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(RAPID) Following changes made to the financing of public broadcasters in France, Italy and Spain, the European Commission has closed the existing procedures under EC Treaty state aid rules (Article 88(1)). All three Member States have either accepted or already implemented measures to introduce greater transparency and proportionality in their funding systems, which will help to guard against cross-subsidies for activities not related to public service broadcasting.
(RAPID) Vortrag von Viviane Reding, Mitglied der Europäischen Kommission zuständig für Informationsgesellschaft und Medien, „ARD meets Europe“, Brüssel, den 19. April 2005.
(Guardian) Plans to revive the flagging singles chart by including sales of online downloads sparked claims of unfair treatment. The Association of Independent Music, which represents more than 900 smaller record labels, has submitted an official complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. The independents are concerned that the chart is weighted in favour of the big four labels - Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG - because their releases are prioritised by the download services responsible for selling the tracks. See also Rock of ages. A mini revolution will happen this weekend when, for the first time, songs downloaded (legally) from the internet will be included in the Top 40 along with traditional singles sold on discs. This will give a new lease of life to the singles genre. It also means that downloads, far from strangling the singles industry, will actually save it. People have shown themselves perfectly willing to pay for legal - as opposed to pirated - digital downloads as long as the price is a reasonably fair one. Sales of single downloads in the UK have erupted in the past year from 216,000 to 4.5m thanks to the runaway success of Apple's iPod player and its myriad imitators.
(01net.fr) Thierry Breton a remis au ministre de l'Intérieur, Dominique de Villepin, une série de propositions destinées à améliorer la lutte contre la cybercriminalité. Chargé de travailler sur le sujet en tant que PDG de France Télécom, en juin 2004, Thierry Breton a présenté son rapport en tant que ministre de l'Economie, des Finances et de l'Industrie. Première proposition, disposer de meilleures statistiques. Le doublement des effectifs de policiers et gendarmes spécialisés dans le cybercrime est confirmé. Le contrôle des contenus illicites devrait bénéficier de la création d'un organisme de centralisation des données. Pour ce qui est de la prévention, entreprises et mineurs sont encouragés, par les deux ministres, à faire état des actes dont ils auraient été victimes. Enfin, le ministre avance l'idée d'un « certificat citoyen » à délivrer aux FAI. Deux ajouts au code pénal sont proposés. L'un pour permettre aux enquêteurs de s'infiltrer sur un support de communication électronique afin de participer à des discussions, de stocker des contenus illicites et d'entrer en contact avec des auteurs d'infractions. L'autre pour punir explicitement les sollicitations sexuelles faites à un mineur par le biais d'un moyen de communication électronique, Internet ou SMS. voir Communiqué de presse et Rapport de M. Thierry Breton (Ministère de l'Intérieur).
(Reuters) Credit card companies and technology firms should do more to combat child pornography on the Internet, a United Nations expert said. Credit card companies may unwittingly process illegal Web transactions. see Report submitted by Mr. Juan Miguel Petit, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
(Silicon.com) A City banker at the heart of the DrinkOrDie software piracy ring has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison at the Old Bailey in London. Alex Bell, 29, was one of four criminals involved in the DrinkOrDie group which cracked encryption and digital rights management code on software. Two of the others were handed lesser sentences while a third was released on a suspended sentence. The maximum penalty would have been 10 years. Although they billed themselves as latter day Robin Hood's the judge at the centre of the case said their motives were not benevolent but owed more to self-promotion and the kudos in tech circles linked to such criminal activity.
(ZDNet France) Des dizaines de consommateurs se sont plaints auprès de l'UFC-Que Choisir d'être devenus des clients de Tele2 à leur insu. Le scénario serait toujours le même. La victime reçoit un courrier la félicitant de s'être abonnée à Tele2 alors qu'elle n'a effectué aucune démarche auprès de l'opérateur. Le plus souvent, elle a été sollicitée à son domicile ou à la sortie d'un supermarché par un vendeur qui lui a fait signer un document. Présenté comme une simple demande d'information ou un bon de passage, il s'agissait en fait d'un contrat. L'autre technique employée consiste à enregistrer des clients en récupérant leur adresse, nom et numéro de téléphone (l'annuaire suffit), et en faisant une fausse signature. Certains consommateurs se sont en effet plaints d'avoir été inscrits chez Tele2 sans n'avoir jamais été contactés.
