Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• UK - BBC should be regulated by a Commission, says panel  +/-

  (CommsWatch) The Independent Advisory Panel, chaired by Lord Burns, has now delivered a letter and its final advice to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports on the future governance and regulation of the BBC. The conclusion is that the Board of Governors cannot be both the defender of the BBC and its regulator and that there should be a new Public Service Broadcasting Commission to regulate the BBC.

Calls for proposals / tenders

• EU - Calls for proposals for Daphne II  +/-

  (Europa) Two new calls for proposals have been launched in the framework of Daphne II, for specific projects on the one hand (deadline 4 March 2005) and for projects aiming at the dissemination and the use of existing results on the other (deadline 1 April 2005). Among projects which may be supported are developing indicators on violence and related data collection, including virtual violence: accessing, downloading and manipulating, in a degrading way, pictures of women and children as sexual objects via the Internet.

Competition

• EU - Commission clears BT's acquisition of Infonet  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition by British Telecommunications of Infonet Services Corporation, a US operator providing global telecommunications services to large multinational corporations.

• EU - Regulators tell Microsoft there's plenty in a name  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Microsoft has agreed to rename the new slimmed-down version of Windows it's preparing to release in Europe, after antitrust regulators there balked at the title. Microsoft announced last month that it intended to use the name 'Windows XP Reduced Media Edition' for the program, which has, by order of the European Commission, been stripped of the Media Player that's usually included. The commission was concerned the name would undermine its order by turning consumers off to the new version of Windows and prompting them to stay with the current version, according to reports. So Microsoft is ditching the name and is now busy coming up with a new one.

Computer crime

• FR - Pédo-pornographie et pédophilie sur internet  +/- Translate

  (FDI) Consacrée à la prévention et à la lutte contre la pédo-pornographie et la pédophilie sur l'internet, la recommandation publiée par le Forum des droits sur l'internet est le fruit de près d'un an de travaux d'un groupe de travail constitué de représentants des pouvoirs publics, des acteurs économiques et des associations concernés. Ce rapport établit, pour la première fois en France, une analyse objective et raisonnée des risques d'atteintes sexuelles sur mineurs par le biais de l'internet. Il distingue les deux phénomènes que sont, d'une part, la diffusion de contenus pédo-pornographiques sur l'internet et le risque de contacts pédophiles, d'autre part.

• UK - Blogging 'a paedophile's dream'  +/-

  (BBC) Online journals and camera phones are a 'paedophiles' dream' which have increased the risk to children, the Scottish Parliament has been warned. The Justice Committee is examining a bill to create the specific offence of 'grooming' and bringing in 10-year jail terms for meeting children for sex. A forensic psychologist spoke about the dangers of online journals, or blogs, and pictures posted directly online. Rachel O'Connell said adults could use weblogs to learn about children. Dr O'Connell said that the emergence of moblogs - mobile weblogs - allowed even faster transfer of pictures to the internet using mobile telephones with cameras.

• UK - US Federal agent raps ISPs over cybercrime  +/-

  (CNET News.com) An FBI special agent has hit out at U.K.-based units of large global ISPs and the role they play in allowing the perpetuation of cybercrime through a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Speaking at the Computer and Internet Crime Conference in London, FBI agent Ed Gibson, who is an assistant legal attache to the U.S. Embassy, expressed concerns that national boundaries are still too much of an obstacle to law enforcement. Gibson said such obstacles can delay law enforcement efforts by months at a time, and he criticized the Internet service providers and their regulations for doing too little to ease the process.

• UK - What's bugging ministers about phone taps?  +/-

  (BBC) Phone tapping is a common weapon in the armoury of detectives and government spies, so it may come as a surprise to learn that evidence from telephone taps cannot be used in court in the UK. This long-standing principle was upheld this week by Home Secretary Charles Clarke. The intelligence community is Mr Clarke's biggest backer on this. It fears that allowing phone tap evidence to be heard in court could reveal its secret operational methods. As it stands, tapes from conventional bugs - not attached to phones - can be used in court. Telephone conversations on an internal network can also be used and so can material where one of the people on the line is an undercover officer. But a taped phone conversation between a suspect and a third party, on a landline or a mobile phone, is inadmissible. It can only be used for intelligence purposes.

• Web police to fight paedophiles  +/-

  (BBC) Police and major internet companies around the world have launched a website on which children can report their suspicions about the activities of possible paedophiles. Police may pilot a 24-hour online paedophile monitoring scheme. Microsoft and AOL will put a link on their websites to the Virtual Global Task Force (VGTF), which is run by international law enforcement agencies and where police officers will be able to gather evidence.

