「グーグル図書館」に困惑 著作権の扱い不透明、削除要請へ

「グーグル図書館」に困惑　著作権の扱い不透明、削除要請へ

　ネット上で書籍の内容を閲覧・検索できる米グーグルのサービスが日本でも波紋を広げている。著作権侵害を訴えていた米出版界と同社との間で昨秋に和解案が固まったが、その当事者に日本の作家や出版社も含まれる可能性があるためだ。和解案を受け入れるかどうかを決める期限は5月5日に迫っている。作家ら約 2500人で構成する日本文芸家協会は会員に対し、和解したうえでデータベースから著作物の削除を求める手続きを取るよう勧めている。

　グーグルは著作権切れの古書や絶版本をデータベース化する「図書館プロジェクト」を進めている。反発した米出版界や作家などが集団訴訟を起こし、昨年秋には和解案が成立した。閲覧サービスによる収入の63％を著作権者に配分し、無断でデータベース化した場合は著作権者に一点あたり60ドルを支払う。 (09:49)

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London Metal Exchange Fails to Grab Steel Market in First Year
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By Anna Stablum and Claudia Carpenter

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest steelmakers have yet to adopt the London Metal Exchange’s year-old futures contracts for the alloy, preferring to set prices through negotiations with distributors and consumers.

Steel trades totaled about 1.5 million metric tons, worth more than $700 million, since phone and electronic transactions started in February 2008, data from the LME show. Floor trades began April 28. The amount is equal to 0.1 percent of the 1.33 billion tons of steel made last year. The LME handled a record $10.24 trillion of contracts in 2008.

“The fact that there are still people opposed to it after one year is not surprising,” LME Chief Executive Officer Martin Abbott said in an interview on April 20. “It takes years for people’s culture to change.”

The London bourse added steel as it expands beyond the main products of copper, aluminum and nickel. The LME added plastics in May 2005 and may start trading molybdenum and cobalt in the first quarter of 2010.

Some products were unsuccessful. The exchange reintroduced silver futures in 1999 after a decade-long gap and suspended them again three years later because of a lack of interest.

Steel for delivery in three months in the Mediterranean dropped 74 percent to $330 a ton from a June peak as the shrinking global economy eroded demand for cars and appliances. Steel demand in the 27-nation European Union will drop 40 percent to 45 percent in the first half, Brussels-based lobby group Eurofer said yesterday.

Pricing Alternative

Stemcor Holdings Ltd., a closely held steel trader based in London, is a fan of the LME’s futures because they offer an alternative to the current pricing, mostly set directly between producers and traders or consumers.

The plunge in prices caused a record number of those accords to be renegotiated or canceled, “creating an even worse climate for the industry,” said Jean-Luc Fiorenzoni, head of price risk management at Stemcor. “A lot of participants in the industry will agree that the present model is unsustainable and that it is time to shift to a different pricing mechanism.”

The three-month Mediterranean steel contract has averaged 38 contracts a day in the last six months, compared with more than 27,200 contracts a day for three-month aluminum and 28,200 contracts for copper, data from the LME show.

“There are producers we know who want to engage in the business on the LME,” said Ray Key, global head of metals trading at Deutsche Bank AG in London. “They need to be able to see the liquidity.”

Largest Producer

ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest producer, hasn’t used them, spokeswoman Lynn Robbroeckx said. The company has its headquarters in Luxembourg. North Carolina-based Nucor Corp., the largest U.S. steelmaker by market value, is “the direct opposite of a fan” of the LME’s futures, Chief Executive Officer Daniel DiMicco said by e-mail.

“It’s hard to say something concrete as the volume of trading has been insignificant,” said Dmitry Druzhinin, head of investor relations at OAO Severstal, Russia’s biggest steelmaker. ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany’s largest steelmaker, doesn’t consider futures “suitable” for trading, according to Duisburg-based spokesman Bernd Overmaat.

“We don’t think that steel can be sold like a commodity,” ThyssenKrupp’s Overmaat said. “As a producer of high-end flat carbon steel we sell a diversified range of steels each of which has special, individual properties to fulfill diversified and specific needs of our customers.”

Skanska AB, Sweden’s biggest builder, hasn’t used the LME futures contract. “We have been able to cope with price fluctuations in other ways,” spokesman Peter Gimbe said by e- mail from the company’s headquarters in Stockholm.

Fixed Pricing

Some steel producers are using the LME contracts to offer fixed pricing to their customers, said Abe Ulusal, a steel trader at Mitsui Bussan Commodities in New York. “Demand for the physical product is limited and there are not many buyers who want to fix their price for the next six months to a year,” he said.

Trading in the Shanghai Futures Exchange’s steel contracts totaled 26.3 billion yuan ($3.85 billion), or 599,460 tons, between their start on March 27 and the end of the month, according to a report from the exchange.