(Reuters) Anyone using camera phones to distribute pornography may face up to 1000 lashes, a 12-year jail term and a 100,000 riyal ($26,670) fine under a proposed Saudi law. The proposed law comes after a Saudi court sentenced three men to jail and up to 1,200 lashes each for orchestrating and filming the rape of a teenage girl using telephones equipped with cameras and distributing the footage via the telephones.
(Guardian) Media regulators across Europe could be forced to police internet content for taste and decency in the same way as television programmes, according to proposals under consideration in Brussels. The plans have led to fears at the British media watchdog Ofcom that this may stifle innovation in the nascent broadband content industry and prove impossible to enforce. see also Can the Internet be regulated.
(PC Pro) The dispute over MPEG-4 licensing for mobile devices is no nearer a resolution after the GSM Association rejected new terms. The GSMA - which represents some 800 GSM network operators and device makers - described MPEG LA's revised licensing fees for its Open Mobile Alliance's Digital Rights Management technology for MPEG-4 content as a 'serious disappointment'.
(CNET News.com) by Declan McCullagh. In a stunning victory for hardware makers and television buffs, a federal appeals court has tossed out government rules that would have outlawed many digital TV receivers and tuner cards starting July 1. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority to prohibit the manufacture of computer and video hardware that doesn't have copy protection technology known as the 'broadcast flag.' The regulations, which the FCC created in November 2003, had been intended to limit unauthorized Internet redistribution of over-the-air TV broadcasts. ALA et al. v FCC
(Heise) Nach Angaben der Gesellschaft zur Verfolgung von Urheberrechtsverletzungen (GVU) wurden zeitgleich insgesamt zehn Hausdurchsuchungen in Deutschland durchgeführt. Im Visier der Ermittler stand die deutsche "Release Group" Flatline (FTL), laut GVU eine "Top-Gruppe der professionellen Raubkopierer-Szene", die für die Veröffentlichung einer großen Menge hochwertigen Ausgangsmaterials für die Herstellung und Verbreitung von Raubkopien der aktuellsten Kinofilme in Deutschland verantwortlich sein soll.
(FT) by James Boyle. In two earlier columns on Europe's database directive, and European public information, I pointed out that our policy-process is almost evidence-free. New rights are created on the basis of anecdote and scaremongering. There are other examples and they are not confined to Europe. Since only about 4 per cent of copyrighted works more than 20 years old are commercially available, this locks up 96 per cent of 20th century culture to benefit 4 per cent. The harm to the public is huge, the benefit to authors, tiny.
(outlaw.com) The European Commission has published a statement clarifying which intellectual property rights will be covered by the controversial Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights.
(Europarl) Working Document on the patentability of computer-generated inventions Committee on Legal Affairs Rapporteur: Michel Rocard. See also Informal Memorandum (EICTA).
(Reuters) The European Union's executive has told Microsoft that it must comply immediately with a year-old order related to its Windows virtual monopoly or face action. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met on short notice at Microsoft's request to discuss the tech giant's failure to comply with a March 24, 2004, decision setting out steps that Microsoft must take.
(Helsingin Sanomat) In keeping with moves in several other countries, steps are now being taken by Finnish authorities to stamp out illegal distribution of copyright music material via the Internet. Suomen Ääni- ja kuvatallennetuottajat (ÄKT, the Finnish Branch of IFPI) have sent police requests for investigations of 28 individuals who they would like to see brought to justice for net piracy through the peer-to-peer file sharing networks.
(ZDNet France) «La lutte contre la piraterie fonctionne», s'est félicité Gilles Bressan, président du Snep (Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique). Au premier trimestre 2005, elles ont progressé de 5,8% en valeur par rapport à la même période en 2004, pour atteindre 236,6 millions d'euros. En volume, la hausse représente 16,3%. Cette meilleure santé est également attribuée à la politique de baisse de prix des maisons de disques. Gilles Bressan a également précisé les grands chantiers de l'année à venir, en termes de musique numérique: le développement de la musique en ligne légale, l'approfondissement des premiers acquis de la charte signée avec les fournisseurs d'accès à internet, et enfin le soutien au projet de loi sur les droits d'auteurs et droits voisins.
(BBC) The British music industry has secured access to the names of 33 people it suspects of sharing up to 72,000 music files on the internet. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) applied to the High Court for internet service providers to hand over personal details of the alleged file-sharers.