Content regulation

• TN - Group expresses concern over free expression in Tunisia  +/-

  (Press Release) A joint monitoring visit to Tunisia undertaken by members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) has found serious cause for continuing concern about the current state of freedom of expression and of civil liberties in Tunisia, including gross restrictions on freedom of the press, media, publishing and the Internet. The visit, which took place from 14 to 19 January 2005, was the first of the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group and was organised in preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a United Nations intergovernmental conference to be held in Tunis in November 2005.

Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology

• UK - Net regulation 'still possible'  +/-

  (BBC) The blurring of boundaries between TV and the internet raises questions of regulation, watchdog Ofcom has said. Content on TV and the internet is set to move closer this year as TV-quality video online becomes a norm. At a debate in Westminster, the net industry considered the options. Lord Currie, chairman of super-regulator Ofcom, told the panel that protecting audiences would always have to be a primary concern for the watchdog. Despite having no remit for the regulation of net content, disquiet has increased among internet service providers as speeches made by Ofcom in recent months hinted that regulation might be an option.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• DE - Library allowed to crack copy protection  +/-

  (EDRI-gram) The German national library (Deutsche Bibliothek) has negiotated a license with rightholders to legally circumvent copy protection mechanisms on CD-roms, videos, software and E-books. It seems this is the first library in Europe to have managed a voluntary agreement on the strict new anti-circumvention rules prescribed by the EU copyright directive of 2001 (2001/29/EC). Article 6 of the EUCD prohibits acts of circumvention, as well as the distribution of tools and technologies used for circumvention of access control or copy protection measures.

• DE - Musikindustrie rüttelt an Pressefreiheit  +/- Translate

  (futurezone.ORF.at) Die deutsche Musikindustrie sieht sich durch einen Artikel von Heise Online über die Kopiersoftware AnyDVD in ihren Rechten verletzt. Das wurde dem Verlag in einer Abmahnung mitgeteilt. Laut Ansicht der IFPI ist der Heise-Artikel als "Werbung" für "Vorrichtungen zur Umgehung von Kopierschutzmaßnahmen" einzustufen, gebe eine Anleitung zum Aushebeln von Kopierschutztechniken und sei daher laut § 95a des deutschen Urheberrechtsgesetzes strafbar.Mit dem Setzen eines direkten Links zur Hersteller-Website mache sich Heise zudem der Verbreitung des Knack-Tools schuldig.

• DE - Volkswagen files complaint over spoof Internet ad  +/-

  (Reuters) Volkswagen AG has filed criminal charges over a spoof advertisement for its Polo small car that has been circulating on the Internet. The so-called viral ad - unauthorized by Volkswagen or its advertising agencies - shows a suicide bomber detonating his explosives in a Polo parked outside a busy cafe, only to have the car absorb the blast. The 20-second spot ends with the Volkswagen logo and the Polo's actual advertising motto: Small but tough. see also VW learns perils of 'viral' ads (New York Times).

• File-sharing battles leave us out  +/-

  (CNET News.com) by Patrick Ross. You think the red state-blue state divide is deep? Nothing rivals the shrillness between the content industry and P2P file sharers. You want name-calling? File sharers are 'thieves' and 'pirates.' The Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America are 'evil,' and one commenter to a recent CNET News.com story said the RIAA sought nothing less than world domination.

• FR - Google loses trademark dispute  +/-

  (CNET News.com) by Stefanie Olsen. A French court has ruled that Google must refrain from using the trademarks of European resort chain Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts to trigger keyword ads. On Dec. 16, a Nanterre court in France ruled that Google infringed on the trademarks of Le Meridien by allowing the hotel chain's rivals to bid on keywords of its name and appear prominently in related search results. Le Meridien had sued Google's French subsidiary on Oct. 25 after failing to reach an amicable agreement. see TGI Nanterre, référé, 16 décembre 2004, Hotels Méridien c/ Google France English translation (Juriscom.net). see also Google loses French AdWords case (out-law.com).

• NO - Student must pay for links to music  +/-

  (BBC) A Norwegian student who ran a website which linked to downloadable MP3 files has been ordered to pay compensation by the country's Supreme Court. Frank Allan Bruvik was ordered to pay 100,000 kroner (£8,000) to the music industry in Norway. He was a student when he set up his napster.no site, which allowed users to submit and receive links to MP3 files. Bruvik had earlier been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry.

