US copyright-based industries private sector coalition the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has submitted recommendations to the US Trade Representative (USTR) in its annual ‘Special 301’ review. The IIPA report documents rampant online and physical piracy of copyrighted works and severe market access barriers, surveys problems and developments in 41 countries/territories, and recommends that 32 […]

Syria is continuing to jam the satellite signals of broadcasters such as Al Jazeera. Osama Saeed, a spokesman for the Al Jazeera news channel in Doha, Qatar, said the disruption is coming from the Syrian capital, Damascus. Al Jazeera is advising viewers to switch to a different frequency to access coverage, he said. The signal […]

Opponents of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act in the Senate are asking  Congress to delay efforts to forge new anti-piracy legislation. In a letter sent to Capitol Hill, some 70 advocacy groups, Internet companies, and venture capitalists have urged Congress to hold off on new legislation until the true […]

Darrell Issa, Chairman of the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has unveiled the crowd-sourced sections of the Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act at KeepTheWebOPEN.com. Internet users generated improvements to six sections of the OPEN Act, representing the first-ever legislative mark-up truly open to the American public. Issa and […]

Poland has put on hold plans to ratify a controversial international online anti-piracy accord after widespread off-and-online protests in the country. “I consider that the arguments for a halt to the ratification process are justified,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters. “The issue of signing of the ACTA accord did not involve sufficient consultation with […]

A Class Action lawsuit from Vivendi investors who bought into the company when it was being run by Jean-Marie Messier some 10 years ago, has been largely dismissed. The action, before US District Judge Richard Holwell in Manhattan, argued that Messier and his CFO at the time (Guillaune Hannezo) made materially false or misleading statements […]

Although the two leading anti-piracy bills currently in the US legislature have had their progress halted, support for the measures has come from one element of the student community. After reviewing a Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act resolution that was tabled at a previous meeting, the Student Senate at the Eastern […]