Paris Civil Court orders ISPs and search engines to block infringing sites
The Paris Civil Court has ordered major French internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to, and French search engines to not return results for, specific websites containing copyright-infringing films. Nomos reports that the claimants, film producers’ and distributors’ unions, deliberately chose to bring a claim not against the illegal download and streaming sites, but rather ... Read the full post ...
UN General Assembly adopts resolution on privacy and surveillance
On 18 December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus Resolution A/RES/68/167 on ‘The right to privacy in the digital age’. As IP Watch reports, the genesis of the resolution is concern about the pervasive surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden. While the resolution in question does not directly condemn any particular practice, it ... Read the full post ...
California criminalises “revenge porn”
California has enacted a first-of-its-kind state law criminalizing “revenge porn” – the distribution of private, explicit photos of other people on the Internet, usually by ex-lovers or spouses, to humiliate them. California already has a law that makes it a crime to take sexually explicit photos of another person without his or her consent. The new revenge ... Read the full post ...
US court holds no infringement to use competitor’s trademark as a Google AdWord
A US appeals court has ruled it is not an infringement to use a competitor’s trademark to activate Google sponsored links. In 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. Lens.com, Inc., it was argued that the purchase of keywords matching 1-800 Contacts’ trademark caused “initial-interest confusion” in customers, resulting in their clicking on a link to Lens.com’s website when ... Read the full post ...
‘Digital divide’ alive and well, reports UN agency
Although the number of households with Internet access is increasing in all regions, large differences still persist, says the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). According to a recent ITU report, Internet penetration rates at the end of this year set to reach almost 80 per cent in the developed world, but only 28 per cent in ... Read the full post ...
Paper finds little success in ‘three-strikes’ IP enforcement programmes
A new paper assessing the ‘graduated response’ programmes enforcing copyrights online through has found there is little to no evidence that that graduated responses are either successful or effective, reports IP Watch. ... Read the full post ...
Display of TM on non-Canadian website may be use of TM in Canada
A Canadian Federal Court has confirmed that use of a trademark on a non-Canadian website available in Canada and in association with services provided in Canada constitutes use of the trademark in Canada, reports Smart & Biggar Fetherstonehaugh. ... Read the full post ...
The download from Durban: reflections on ICANN 47
See this Reed Smith report on the outcomes of ICANN 47. ... Read the full post ...
UK court blocks stream aggregator’s domain
An order requiring ISPs to block the domains of peer-to-peer websites showing pirated material has been issued against a hugely successful stream aggregator of sports content, Mayer Brown reports. ... Read the full post ...
Governments disagree on GI protection at TLD level
Despite strong lobbying from the US and Australian governments, the ICANN GAC has not removed its advisory ban on registration of geographical indications as top level domains, IP Watch reports. ... Read the full post ...
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