(Creative Commons) Finally after 16 months of intensive public consultation and high powered legal work the Creative Commons licences for England and Wales are now ready - Scotland is soon to follow.
(Guardian) British record labels lost the equivalent of £650m to illegal computer downloads over the last two years, according to the music industry's trade body, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). A two-year study by research group TNS showed that music fans would have spent £1.5bn on recorded music between 2002-2004, but because of downloads spent only £858m.
(Daily Telegraph) Lady Thatcher is suing the BBC over unauthorised use of one of her most famous phrases. The claim, made against BBC Broadcast, alleges it unlawfully transmitted the clip 407 times in four days last year to advertise Thatcher Week. The BBC admits the infringement but has been unable to agree compensation. A source close to Lady Thatcher said: "The BBC is offering a derisory sum."
(CNET News.com) The Recording Industry Association of America will file suit against students at 18 universities accused of trading files on the supercharged Internet2 network. The suits are the first to focus on the next-generation research network operated by universities. The i2Hub file-swapping service has operated for a year on campuses that are connected to Internet2.
(01net) On attendait l'industrie du disque sur ce terrain, mais c'est celle du jeu vidéo qui a décroché la première l'autorisation de la Commission nationale informatique et liberté (Cnil) permettant d'automatiser la prévention et la gestion d'infractions en matière de contrefaçon. Les éditeurs de jeux vidéo ne pourront conserver les adresses IP qu'un mois et en vue d'actions judiciaires. La Cnil a eu son mot à dire sur le contenu des messages de prévention. Voir communiqué de presse (Cnil).
(Guardian) Ministers are to press ahead with the mandatory fingerprinting of new passport applicants using royal prerogative powers to sidestep the loss of their identity card legislation. The police are expected to be given the authority to carry out checks against this newly created national fingerprint database.
(Wired) A search for personal data on ZabaSearch.com - one of the most comprehensive personal-data search engines on the net - tends to elicit one of two reactions from first-timers: terror or curiosity. Which reaction often depends on whether you are searching for someone else's data, or your own. ZabaSearch queries return a wealth of info sometimes dating back more than 10 years: residential addresses, phone numbers both listed and unlisted, birth year, even satellite photos of people's homes.
(Associated Press) Six European leaders jointly proposed that works contained in European libraries be made accessible online, in what they called a 'European digital library.' The appeal to European Union officials was signed by French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. 'The heritage of European libraries is unequaled in richness and diversity,' they said in their letter. 'But if it is not digitalized and made accessible online, this heritage could, tomorrow, not fill its just place in the future geography of knowledge.'
(ZDNet France) Les bibliothèques nationales de l'UE ont entendu Jean-Noël Jeanneney, le président de la Bibliothèque nationale de France. Dix-neuf autres bibliothèques nationales le soutiennent. Dans un manifeste publié le 27 avril, elles «souhaitent appuyer une initiative commune des dirigeants de l'Europe visant à une numérisation large et organisée des oeuvres appartenant au patrimoine de notre continent».
(Libération) La Commission européenne s'engage à décupler son soutien au projet de bibliothèque virtuelle européenne, comme le lui ont demandé la semaine dernière six dirigeants européens, dont Jacques Chirac. Le débat, lancé par le moteur de recherche Google, qui a annoncé la numérisation de millions de livres destinés à être mis gratuitement en ligne, a fait des vagues, la France redoutant notamment une domination de la langue anglaise.
(AFP) Nineteen European national libraries have joined forces against a planned communications revolution by internet search giant Google to create a global virtual library. The 19 libraries are backing instead a multi-million euro counter-offensive by European nations to put European literature online.
(International Herald Tribune) Scarce resources would be used more wisely and efficiently in making the intellectual wealth and diversity of Europe available to a worldwide audience - and in using for that purpose all the tools available in the realm of the Internet, including Google.
(Reuters) An American who registered the Internet name BenedictXVI.com before the new Pope was chosen said he had not worked out what to do with it but was pretty sure it would be a sin to sell it to a pornographer.
(EURid) EURid has appointed the Prague-based Czech Arbitration Court to provide ADR for .eu domain name disputes. The Czech Arbitration Court, assisted by a preparatory team of IP and IT specialist from around Europe will draft the rules and procedures for .eu ADR, in line with the European Commissions Public Policy Rules for .eu (EC Regulation 7874/2004) and the recommendations of WIPO.
