Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday put off signing the Anti-Counterfeit Trading Agreement Acta and invited anti-Acta activists to a meeting on Monday. The liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza sees the invitation as an expression of weak leadership: "With this move the prime minister has put his authority on the line. Because either he made a premature decision when he signed Acta or he has changed his mind since then and let himself be influenced by the protests on the street. That's a bad sign for a government that plans to introduce reforms - including a raise in the retirement age for men and women. This is an economically and demographically difficult but necessary reform. Not only the opposition but also part of the general public is against it. The national conservative Law and Justice party PiS and the Solidarność union are even demanding a referendum on the issue, the results of which would certainly be negative for the government." (06/02/2012)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, polski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Media internetowe, » Ruchy społeczne, » Polska
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Krystyna Naszkowska

The foreign affairs committee of the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, discussed with experts last Wednesday the international Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (Acta) with which states hope to combat pirate products and copyright infringements. The liberal daily Diena finds the legislation too rigid and out of touch with reality: "One would like to believe that those who claim that all the fuss about Acta is exaggerated and that it won't affect citizens' lives in any way are right. Notwithstanding that, it is possible that these people are overlooking the fact that we infringe copyrights every day without even realising it. We're not talking about the downloading of films here but for example passing on emails without the author being informed. Therefore we should not be working on developing a new repressive mechanism but on producing a fundamental revision of the copyright concept that is more in accordance with reality." (04/02/2012)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Rynek konsumencki, » Polityka gospodarcza, » Usługi, » Łotwa

Television stations close to the Romanian opposition made the anti-government protests in Romania seem much larger than they really were, writes the news portal Ziare.com: "The cleverest camera angles were used to present a handful of people as a huge, persistent mass. ... The television spoke of 'thousands of people on the street', giving viewers the impression that the protesters numbered tens or even hundreds of thousands. But in fact less than 5,000 people in the whole country took part. Presumably there are two reasons for this media propaganda. On the one hand the media moguls' political interests lie behind the coverage. And on the other hand the images of the protests got fabulous ratings. The people could watch an interesting street spectacle unfold on television, in which they themselves didn't want to take part. 99 percent of Romanians stayed at home - not because they were satisfied or happy to support the government. ... Rather they sensed the media's heavy-handed manipulation." (30/01/2012)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, rumuński)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Media audiowizualne, » Polityka medialna, » Rumunia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Constantin Racaru

Starting March, the US Internet giant Google wants to collect all data generated by users in its various services. In addition company data protection provisions are to be standardised. The changes strip users of any control over their data, writes the business magazine The Economist: "There are other, unspoken reasons that Google is keen to make this change. By creating comprehensive profiles of users by combining crumbs of data they leave across its services, the firm is betting it can target more online ads at them more accurately. It also wants to position itself as a comprehensive online portal in order to compete more effectively with Facebook, which is soaking up an ever-increasing amount of web surfers' time. All this explains why Google is refusing to allow its users to opt out of the upcoming changes. Critics fret that this is a departure from its traditional habit of giving people power over their data (for instance, by letting them extract it easily from Google if they want to as part of the firm's 'data liberation' initiative)." (26/01/2012)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Media internetowe, » Cały świat

The founder of the closed file-sharing site Megaupload, Kim Schmitz, rejected charges of Internet piracy and money laundering before a court in Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday. But like many other people the self-styled Mr. Dotcom has made a lot of money with this business, the liberal daily Corriere del Ticino points out: "There are plenty of people who see Mr. Dotcom as the Robin Hood of the Internet. But one thing must be made clear: not all websites that put copyright protected products on the Web do it for charity reasons. We're talking about 175 million US dollars here that Schmitz has made by distributing films, songs and software. Robin Hood has precious little to do with this matter. ... But the problem of piracy won't be solved by closing down Megaupload. Already new websites are springing up that promise the same, perhaps with providers who are out of reach, in places like Russia. The Internet remains a jungle in this respect." (24/01/2012)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Media internetowe, » media, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Osvaldo Migotto

The German founder of the online service Megaupload, Kim Schmitz, was arrested in New Zealand last Friday for presumed Internet piracy, and his site closed down. The arguments of all those who criticise legal action against cyber pirates are ill-founded, writes the liberal daily Les Echos: "People try to make us believe that crackdowns are useless. That cyber pirates will always find ways of outwitting the police on the digital highways. Perhaps. But must radars and any other form of dissuasion be banned just because it's impossible to arrest all the reckless drivers? People assure us that access to culture is a right and that the profits earned by Hollywood or the major record companies are indecent. That's doubly wrong. Culture must be accessible to all, but not free of charge. And those who create have the right to live from their creations and set prices as they see fit." (23/01/2012)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, francuski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Media internetowe, » Przedsiębiorczość, » Przestępczość, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » David Barroux

In the wake of the phone-hacking scandal involving the discontinued British tabloid News of the World, Rupert Murdoch's publishing company News Group Newspaper agreed on Thursday to pay compensation to 36 victims of those who suffered the consequences. The daily The Guardian praises the people who fought for compensation: "These people changed everything. ... A whole industry of deception, in other words, has crumbled thanks to the people who are to be compensated - and thanks to their predecessors who settled earlier, notably Sienna Miller. ... And as for ordinary people whose phones had been hacked, you might think they had nothing to lose by suing, but think again: this is a company that employed private investigators on an industrial scale. Would you be happy to have every aspect of your private life secretly investigated, and if the slightest blemish was found - perhaps involving a vulnerable relative - to have that exposed in the press?" (19/01/2012)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Wydawnictwa, » Media drukowane, » Etyka, » Przestępczość, » media, » społeczeństwo, » Wielka Brytania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Brian Cathcart

The English version of the Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia has been taken offline today, Wednesday. The site's founders are protesting in this way against a planned US law that would introduce Internet blackouts so as to protect copyrights. The conservative daily Svenska Dagbladet supports Wikipedia's move: "According to the law, foreign websites are to be hindered from infringing US property rights - primarily intellectual. However the law is very vague, and its field of application can be extended almost at will. To be on the safe side, contents will have to be verified in advance - that is, subjected to censorship - instead of having only that part blocked that violated the law currently in force, as has been the case until now. For websites like Wikipedia or Facebook whose contents are put online by their users, that can have dire consequences. ... The risk is great that the planned law will curtail the freedom of opinion if businesses don't dare allow users to link to other websites. The infringement of copyrights is an important issue, but this is the wrong way to address it." (18/01/2012)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, szwedzki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Wolość prasy, » media, » USA, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Daniel Persson