bizarre and ill-advised strategy of taking down YouTube videos that he probably had no right to take down.The latest case involves fifty Norwegian musicians, who teamed up with a Norwegian record label to create what they thought was a nice 50th birthday present for Prince: a "tribute" album with 81 covers of Prince songs. They figured that it would be a nice gesture to send Prince a copy, and contacted his representatives to figure out where to send a copy. What they didn't expect was for Prince, instead, to turn around and sue the label and all fifty musicians. He's also demanding that all copies of the album be destroyed.
There is a question of compulsory licenses here -- as Norway requires about $0.10/song, and with 81 songs, that's about $8 per album. The label (potentially incorrectly) believed that since it wasn't making any money on the album, it didn't need to pay. Even if the album ran afoul of copyright laws, this response from Prince is just dumb. Here are a group of musicians who are paying tribute to him, and he sues them. What better way to piss off a group of truly devoted fans?
Filed Under: birthday, copyright, music, norway, prince, tribute album
Movie Director Flattered That Someone Camcorded And Uploaded His Movie
from the that's-the-spirit dept
While the folks back in Hollywood have been acting as though people with camcorders were a huge threat to the movie business, it appears that some folks outside of the Hollywood machine recognize that it's not such a bad thing at all. TorrentFreak has the story of a popular Norwegian director who seems flattered that people camcorded his movie and put it online:"I think it's perfectly fine that some people choose to post the movie online. It shows that people are interested in it.... In the IT society of today it's naive to think that this wouldn't happen. We consider it a huge compliment."In fact, it appears his only real problem is that the quality of recording isn't so great, though he notes that hopefully this will drive more people to the theater to see a better quality version. It's nice to see more folks in the movie business recognizing that unauthorized copies aren't the end of the world.
Filed Under: bittorrent, camcording, director, file sharing, movies, norway
Norwegian ISPs And Consumer Council Fight Back Against Entertainment Industry Threat Letters
from the sorry,-no-can-do dept
∅yvind Kaldestad writes in to point us to a story he wrote for a Norwegian publication, that shows the ongoing trend of the entertainment industry pressuring ISPs in Europe to block file sharing or kick file sharers off their networks. However, in this case, it looks like the ISPs (smartly) are fighting back, and they've got the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) at their backs. A law firm representing entertainment industry interests sent letters to various Norwegian ISPs, demanding they send specific letters to those suspected of unauthorized file sharing. The letter requests a signature accepting responsibility for their file sharing activities and renouncing all future unauthorized file sharing. However, the ISPs quickly rejected such letters, and the NCC warned people not to sign such a letter, as it makes the consumer liable for activities they might not actually have committed, and also removes the due process they are entitled to. The NCC also notes that, despite the claims in the letters, the Norwegian ISPs are unlikely to be liable for the actions of its users under both Norwegian and international law. Once again, this seems to be part of a highly coordinated campaign by the entertainment industry (and the IFPI specifically) to get ISPs to be their policemen and to prop up their obsolete business model.Filed Under: file sharing, isps, liability, norway, threats