(ZDNet France) Le nombre de télédéclarants dépasse désormais les 3,2 millions, selon le ministre du Budget. Rappelons que la date fatidique pour l'envoi des télédéclarations est fixée au 15 mai. Le ministre a de nouveau appelé les contribuables à s'y prendre à l'avance pour ne pas être victimes des embouteillages qui ont paralysé le système ces dernières semaines. Ces dysfonctionnements sont en partie dus à une mauvaise appréciation du développement de l'internet il y a trois ans. Les budgets avaient alors été établis pour la période 2003 à 2005; le système n'avait été prévu que pour accueillir 1,5 million de télédéclarants.
(Curia) Judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case T-2/03 Verein für Konsumenteninformation / Commission. Annulment of a decision refusing access to documents in a competition case. The Court held that where an institution receives such a request it is required, in principle, to carry out a concrete, individual assessment of the content of the documents referred to in the request.
(Reuters) In a victory for pranksters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a bunch of computer-generated gibberish masquerading as an academic paper has been accepted at a scientific conference. Jeremy Stribling and two fellow MIT graduate students questioned the standards of some academic conferences, so they wrote a computer program to generate research papers complete with 'context-free grammar,' charts and diagrams.
(out-law.com) The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has updated guidance on marketing and advertising using electronic media, advocating a light touch when it comes to regulating the sector. Compliance should present no problems for UK businesses. The guidelines cover advertising over the internet, through on-line and interactive services, and electronic communication networks including the telephone, SMS/MMS, digital radio and television. They have been updated in light of technical advances in the market since 1998, when they were last amended.
(AP) Twenty people in the United States and abroad were arrested on charges they ran Internet pharmacies that illegally shipped narcotics, steroids and amphetamines to teenagers and other buyers around the world.
(Guardian) The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers. Doziness, lethargy and an increasing inability to focus reached 'startling' levels in the trials by 1,100 people, who also demonstrated that emails in particular have an addictive, drug-like grip.
(CNET News.com) Incoming college students seem to have developed an allergy to computer science during the past four years--with women particularly being uninterested in the field. That's the gist of a new report from Computing Research Association (CRA), a group made up of academic departments, research centers and professional societies.
(RAPID) The European Commission has adopted a new mechanism to ensure that all Commission legislative proposals are systematically and rigorously checked for compatibility with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The new mechanism is based on a process of systematic screening of legislation from the earliest preparatory work through to inter-service consultation.
(OECD) Working Party on the Information Economy. Digital Broadband Content. Panel And Government Session, 3 June 2004. Summary and conclusions. DSTI/ICCP/IE(2004)15/FINAL
(ZDNet Australia) Twelve Asia-Pacific communications and Internet agencies have joined the Australian Communications Authority in signing a memorandum of understanding - the Seoul-Melbourne Anti-Spam Agreement - on cooperation in countering spam.
(BBC) Research has revealed that peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are proving a lucrative hunting ground for spammers. Start-up Blue Security has found that junk mailers are actively harvesting and spamming e-mail addresses they find on file-sharing networks. The address books they are exploiting are inadvertently being sharing on the peer-to-peer networks by novice users.
(BBC) UK spam laws are failing to stop spammers, say campaigners. According to anti-spam organisation Spamhaus, loopholes in UK law render legislation useless in the fight against spammers. The majority of spam originates from the US but there are a handful of hardcore UK-based spammers. Since the law came into force over a year ago no UK spammers have been fined or prosecuted.
(ZDNet France) Le tribunal de grande instance de Paris ordonne aux hébergeurs du site révisionniste AAARGH de couper son accès et de fournir les éléments d'identification de ses auteurs. S´ils refusent de collaborer, le juge examinera la possibilité de recourir au filtrage par les FAI français. Dans une seconde ordonnance de référé, le TGI demande aux hébergeurs américains du site révisionniste AAARGH, d'en empêcher l'accès depuis le territoire français.
(EDRI-gram) On 18 April WIPO hosted a seminar in Geneva on copyright and ISP liability. Dominated by representatives of the entertainment industry and international government officials, the highly politicised seminar ended with the conclusion that more legislation was indeed necessary. The main issue however remained unsolved; whether this legislation should provide stronger protection for the fundamental rights and freedoms of all internet users, or whether this legislation should further facilitate the entertainment industry in hunting down individual internet users.
