Legal and regulatory issues

Competition

• FR - France Télécom et SFR Cegetel condamnés pour leurs pratiques tarifaires  +/- Translate

  (ZDNet France) Le prix des appels "fixe vers mobile" vaut un sévère rappel à l´ordre aux deux concurrents France Télécom et SFR Cegetel. Le Conseil de la concurrence les a condamnés le 14 octobre respectivement à 18 et 2 millions d´euros d´amende pour «pratiques tarifaires anticoncurrentielles». Il avait été saisi en juin 1999 par l´Association européenne des télécoms et des réseaux (Etna).

Computer crime

• CH - Download von Kinderpornos in der Schweiz strafbar  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Das Herunterladen und Abspeichern von pornografischen Bildern aus dem Internet, die Handlungen mit Tieren oder Kindern darstellen, muss in der Schweiz als Herstellen von harter Pornografie bestraft werden. Das Bundesgericht in Lausanne hat ein anders lautendes Urteil des Solothurner Obergerichts aufgehoben. Dieses hatte einen Mann freigesprochen, der solche Bilder zum "Eigengebrauch" auf seine Festplatte geladen und auf Disketten und CDs gespeichert hatte. Das sei keine "Herstellung" von Pornografie, hatten die Richter in Solothurn befunden. Der Fall geht nun dorthin zurück. Das Gericht muss den Mann wegen Herstellens harter Pornografie bestrafen.

Consumer protection

• UK - Watchdog takes on rogue diallers  +/-

  (BBC) Action is to be taken against firms involved in scams that divert dial-up internet connections to premium rate numbers without users' knowledge. The UK watchdog for premium rate phone services, Icstis, is shutting down all such services that operate without its permission. The action follows a surge in complaints from members of the public.

Content regulation

• IN - Karnataka to monitor cyber-café users  +/-

  (Digital Review of Asia Pacific - dirAP) Karnataka state, which is home to Bangalore, the premier ICT zone of India, is planning to introduce legislation requiring cyber-café operators to keep track of their customers. A law will soon be passed to make it mandatory for users of cyber cafés to produce a photo ID and provide personal contact details before they are permitted to go online. Customers who do not have a photo ID with them will be photographed with a webcam by the café operators and the images stored for a year.

e-Government

• UK - Most Freedom of Information requests will be free  +/-

  (Out-law) The vast majority of requests made under the new Freedom of Information rights will be free, the Government announced. Draft Regulations, now superseded, had originally proposed a fee of roughly 10% of costs plus disbursements, although disbursements remain.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• FR - Le génocide arménien et la responsabilité des hébergeurs  +/- Translate

  (Juriscom.net) Le 11 octobre 2004 s'ouvrait l´audience devant le TGI de Paris mettant en cause, d´une part, le Consul Général de Turquie pour « propagande négationniste » diffusée sur son site Internet et, d´autre part, l'hébergeur Wanadoo pour n´avoir pas suspendu ou supprimé ce texte, malgré la mise en demeure du Comité de défense de la cause arménienne (CDCA).

• UK - Boxing promoter's right to sue over US web comments upheld  +/-

  (out-law.com) The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court decision which gave permission to boxing promoter Don King to sue heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and others over comments reported on US boxing web sites. Lewis v. King.

• US - Chilling Effects of 'Cease and Desist' Letters  +/-

  (Free Expression Policy Project) A Preliminary Report by Tricia Beckles and Marjorie Heins. As part of FEPP's research into how well fair use is actually protecting artists, journalists, webbloggers, and others, we have been examining an extensive database of cease and desist letters put together by the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse (www.chillingeffects.org). We analyzed 131 cease and desist letters deposited with Chilling Effects during the first five months of 2004 and chose seven typical ones for this preliminary report. Many of the letters are actually not sent to the alleged wrongdoers, but to Internet Service Providers or search engines like Google. Under §512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the "DMCA"), ISPs must remove Web sites or other online material once they receive a "take-down" letter from a copyright owner saying that the material is copyright-protected. ISPs can be liable for copyright infringement simply for hosting this material, unless they comply "expeditiously" with these take-down letters.1

• US - Diebold Coughs Up Cash in Copyright Case  +/-

  (EFF) The Electronic Frontier Foundation capped its historic victory in a copyright abuse case against electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold. The corporation agreed to pay $125,000 in damages and fees after a California district court found that Diebold had knowingly misrepresented that online commentators, including Indymedia and two college students, had infringed the company's copyrights. Diebold is the first company to be held liable for violating section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which makes it unlawful to use DMCA takedown threats when the copyright holder knows that infringement has not actually occurred. The section also stipulates that anyone who issues such frivolous threats must pay damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, to those harmed by the misrepresentations.