• US - Movie body targets children's PCs  +/-

  (BBC) The body that represents the US movie industry has released its latest tool in its campaign to clamp down on movie file-sharing, aimed at parents. The Movie Association for America's (MPAA) free Parent File Scan software lets parents check their children's computers for peer-to-peer programs. It will also list all movie and music files they have on their hard drive. Parents then have the choice to remove programs and files. The MPAA said files found would not be passed on to it.

• US - The "De Minimis" Rule and Music Sampling  +/-

  (FEPP) A friend-of-the-court brief from the Brennan Center's Free Expression Policy Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation urges a U.S. Court of Appeals to reinstate the "de minimis" rule, arguing that sampling a few chords from musical recordings shouldn't amount to copyright infringement.

Data Protection (privacy)

• US - Tesco 'spychips' anger consumers  +/-

  (BBC) Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian), a US consumer privacy group has called for a global boycott of Tesco stores over the company's trial of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips. The technology allows products to be tracked via radio waves. Privacy groups have labelled them 'spy chips' because they fear the tags attached to products, can be used to track the behaviour of customers. But Tesco said the tags, being trialled on high value items in 10 stores, were only to help its distribution process.

Domain names

• Site Finder and Internet Governance  +/-

  (University of Ottawa) Journal of Law and Technology, by Jonathan Weinberg. The author unpacks the Site Finder story. The registry contracts gave ICANN no hook to invoke those concerns; if VeriSign was in breach, it was by happenstance. Part of the lesson of Site Finder is that there needs to be an effective institutional mechanism for protecting the domain name space infrastructure from unilateral, profit-driven change that bypasses the protections and consensus mechanisms of the traditional Internet standards process.

Human Rights

• EU - Fundamental Rights Agency  +/-

  (RAVPID) Speech of Vice-President Franco Frattini, Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Opening of the Public Hearing. Public Hearing; Brussels, 25 January 2005. Fundamental rights and Citizenship are the foundations of the European social contract. The decision to develop an Agency for Fundamental Rights by extending the mandate of the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia is a logical consequence of the growing importance of fundamental rights issues within the European Union. It results from the proclamation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2000 and its incorporation into the Constitutional Treaty, accompanied by the provision on the accession of the Union to the European Convention on Human Rights in the same Treaty in 2003.

Information society and Internet policy

• EU - i2010: Internet-Inhalte und -Infrastruktur für Europa unter einem Dach  +/- Translate

  (Heise) von Monika Ermert. Mit einer Neuauflage des EU-Programms eEurope allein sei es nicht getan, Europa brauche eine neue Initiative, meinte Viviane Reding. Die neue Kommissarin für Informationsgesellschaft und Medien in der EU-Kommission unter José Manuel Barroso sprach beim Empfang der European Internet Foundation (EIF) für die neuen Mitglieder des Europäischen Parlaments. Reding schlägt ein Nachfolgeprogramm unter dem Motto i2010 vor. Sie bezeichnete es als Glücksfall, dass durch den neuen Zuschnitt des Ressorts erstmals Infrastruktur und Inhalt in eine Generaldirektion fielen. Den Markt für "europäische Inhalte" weiter zu beleben betrachtet sie als eine der anstehenden Aufgaben.

Junk mail (spam)

• DE - Anti-Spam-Paragraph soll ins Teledienstegesetz  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Bußgelder bis zu einer Höhe von 50.000 Euro sieht eine geplante Ergänzung zum Teledienstegesetz (Gesetz über die Nutzung von Telediensten, TDG) vor. Im einem neuen Paragraph 7 Absatz 3 des TDG wird dazu das Verheimlichen oder Verschleiern von Absenderadresse und kommerzieller Natur einer E-Mail im Header als Ordnungswidrigkeit eingestuft. Der saubere Header soll Filtermaßnahmen für die Nutzer erleichtern.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• US - Family, child advocacy and law enforcement groups say file-sharing is not just about copyright  +/-

  (MissingKids) A diverse coalition of family, child advocacy and law enforcement groups has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a Ninth Circuit decision that refused to hold peer-to-peer file-sharing companies accountable for copyright infringement on their networks. Kids First Coalition, the National Fraternal Order of Police, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, Enough is Enough, Morality in Media, The National Law Center for Children and Families and We Care America share a commitment to the effective enforcement of the law, in particular prohibitions against child pornography, obscenity, and other predatory behavior against the Nation's children. They are concerned that the decision will spawn a proliferation of anonymous, decentralized, unfiltered, and untraceable peer-to-peer networks that facilitate crimes against children and that frustrate law enforcement efforts to detect and investigate these crimes. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. et al v. Grokster, Ltd. et al.