(BBC) Almost 300 school and college students were disqualified from exams in England last summer for malpractice involving mobile phones.
(Bookseller) Bloomsbury chief executive Nigel Newton has warned UK publishers to beware the blandishments of Internet search engine Google. Newton argued that the project to digitize books and allow the content to be searched on Google could lead to the 'Napsterization' of the publishing industry.
(Heise) Das Internet ist für Jugendliche eine Welt der Freiheit, aber auch der Gefahren und Risiken: Fast jeder Zweite ist 2004 einmal mit pornografischen Seiten in Berührung gekommen, 2000 waren es noch annähernd jeder Dritte. Das ist das Ergebnis einer repräsentativen Studie des Medienpädagogischen Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs). Die Studie wurde bei einer Fachtagung "Jugendmedienschutz im Internet" in Stuttgart vorgelegt.
(Register) The IT industry should do more to protect kids online, according to campaigners, who believe that tech companies should spend dosh to create a global child protection organisation and use their expertise to regulate chat rooms and block the transmission of offensive images. Tighter regulation and increased education make up just part of a rack of proposals following the launch of the global make-IT-safe campaign . Thailand-based child-rights group ECPAT International and the UK's Children's Charities Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS) reckon that while the IT industry has done stacks to crack down on online fraud and spam, it has failed to invest the same amount of time and resource in combating child abuse. see also Safety urged for child web users.
(Reuters) A 19-year-old Los Angeles woman has sued AOL saying that a former monitor of its 'kids only' chat room seduced her online when she was a lonely teenager, persuading her to send him nude photos of herself and to engage in phone sex. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also says that Matthew Wright sent sexually explicit videos of himself and planned to drive to California to meet the girl for a weekend together on her 17th birthday.
(Associated Press) The Chinese government has become increasingly sophisticated at controlling the Internet, taking a multilayered approach that contributes to precision in blocking political dissent. see Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005: A Country Study (OpenNet Initiative).
(Michael Geist) China, which boasts the world's second largest Internet user base, is currently home to more than 94 million Internet users, yet their Internet is far different from ours. On a recent trip to China, I sought to access common news sites that I found myself face to face with the "Great Firewall of China". Google News would not load into my browser, apparently blocked by a filtering system that employs 30,000 people to regularly monitor Internet traffic and content. Attempts to access news stories on BBC website yielded only error messages. My frustration increased when I attempted to download my own email. The Chinese system was filtering my email messages and cutting off the connection. Search engines were subject to similar restrictions. Searches for articles on circumventing the Chinese filters yielded a long list of results, none of which could be opened. Moreover, inputting politically sensitive words such as the "Falun Gong" cut me off from the search engines completely.
(Saferinternet.org) Kijkwijzer, the Dutch labelling system for TV programmes, videos and cinema films has been extended to include content for mobile phones. As soon as a mobile phone user searches for pornographic images or text, a Kijkwijzer icon pops up with a recommended age restriction. For the moment Kijkwijzer only applies to sexually explicit content, but there are plans to extend the application to other types of sensitive material. The Netherlands Institute for the Classification of Audiovisual Media (NICAM) is the organisation behind Kijkwijzer. They signed a contract with mobile operators KPN Mobile, Orange, Telfort, T-Mobile and Vodafone. These five operators introduced the Kijkwijzer system on 1 April.
(Guardian) Media regulator Ofcom is considering an industry-wide classification system to help consumers better understand the suitability of everything from TV shows to online videos and music downloads. Ofcom believes such a classification scheme - similar to that in place in the Netherlands - could help manage the spread of harmful or inappropriate material. However, the plan could not work without the agreement of internet service providers, telecom firms and media groups. The FT reported that the proposal has found favour with the BBC but some commercial broadcasters have claimed labelling could dilute their brands.
(ABA) NetAlert and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) have found that children are online younger and longer with the growth of broadband in a joint report . The report also found that while Australian parents and children are overwhelmingly positive about the benefits of the Internet, nearly forty per cent of parents said that their children have had a negative experience when using the Internet at home. Kidsonline@home, the second report of its kind, shows parents are increasingly picking up on Internet safety messages. However, because of the dynamic nature of the medium, the findings also highlight the need for a continuing focus on education programs to keep children safe in the online environment.