Mobile and wireless

• FR - Appels de fixes à mobiles: sus au surcoût  +/- Translate

  (Libération) Les tarifs des appels des fixes vers les mobiles sont à nouveau sur la sellette. La charge est lancée depuis quelques jours. Le ministre de l'Industrie, Patrick Devedjian, l'UFC-Que choisir, l'Autorité de régulation des télécoms (ART) et tout récemment le Conseil de la concurrence viennent à tour de rôle de réclamer une baisse des prix. Tous dénoncent la taxe excessive, de l'ordre de 15 centimes par minute, perçue par les opérateurs mobiles pour chaque appel passé depuis une ligne fixe vers un portable. see also FR - France Télécom et SFR Cegetel condamnés pour leurs pratiques tarifaires

Protection of minors

• DE - Streit um den Kurs der Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz  +/- Translate

  (Heise) 10 Monate nach ihrem Antrag auf Zulassung als Kontrollinstanz für den Jugendmedienschutz bei der KJM (Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz) wartet die Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle für Multimedia (FSM) nach wie vor auf einen Bescheid. Die Mitglieder der eigens an das Modell der so genannten "regulierten Selbstregulierung" angepassten Organisation seien durch die lange Verzögerung irritiert, sagte FSM-Geschäftsführerin Sabine Frank bei einer Diskussion zum Jugendmedienschutz auf den Münchner Medientagen. Solange die Zulassung ausstehe, tue sich die FSM auch schwer, weitere Mitglieder in der Internet-Branche zu gewinnen und damit dem Vorwurf der KJM zu begegnen, dass die Mitgliedschaft noch zu klein sei. Noch schwerer tut sich die KJM außerdem mit einer Zulassung der Internet-Filtersoftware ICRA. Den Antrag auf Pilotzulassung hat die FSM gemeinsam mit mehreren Partnern bereits vor einigen Monaten beantragt.

• NZ - Call for tighter chatroom controls  +/-

  (tvnz.co.nz) An internet safety group is calling for the government to introduce tight controls on internet and cell phone chat rooms after revelations paedophiles were preying on children through phone texting. Vodafone shut down its mobile phone chatroom for children after discovering paedophiles were trying to meet and potentially have sex with them. The men have been lying about their age on the chatroom, called Teenzone, and there are no safeguards to stop them doing so. Director of the Internet Safety Group Liz Butterfield says children can put themselves in quite serious situations through chatrooms on cell phones and the internet.

Rating and filtering

• EU - QUATRO: The Online Quality Assurance Project Launched  +/-

  (ICRA Press Release) A new project is being launched on 1st November under the European Union's Safer Internet Programme to help internet users find what they want, trust what they find, and avoid material they choose not to see. The Quality Assurance and Content Description project (Quatro) brings together 9 organisations from across Europe including labelling schemes, user advocacy groups, academics, technologists and publishers. see also ICRA Labelling working group: Interim Report and W3C Workshop on Metadata for Content Adaptation - ICRA Position paper.

• Legal Implications of Internet Filtering,  +/-

  (OpenNet Initiative) A new report, from the OpenNet Initiative - an ongoing research partnership by the Advanced Network Research Group of the University of Cambridge, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, and the Berkman Center to monitor international Internet censorship - considers the diversity of filtering programs and their impact on international law, communications, and policy.

• UK - Mobile operators classify adult content  +/-

  (out-law.com) The UK mobile phone operators, O2, Orange, TMobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone and 3, have appointed a body to oversee the self-classification of new forms of adult commercial content on mobiles. The new body, which will be named the Independent Mobile Classification Body (IMCB), is a subsidiary of premium rate regulator ICSTIS, and has been formed for this purpose. It will prepare a framework against which providers of commercial content to mobile subscribers will be able to self-classify new forms of content such as still images and video clips. Commercial content that is classified as 18, in accordance with this framework, will not be made available to customers under the age of 18. The independent body will also be able to investigate complaints about content providers not classifying content in line with the framework. This appointment follows the operators signing up to an industry Code of Practice for new mobile content in January 2004.

Security and encryption

• IBM jumps into Liberty Alliance  +/-

  (ZDNet) IBM has joined the Internet security consortium Liberty Alliance at the request of a customer, European mobile telecommunications provider Orange. The Liberty Alliance is a group of technology providers and corporations, such as Fidelity and American Express, that is developing a set of industry standards for verifying a person's identity when he or she accesses Web sites.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• IE - Internet providers fail to sign code of practice  +/-

  (IOL) A number of Irish internet service providers have failed to sign up to a code of practice aimed at safeguarding children, it emerged. The Internet Advisory Board (IAB) told a parliamentary Committee on Communications that only 14 of the 18 internet service providers in Ireland had signed up to the code.

Market & Technology

Statistics

• DE - Studie: 15 Prozent der Internetnutzer hatten Sicherheitsprobleme  +/- Translate

  (Heise) 15 Prozent der Internetnutzer in Deutschland haben bei der Pilotstudie Informationstechnologie in Haushalten 2003 des Statistischen Bundesamtes angegeben, zwischen April 2002 und März 2003 Sicherheitsprobleme im Internet gehabt zu haben. Mit 13 Prozent hatten die meisten durch Computerviren Informationen oder Zeit verloren. 4 Prozent haben auch oder zusätzlich angegeben, dass ihre persönlichen Informationen im Internet missbraucht worden seien.

Forthcoming events

• 2004-12-01 UK, London - Freedom of Information Act: None of Our Business?  +/-

  (Privacy Laws & Business) Opportunities and Challenges for the Private Sector. Wednesday, December 1st, 2004, The Hatton, London, EC1. Speakers include Stewart Dresner, Chief Executive, Privacy Laws & Business, Graham Smith, Deputy Information Commissioner, James Michael, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, Maurice Frankel, Chair, Freedom of Information Campaign, Sarah O'Neill, Legal Officer, Scottish Consumer Council, Glasgow, Phil Michaels, Legal Advisor, Friends of the Earth, London, Mr. Alex Ganotis, Office of the Information Commissioner

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