Court Decision
A recent court decision in Germany has just made things even more messy in the European Union.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently announced its decision in Sony v McFadden with important consequences for open wireless in the European Union. The court held that providers of open wifi are not liable for copyright violations committed by others, but can be ordered to prevent further infringements by restricting access to registered users with passwords. EFF reported on the legal aspects of the case last year and collaborated on an open letter to the ECJ on the costs to economic growth, safety and innovation of a password lockdown.
Free wifi is rare in Germany compared with other EU countries due to legal uncertainty generated by the doctrine of Störerhaftung, a form of indirect liability for the actions of others,which has deterred cafes, municipalities and others from offering free connectivity. Many in Germany hoped that the McFadden case would remove these doubts, but it is now clear that a legislative fix is needed instead. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/european-allows-copyright-owners-demand-open-wifi-networks-be-password-protected
Google / Facebook tax
As the European Union reviews its copyright rules there appears to be the re-emergence of an idea that is twice tried and failed. The idea is to limit or tax or somehow force changes where uses upload a link of a news stories to the web and you get that that little picture and the headline of the article.https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/european-copyright-leak-exposes-plans-force-internet-subsidize-publishers
The idea will probably fail again because all it does it reduce the exposure of news stories to a wider audience.
