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Romani decree would require licence to upload

By Pasquale Macrì, published on March 9, 2010

A proposed law on digital piracy submitted to the Italian Parliament earlier this year could have serious impact on freedom of expression online.

The law, which bears the signature of Paolo Romani, vice minister of communications for the Berlusconi government, calls for measures that would allow government control of audiovisual content on the web.

In particular, the decree would force anyone wanting to upload videos to the Internet – be they single users or professional publishers – to seek a licence from the Ministry of Communication. Individual users, private citizens, would when uploading videos be equated under the new law with a television station… with all the legal obligations implied

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Experimental Europe: Why some FP7 research projects fall short

By Eric Karstens, published on March 2, 2010

The European Union disburses more than 7 billion euro a year for research. Multi-annual Framework Programmes for Research (FPs) play a role in these EU efforts to step up innovation and competitiveness by co-funding specific projects rather than the mere operation of universities and labs.

Every few months, the European Commission publishes thematic calls on EU-endorsed research priorities, encouraging universities and industry as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises to form consortia and generate concrete proposals.

Research efforts throughout the continent have long been virtually unthinkable without this substantial support. However, funding programmes and application procedures are also very complex and demanding.

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At 20minutos.es, portadistas play central role in merged newsroom

By Cristina Romero, published on February 26, 2010

Three years after initiating a merger of print and online staff at 20minutos, the two teams have finally found “an optimum point that allows them to have two quality products without duplicating efforts,” Virginia Alonso, deputy editor-in-chief at 20minutos.es., told the EJC.

With 15 different local editions, the Spanish daily is the most-read paper in Spain. Its portadista (Portada is Spanish for homepage) is a journalist who permanently controls and monitors the long home page of the site and to track the most popular stories. Alonso calls the position one of the most important in the newsroom.

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Small talk: Notes of a multilingual writer

By Sueli Brodin, published on February 23, 2010

As a child, I called my father Zinho. For many years, my brother, sister and I were convinced that Zinho was his real name.

How surprised we were to discover this wasn’t the case at all! “Zinho is just the male diminutive form in Portuguese and doesn’t really mean anything,” my father laughed.

“My name is Alain, or Alan in Portuguese. Your mother used to call me Alanzinho when you were small but Alanzinho was too long and difficult for you children to pronounce so you shortened it into Zinho, and it became my nickname.”

I have found the same fondness for diminutive forms in Dutch as in Portuguese. In Dutch they can be recognised by the suffixes -je, -tje, -pje, -etje, -kje, such as in bloempje (little flower), jasje (light coat) or hondje (little dog).

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Comment is free, but French comment sections are sacred

By Corentin Wauters, published on February 22, 2010

Reading user comments on news websites – in France as elsewhere – often involves skimming through bad-mannered quarrels. For some, this can be off-putting.

For journalists, the experience can be even more unpleasant.

“Out of weariness, despondency or simply to avoid becoming severely depressed, most of my colleagues now ignore them,” one columnist wrote at Liberation.fr, the online version of daily newspaper Libération.

But whether journalists and readers like reading them, user comments are there to stay.

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