Prices on telecommunications in Spain lower, vertical integration higher

  The 2011-created German content alliance  (Deutshe Content Allianz) who gather public and private broadcasters, collecting societies and representatives of the music and film industry in Germany stated  on Friday that the German government should sign ACTA "without delay" and should "consider a future-oriented reform of the copyright". According to Jürgen Doetz from the German association of the private broadcasters and telemedia VPRT  "now everyone is convinced that all the provisions aimed at containing rights infringement in ACTA are already in accordance with the German protection level". The German content alliance was backed up by a statement from tbe representative body of the German public officers of the criminal police BDK  who blamed the anti-ACTA protesters for their hypocrite claiming, since ACTA would in fact not be related with any kind of censorship nor freedom of speech circumcision. However BDK representative recognises that ACTA is "not transparent, badly written and not detailed enough on certain points".

 These pro-ACTA positions in Germany come after the government decided just before the important anti-ACTA protests a week ago to block its signature until the European Parliament has dealt first with the agreement, see my previous blog.

Me discovering FOSDEM

Two weeks ago I went for the first time to the FOSDEM, the annual Free and Open Software Developer's European Meeting hold in Brussels.

During one afternoon, I discovered a vibrant environment, gathering 5,000 people surfing between hundreds of different presentations dedicated to free software, where creativity of some individuals expressed in a particular project was shared with the audience, debated, and opened to possible contribution of new individuals. Besides the technical aspect of (free) software engineering I am not familiar with, I enjoyed watching free software developers defending their baby while still in the same time giving it to the community to help it grow! I attended one presentation of a developer presenting an online sheet music platform that enables you to edit your music and share it for free (as for a speech and a beer!), it is called MuseScore. Musescore is under GPL. I perceived the utility of the software since I have been into music somehow and simply attending this meeting made me realised how greatly free software can accelerate the diffusion and improvement of an invention. After some quick exchange of words, they were talking about adding this, or improving that function. The developer finally said" those who want to contribute to the software are welcomed!" Even if my IT knowledge would be, let say...Insufficient to apply for the job, some others did and I just loved that!

Some EU member states, such as Germany, said that they don’t want to make any decision on ACTA, pushing the political pressure towards the European Parliament, awaiting their approval.

The Belgian and Croatian government are taking a whole different stance, conducting their own impact study and holding a public debate.

Belgian minister Vande Lanotte said the following: “Only when the impact study is ready and the parliament has studied the content, can a debate about the controversial ACTA agreement take place. For the legislation in Belgium as well as on a European level”

The Croatian government stated it welcomes a public debate for all interested citizens.

In Germany there is since 2009 what we call a black-yellow coalition. Black is the colour of the Conservative party CDU and its Bavarian branch CSU, yellow is the colour of the liberal FDP party. The cohesion of this current coalition seems to be challenged on ACTA, as the liberal Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, declared in a video statement (in German) last Friday that Germany wouldn't sign the agreement until further notice, explaining that:

“The European Parliament has a responsibility to engage with and evaluate the facts regarding ACTA. But Germanyhas no need to enact such legislation. We have lifted any censors on websites, and see no reason to block internet connections due to copyright infringements.”  

The next day, around 50,000 people demonstrated  against ACTA all over Germany despite the cold, under the active organization of the German Pirate Party and the German Greens.

The statement from the Justice Minister led to 'corrective' reactions from the Conservatives; first via the CDU leader who would like 'the general design of the Treaty not to be put into question by anyone, including the Justice Minister'. The Government spokesperson also announced that Germany does still have the ACTA ratification in view, even if the government would be open to get clarifications on newly raised questions, if ever.

The Croatian Parliament signed a law (Narodne Novine Br. 12/12 ^[Croatian]) on 20 January 2012, that went into effect on 26 January 2012. This act reintroduces the 6% tax ^[Croatian] on mobile network services due to the ongoing troubling financial situation in Croatia. Much to the dismay of the three mobile operators in Croatia: T-Hrvatski (Majority-owned by Deutsche Telecom), Vipnet (Owned by Mobilkom Austria) and Tele2 Croatia (Sweden’s Tele2 subsidiary) .This charge is expected to raise HRK 300 million annually ^[Croatian] (Approx. EUR 39,5 million) according to Radimir Čačić, one of Croatia’s Deputy Prime Ministers.

The previous tax (Narodne Novine Br. 94/09 ^[Croatian]) was introduced on August 2009 to counter recession and was in effect on 1 January 2010 and abolished on 1 January 2012 (decided by the previous Croatian Parliament on October 2011).

Spanish courts admits submission of complaint against Ley Sinde/Wert

Ley Sinde/Wert is a controversial intellectual property rights enforcement law passed in Spain last year. This blog has reported about it last year (in Swedish). Spanish internet user organisation Internautas has asked a court to look deeper into the issue of whether a state authority independent of the justice system is allowed to make administrative decisions about shut-downs of webpages. The court which received the claim has admitted the request, meaning that they will look in to the matter further. The European Parliament has previously expressed the blocking and filtering of internet connections without due judicial process is undesirable, and this office is hoping that the Spanish court will agree.

The savings on public funds for culture will not change in the Netherlands

The Dutch Minister of Culture maintains a line of saving on public subsidies for culture.

UK government wants open source software

from SME:s, nonetheless.

Strong market dominance in fibre-to-the-home connections in Spain

The Polish political magazine Political Critique published an article with me about ACTA (in Polish, see also google-translated version) yesterday.

I'll quote the google-translate:

If we take the hand of the Commission reports on the programme for Creative Europe, it is clear that inadequate enforcement of copyright is not even mentioned as a problem or obstacle for the development of European artists. The larger problem is access to funds from public institutions or discrepancies in the legislation of the member states, which are very difficult to support the promotion and transnational culture.

Keen readers will notice how much grammatical sense these sentences make despite being machine-translated. Truly, technological development is a marvel.