That “demonstrates the liquidity that global steel contracts will eventually get to,” Deutsche Bank’s Key said.

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Gold Climbs to Three-Week High on China Purchases; Silver Gains
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By Halia Pavliva

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures jumped to a three-week high in New York, marking the first weekly gain in a month, as China increased purchases of the metal. Silver also rose.

China, which has the biggest gold and foreign-currency reserves, has increased its gold holdings by 76 percent since 2003, said Hu Xiaolian, the head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. China added 454 metric tons to its reserves, which rose to 1,054 tons, through domestic buying and scrap refining, Hu told the Xinhua News Agency today.

“This news is highly significant for the gold market,” John Reade, UBS AG’s head metals strategist in London, said today in a report. “It will raise expectations of further Chinese purchases. It may also trigger purchases from other central banks.”

Gold futures for June delivery climbed $7.50, or 0.8 percent, to $914.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division, gaining 5.3 percent this week and ending four straight losses. The price earlier touched $915.40, the highest for a most-active contract since April 2.

“Bear-trending forces are still in control of the gold market,” said Ralph Preston, a Heritage West Futures Inc. commodity analyst in San Diego. Today’s close may “reinvigorate the bulls and should spark a rally to test $930 an ounce resistance,” he said, since the price topped $910.

Worst Streak

Last week, the most-active contract slid 1.7 percent, capping the longest losing stretch since August. The metal fell 9.2 percent in the four weeks ending April 17.

Silver futures for May delivery advanced 16.5 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $12.92 an ounce on Comex, rising 9.6 percent for the week and halting a four-week loosing stretch. The most- active contract fell 15 percent in the previous four weeks, and has tumbled 23 percent in the past year.

China’s acquisition of bullion reserves is “a very important signal to the market,” said Marcus Grubb, managing director of investment research at the London-based World Gold Council. “The other signal to the market is clearly that they have probably sold dollars in order to raise that weighting.”

“It does beg the question for other central banks in Asia as to whether or not they should be so exposed to dollars,” Grubb said at a conference today in Zurich. “If you look at reserve-assets holdings around the world, most of the gold is held in North America and in Europe by central banks.”

Some investors buy gold when the greenback weakens. The U.S. Dollar Index, a weighted basket of six major currencies, slid as much as 1.2 percent today.

Significant Statement

China’s statement today is the most significant for the market since 2005, when Russia’s central bank said it wanted to hold 10 percent of its reserves in gold, Reade said in his report. “China’s holdings of gold remain small compared to its vast foreign-exchange holdings. So if China wants to increase its proportion of foreign-exchange reserves in gold, it will have to buy a lot more.”

China has the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserves at $1.95 trillion as of March 31, according to state administration data. The holdings have climbed about sixfold in the past six years as the country had record trade surpluses and inflows of foreign investment.

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Gold price boosted as China doubles reserves

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing and Javier Blas in London

Published: April 25 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 25 2009 03:00

China has quietly almost doubled its gold reserves to become the world's fifth-biggest holder of the precious metal, it emerged yesterday. The move signals the revival of bullion after years of fading importance.

Gold rose to a three-week high above $910 an ounce after Hu Xiaolian, head of the state administration of foreign exchange, which manages the country's $1,954bn (€1,475bn, £1,331bn) reserves, revealed yesterday that China had 1,054 tonnes of gold, up from 600 tonnes in 2003. The news could now spark interest among other central banks.

John Reade, a precious metals strategist at UBS, the bank, said: "When the largest holder of foreign exchange reserves discloses an increase in gold holdings, other countries may decide to think more carefully about underweight gold -positions."

However, it raises questions about the future direction of Beijing's foreign reserves policy. Ahead of the G20 summit in London this month, China suggested global reliance on the US dollar as a reserve currency should be reduced. China has been diversifying away from the dollar since 2005, when it broke the renminbi's peg to the US currency and officially marked it to a basket of currencies, but it still holds more than two-thirds in US dollar--denominated assets by most estimates.

As its trade surplus and forex reserves ballooned in recent years, Beijing continued to buy US Treasury bonds while raising the proportion of purchases of other currencies and of gold.

China's accumulation of gold has taken place as European central banks have gradually cut back gold sales after a 1999 agreement to prevent the market from being flooded after prices were dragged sharply lower when the UK decided to sell part of its gold reserves.

"China's announcement signals a broader shift in central banks' attitude towards gold," said Philip Klapwijk, chairman of GFMS, a precious metal consultancy. Suki Cooper, a gold analyst at Barclays Capital, said China's move was "re-igniting gold's relevance as a monetary asset".