Safer Internet awareness

• UK - New Chatdanger website  +/-

  (Childnet Internation) The Chatdanger website has undergone an extensive redesign and the new site is launched today. The new site uses true stories to illustrate the potential dangers on interactive services online like chat, IM, online games and e-mail and on mobiles, and provides advice for using these services safely. The aim of the site is very much to inform and empower users of these services, so they can use these services safely. The new site is the result of some extensive research with young people that Childnet International have done with Red Barnet Save the Children Denmark in a project that was supported by the Daphne Programme of the European Commission.

Security and encryption

• DE - BSI: Bürger surfen zu sorglos im Internet  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Die meisten Deutschen surfen zu sorglos im Internet. Das belegt eine repräsentative Studie, die vom Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) bei TNS Emnid in Auftrag gegeben wurde. Danach interessierten sich die Nutzer kaum für das Thema Internetsicherheit, berichtet das BSI. Jeder vierte Internetnutzer bewege sich ohne Virenschutzprogramm im Netz und nur die Hälfte der Nutzer setze eine Firewall ein.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• NZ - Internet Code of Practice Working Paper  +/-

  (InternetNZ) Feedback is being sought from InternetNZ members and ISP's on a working paper on a proposed Internet Code of Practice. [Ed: includes relevant texts of other Codes of Conduct from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Singapore and UK].

• UK - Broadcaster unrepentant over 'serial killer' promotion  +/-

  (Guardian) Five has flatly refused to apologise for distributing 'horrifying and disturbing' junk mail for a new crime drama that contained fake threats from a serial killer. The bogus dossier for the broadcaster's new drama CSI: New York was sent to 55,000 homes and contains a fake police report complete with mugshot of a serial killer, warning that the murderer was obsessed with people who share the viewers' names. Viewers who complained to Five were dismissed by a spokesman who said the promotion was faithful to the gritty nature of the crime series. But the Advertising Standards Authority, which has received 30 complaints from upset viewers, has taken the rare step of ordering the channel to immediately cease distribution until it has investigated.

Telecommunications

• EU - High-speed network connections: Recommendation on the provision of leased lines  +/-

  (RPAID) Binding delivery deadlines should be introduced for the wholesale leased lines needed by suppliers of high-speed electronic communications services, says the European Commission in a recommendation to Member States. The recommendation sets out "best current practices" for leased line delivery times. The Commission also calls on national regulatory authorities to ensure that binding delivery times and penalties for not meeting them are included in wholesale leased line contracts offered by operators with significant market power to leased line retailers. Leased line delivery times vary substantially across the EU: for 2 Mbit/s lines, the delivery time in the slowest Member State is five times longer than in the fastest. See also Explanatory memorandum.

Market & Technology

Internet access and use

• AOL Pulls Plug on Newsgroup Service  +/-

  (BetaNews) America Online has quietly announced that it will discontinue providing member access to Usenet newsgroups. The Usenet dates back to around 1980. Now that blogs and instant messaging have supplanted older Internet technologies such as newsgroups and IRC, it's unlikely that AOL users will create much of an uproar over the decision. But the event nonetheless represents a milestone in Internet history.

Market

• UK - Games firms 'face tough future'  +/-

  (BBC) UK video game firms face a testing time as they prepare for the next round of games consoles, the industry warns. Fred Hasson, head of Tiga, which represents independent developers, said that more UK firms would go under due to greater risks in making new titles. Three leading UK video game companies also predicted that more firms would close as they struggled to adapt. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are expected to release new consoles in the next 18 months. The new machines will all have much greater processing and graphical power which will have a huge impact on development of next generation games.

Mobile and wireless

• Porn star hawks mobile 'moan tones'  +/-

  (Reuters) Porn star Jenna Jameson is now hawking "moan tones." For $2.50 mobile phone users can choose from a variety of moans, and sexual noises all recorded by the blond bombshell. If that's not enough, Jameson will talk dirty to you when your phones rings, in English or Spanish. Also available are color pictures of the porn star posing naked that can be displayed on your phone for $2.99.

Multilingual content and software

• EU - New programme to promote European digital content market  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Parliament voted with only one amendment in favour of the eContentplus programme, which will support the development of multi-lingual content for innovative, on-line services across the EU. The amendment, which is the result of a compromise with the Council, sets the budget of the programme at 149 MEUR for the period 2005-2008, and paves the way for a rapid adoption of the programme. eContentplus will tackle the fragmentation of the European digital content market and will improve the accessibility and usability of geographical information, cultural content and educational material.