(Guardian) Children are routinely putting themselves at risk on the internet. Many children seem unaware of the dangers - nearly half have given personal information to someone they met online, 30% have made an online acquaintance and a worrying 8% have had a face-to-face meeting with someone they first met on the net. The research paper is the final report of the Children Go-Online project, a two-year study into internet use and abuse, based on face-to-face interviews with 1,511 children and young people aged nine to 19. Parents were also questioned. The LSE research was supported by the media regulator Ofcom, the children's charity NCH, and the internet service provider AOL. Funding came from the Economic and Social Research Council.
(BBC) Internet-illiterate parents could leave their children on the wrong side of the digital divide, researchers have said. Many parents lack the skills to help their child's internet use, a London School of Economics study has said. It said 85% of parents surveyed wanted stronger laws to clamp down on internet pornography. And one in five said they did not know how to help their children use the web safely, according to the UK Children Go Online report.
(Heise) Eine von der EU-Kommission geförderte Studie unter Federführung des Hamburger Hans-Bredow-Instituts für Medienforschung in Hamburg und des Instituts für Europäisches Medienrecht in Saarbrücken nimmt die verschiedenen Formen nicht-staatlicher Regulierung in den Mitgliedsstaaten unter die Lupe. In Brüssel stellten die Projektpartner einen ersten Zwischenbericht vor.
(CommsWatch) Originally it was called the Video On Demand Association (VODA) but Vodafone did not like this, so now it is called the Association for Television Video On Demand (ATVOD). This is the self regulatory body for the industry and currently consists of Homechoice, ntl, Telewest, Kingston Communications, Blockbuster and the On Demand Group. The members adopted a Code of Practice on 9 June 2004, but so far there have been no complaints under the Code. The organisation does not have a web site yet, but this is in hand.
(RAPID) The Commission has launched legal proceedings against ten EU Member States to remedy infringements of EU rules on electronic communications. It points to defects in national laws, and incorrect practical application of EU rules, in Germany, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Finland. The opening of these proceedings follows concerns identified in the Commission's Implementation Reports on the electronic communications sector.
(OfcomWatch) The French Competition Authority (The Conseil de la Concurrence) has published its decision endorsing the French telecommunications regulator's move to mandate the dominant mobile operators to open up their networks to Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs).
(out-law.com) All companies selling fixed-line telecoms services will be required to draw up Codes of Practice for sales and marketing following action by the regulator for the UK's telecoms industries on mis-selling in the sector. Ofcom is particularly concerned about "slamming" - where consumers are switched from one supplier to another without their knowledge and consent, usually after a cold-call from the new supplier. see Statement and Notification on protecting citizens and consumers from mis-selling of fixed-line telecoms services (Ofcom);
(OfcomWatch) France was one of the last big European countries to launch DTT services (after the UK, Germany, and Italy) but it could very well soon take over its neighbours. In only 3 weeks since its launch in March 31st, about 300,000 DTT decoders have been sold. Coverage is not nationwide but it will be by 2007. In a year the 1 million objective could be easily outdone.
(AP) Filters for blocking junk e-mail from inboxes have improved to the point that doing much more will needlessly kill legitimate e-mail. So e-mail gatekeepers are getting more aggressive at keeping spam from leaving their systems in the first place. EarthLink, for instance, is phasing in a requirement that customers' mail programs submit passwords before it will send out their e-mail.
(ZDNet UK) Google UK has finally introduced the local search and mapping tools that were launched in the US earlier this year. Google UK Maps and Local Search are two services built around an interactive map. The mapping service allows users to get accurate directions between two UK destinations while Local Search provides listings of local services, such as restaurants, and indicates their position on the map.
(CNET News.com) When Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs walked into the suites of top record label executives in 2002, iTunes software in hand, he was welcomed as a trailblazer to a digital music future. Now, nearly two years after Apple's iTunes launch, record executives have become worried that they have inadvertently ceded too much power over their industry to this charismatic computer executive.
(BBC) The BBC is making 20 more radio shows available for listeners to download onto their digital music players. The programmes which will be made available as podcasts are mainly talk-based to avoid problems over music rights issues.
(BBC) UK music lovers are getting frustrated with restrictions placed on digital music tracks once they buy them from online stores, says PC Pro magazine. The magazine reported that people are also being turned off net music stores because of pricing and disappointing sound quality compared to CDs.
(vnunet.com) Enterprises are being urged to wake up to the growing security risks associated with employees installing Wi-Fi in the workplace without the permission or knowledge of IT departments.