Since 1999, central banks in Europe have sold large amounts of gold, investing the proceeds in bonds. But in the last two years they have curtailed their sales while central banks outside Europe became net buyers.

Paul Atherley, managing director of Leyshon Resources, said that even after its purchases China had only a very small percentage of its reserves in gold. "Those [gold] holdings are still too low in terms of the size of its economy and the growing significance of its currency," he said.

Russia has been an active buyer, following Beijing's similar pattern of purchases from local miners. China last year became the world's largest producer of gold, outranking South Africa.

Since the financial crisis began, investors have piled record amounts of money into gold, boosting prices, at their peak to more than $1,000 an ounce. Gold hit a low of $250 an ounce a decade ago, when central banks started selling.

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Thaw shifts alliances in South Caucasus

By Isabel Gorst in Moscow

Published: April 25 2009 01:46 | Last updated: April 25 2009 01:46

A rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia this week provided further evidence of a shift in the balance of power in the South Caucasus that is propelling gas-rich Azerbaijan closer to Russia, analysts said.

The process that began when Georgia went to war with Russia last summer over its breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, could jeopardise European plans to reduce dependence on Russian gas by importing extra Caspian supplies.

Azerbaijan views the announcement on Wednesday by its ally Turkey and historic foe Armenia of plans to normalise ties as a betrayal that would leave it isolated in the South Caucasus, where Armenia already enjoys strong ties with Russia and Iran.

Ilham Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan, has intensified pressure on Turkey, suggesting during a visit to Moscow this month for talks about gas and the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, that a Turkish betrayal could hit bilateral gas trade.

Disagreements between Turkey and Azerbaijan over gas prices and transit terms have undermined European plans to build the Nabucco pipeline to carry extra Caspian gas across the South Caucasus to Europe.

Mr Aliev said Azerbaijan could export some gas through the planned Nabucco pipeline to Europe, but warned it was “difficult to say when this project will move from a dead end and who will do it”.

Azerbaijan opened gas talks with Russia last year after the war in Georgia exposed the vulnerability of pipelines crossing the South Caucasus that have allowed Turkey to emerge as a crucial energy hub in the area.

Mr Medvedev said the “chances were very high” that Russia would soon clinch a gas import deal with Azerbaijan.

Edward Chow, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: “It makes sense [for Azerbaijan] to appease Russia by sending some gas that way,”. It was unlikely that Azerbaijan would compromise its independence by exporting all its gas to Russia, he added.

Mr Aliev said the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could end Armenia’s exclusion from oil and gas export projects in the South Caucasus.

European diplomats said Russian efforts to broker a settlement of the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict could help restore its international image in the aftermath of the war in Georgia. But analysts said Russia was exploiting separatist tensions to strengthen its grip on the South Caucasus.

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UK defies Eurofighter payment calls

By Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt and Alex Barker and Sylvia Pfeifer in London

Published: April 24 2009 20:25 | Last updated: April 24 2009 20:25

Gordon Brown on Friday defied calls to make a £1bn (€1.1bn) payment for Eurofighter Typhoon jets as European leaders rounded on the UK prime minister for holding up the defence project.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, telephoned Mr Brown this week to urge him to make a decision on funding 16 fighter jets Britain ordered through a four-nation programme conceived more than 25 years ago.

More interventions are expected from the leaders of Italy and Spain, amid dismay over Britain’s alleged use of delaying tactics to squeeze costs.

In spite of the high-level pressure, Mr Brown is standing his ground.

A Downing Street spokesperson told the Financial Times: “Given other defence priorities, the prime minister has no intention of going ahead until we’re absolutely sure we have the best out of this deal.”

German officials said the prime minister kept “his cards close to his chest” in his conversation with Ms Merkel.

Agreement on a third production run of 236 aircraft has been held up as the UK’s Ministry of Defence and Treasury thrash out a deal over funding, against a backdrop of ballooning national debt and a stretched defence budget.

Mr Brown’s uncompromising position is unlikely to go down well among European partner nations, who have been locked in talks for months after Britain asked to reduce its order of 88 aircraft – and escape payment of contractual penalties.

When the original contract was signed, the UK pushed for the contractual terms to be as watertight as possible to ensure no partner nations dropped out.

The other three nations in the programme – Italy, Spain and Germany – are making a concession by allowing the UK to count export orders to Saudi Arabia and possibly Oman towards its total order, according to defence industry experts.

However, the UK is facing a bill of more than €1.6bn for the 16 aircraft it is still committed to buying.

European officials are frustrated that the UK promised – but failed – to give a green light after Easter. German officials said the UK had now promised a decision by May 15.

The German government fears that if the UK delays the go-ahead beyond the end of June, Berlin will not be in a position again to sign off on the project until well after the national elections, scheduled for September 27.