• Grandes ambitions et petits soucis d'un outil libre de traduction  +/- Translate

  (Libération) Comment s'affranchir des contraintes de l'interprétariat monnayées à des prix exorbitants et contourner la mainmise des multinationales sur les nouvelles technologies? Comment promouvoir l'usage des logiciels libres et prôner une réappropriation des savoirs? Bref, comment réinventer activisme politique et pratique artistiques? C'est le pari un peu fou de Nomad, un collectif d'«artivistes», artiste-activistes, une bande de militants anglais, français, tunisiens, indiens, équatoriens. Leur rêve: métamorphoser, le temps d'une conférence, une cabine de traduction. Histoire permettre l'interprétariat en 17 langues. Mais aussi l'archivage des discussions sur différents supports (site web, CD, DVD, etc.). Et enfin la diffusion internet en direct -ou quasi- via le streaming audio.

Statistics

• DE - Studie: 90 Prozent der Jugendlichen haben ein eigenes Handy  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Das Handy ist aus dem Alltag von Jugendlichen nicht mehr wegzudenken. 2004 besaßen einer Studie zufolge neun von zehn Jungen und Mädchen zwischen 12 und 19 Jahren ein Mobiltelefon, teilte der Medienpädagogische Forschungsverbund Südwest (MPFS) heute in Stuttgart mit. Im Vergleich zum Vorjahr sei die Zahl der jungen Handybesitzer um vier Prozentpunkte gestiegen. 1998 besaßen erst acht Prozent der Jugendlichen ein Handy.

• US - Child pornography reports up 39%  +/-

  (Press Release) Statistics from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) show child pornography reports to its CyberTipline, a congressionally mandated mechanism for reporting child sexual exploitation, jumped 39 percent in 2004, to 106,119. Since the CyberTipline was established in 1998, reports of these illegal images have dramatically increased every year. NCMEC believes the growth in reports can be attributed, in part, to new technologies including digital cameras and videos and peer-to-peer networking as well as an increased public awareness about the issue and a federal law requiring ISPs to report incidents of child pornography to the CyberTipline. However, only 142 of the more than 3,000 electronic communications service providers in the U.S comply with the federal law.

• US - Internet adoption  +/-

  (Pew Internet & American Life Project) A decade after browsers came into popular use, the Internet has reached into - and, in some cases, reshaped - just about every important realm of modern life. It has changed the way we inform ourselves, amuse ourselves, care for ourselves, educate ourselves, work, shop, bank, pray and stay in touch. Report

• US - Search Engine Users  +/-

  (Pew Internet & American Life Project) A new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that internet users are extremely positive about search engines and the experiences they have when searching the internet. But these same satisfied internet users are generally unsophisticated about why and how they use search engines. They are also strikingly unaware of how search engines operate and how they present their results. Internet users trust their favorite search engines, but few say they are aware of the financial incentives that affect how search engines perform and how they present their search results.

• US - The Future of the Internet  +/-

  (Pew Internet & American Life Project) A wide-ranging survey of technology leaders, scholars, industry officials, and analysts finds that most internet experts expect attacks on the network infrastructure in the coming decade as the internet becomes more embedded in everyday and commercial life. They believe the dawning of the blog era will bring radical change to the news and publishing industry and they think the internet will have the least impact on religious institutions.

Technology

• Electronics giants form alliance  +/-

  (Reuters) The world's four biggest consumer electronics companies have agreed to start using a common method to protect digital music and video against piracy and illegal copying. Japan's Sony Corp and Panasonic-brand owner Matsushita Electric Industrial, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Dutch Philips Electronics formed the alliance because they want buyers of their products to watch or listen to "appropriately licensed video and music on any device, independent of how they originally obtained that content". Such interoperability does not exist at the moment. The alliance, called the Marlin Joint Development Association (Marlin JDA), gives the companies standard specifications to build DRM functions into their devices that support commonly used modes of content distribution. See also Format wars could 'confuse users' (BBC)
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Forthcoming events

• 2005-02-08 European and global partners prepare for Safer Internet Day  +/-

  (European Schoolnet) On 8 February 2005, Safer Internet Day will be celebrated by more than 50 organisations in 27 countries across the world from Australia to Iceland, from Russia to Singapore. In Europe, events will be held under the patronage of Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society. Safer Internet Day represents an effort by a global community of awareness-raising partners to promote a safer Internet for all of its users, especially young people. It is organised by Insafe, the European network of national Internet safety awareness nodes. Among the host of events taking place, a storytelling competition for pupils is launched in 18 countries. Other Safer Internet Day activities include conferences, the launch of Internet literacy programs in schools, media releases on radio and television, the launch of several new Safer Internet websites. The Insafe network is coordinated by European Schoolnet and co-funded by the European Commission's Safer Internet Programme.

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