(Guardian) Faced with declining profits from voice calling, the networks have turned to content as their third way - a ploy to get customers to keep spending money, but once 3G uptake is large enough, content providers become more important than networks. The same content will be running across multiple operators, and it will become more difficult to stand out from the crowd.
(BBC) Most of the companies making games for mobile phones have got it wrong, says Trip Hawkins, founder of games behemoth Electronic Arts. The future then for Mr Hawkins are games and programs that let people connect, on their own terms, with anyone and everyone else.
(CNET News.com) International media company Reuters reinstated its instant messaging network, after shutting it down completely the previous day, when a variant of the Kelvir worm attempted an attack on systems using the IM application.
(Heise) Die Mozilla-Foundation bejubelt 50 Millionen Downloads ihres Standalone-Webbrosers Firefox. Mitte Februar erst erreichte Firefox die Marke von 25 Millionen Downloads, 99 Tage nach Veröffentlichung der Version 1.0. Browser-Anteile auf heise online im April 2005: Firefox 39,6 %, Internet Explorer 6.0x 29,7 %. Browser-Hersteller: Mozilla & co (Gecko-Engine)48,8 %,Microsoft 32,1 %.
(Wired) Internet users consumed more bandwidth than ever last year, driven by the growing popularity of peer-to-peer networks and heightened demand for video files. Burgeoning demand also prompted internet carriers to upgrade their network capacity to handle the upswing in traffic. "From mid-2004, we saw a significant shift away from music and on to video," said Andrew Parker, chief technical officer at CacheLogic, a firm based in England that monitors global peer-to-peer traffic. CacheLogic estimates that P2P applications consume between 60 percent and 80 percent of capacity on consumer ISP networks. Efforts by the film and recording industries to crack down on illegal trading of copyright works haven't resulted in a drop in traffic volumes. In North America, where the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America have focused enforcement efforts, Parker said there has been virtually no change in P2P traffic levels since the groups began cracking down on illegal file trading. "In some parts of the world we have seen the opposite happen. The publicity created by the MPAA actually drove users to find out what all the fuss was about and resulted in an increase in traffic levels," Parker said.
(vnunet.com) The latest monthly update from National Statistics shows a modest 1.9 per cent increase in the number of active UK subscriptions to the internet in the 12 months to February 2005. The market share for broadband connections continued to increase, and currently accounts for 43 per cent of all connections. This compares with a market share of 23.6 per cent a year earlier.
(vnunet.com) There are now more mobile phones in the UK than people, according to a report from management consultants Analysys. Mobile penetration in the UK, Sweden and Italy rose to 101 per cent, 103 per cent and 104 per cent respectively in 2005. The company expects the rest of Europe to reach 100 per cent by 2007, largely due to customers with more than one phone. Attempts by some countries to move customers from pre-pay to contract services have hurt growth.
(Los Angeles Times) Like Kazaa and other popular file-sharing programs, Grouper allows users to copy movies and pictures directly from another computer without worrying about formats or oversized e-mail attachments. Unlike those global networks with millions of users, though, Grouper also lets users pick and choose with whom they share online - and sets a strict limit of 30 people per group. In addition to limiting the size and accessibility of groups, the program requires songs to be streamed - that is, played through the Internet - not downloaded. Those limits may not add up to a legal service. "There's no family-and-friends exception in copyright law," said attorney Robert Schwartz of O'Melveny & Myers.
(Europa) Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, will speak at a plenary session of the Safer Internet Forum in Luxembourg on Tuesday 14 June 2005. The meeting will focus on "Child safety and mobile phones". This issue has become important with the increased use of mobile phones by children, and the launch of 3G mobile services. The objective of the Forum is to contribute to improve the common understanding of this issue at European level. Mobile operators, content providers, industry representatives, child safety associations and public bodies will exchange on potential issues and solutions, national experience of self-regulation and discuss plans for the future, including a set of minimum requirements for a self-regulatory system for content available through mobile phones. see agenda . Online registration now available.
(Europa) On Monday 13 June an Information Day will be held for the first call for proposals of the Safer Internet plus programme. Subject to the completion of all the necessary procedures, it is intended to launch a call in June 2005 with a deadline for proposals in October 2005. Agenda. Online registration form now available.
(International Institute of Communication) The 36th IIC Annual Conference, Chatham House, London. 10th October 2005 - 11th October 2005
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