Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• EU - La révision de la directive Télévision sans Frontières  +/- Translate

  (RAPID) Viviane Reding, Membre de la Commission européenne chargée de la Société de l´Information et des Médias, Séminaire de la présidence du Luxembourg : Allocution d´ouverture. Luxembourg, le 30 mai 2005.

Competition

• EU praises Microsoft reform plans  +/-

  (BBC) The European Commission has praised Microsoft's initial response to its antitrust ruling against the company. Last week, Microsoft successfully met a deadline to give details of how it would improve the way it opens up its Windows operating systems to rivals.

Computer crime

• ES - Spain arrests 186 in child porn crackdown  +/-

  (Reuters) Spanish police have arrested 186 people throughout the country in a crackdown on the distribution of child pornography. In two parallel operations, 650 officers searched 188 homes and found evidence of child pornography distribution across the Internet using peer-to-peer software and a system of passwords. The operations were part of a high-priority police crackdown on child pornography and were the most extensive ever undertaken in Spain.

• Europe - Child porn raids in 13 countries  +/-

  (AP) European police have raided 150 addresses in 13 countries in a coordinated operation against a major child pornography ring, Europol said. The European joint police force said the operation, code-named Icebreaker, netted computers, videos and evidence of the sexual abuse of children. It was "the largest international police operation ever coordinated and supported by Europol within this area of crime," said a statement from the agency. The raids were carried out in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

• G8 to launch international paedophile database  +/-

  (Guardian) The world's wealthiest nations are to set up an international database to help police track down paedophiles and rescue their victims. The UK Home Office confirmed that home affairs and justice ministers from G8 countries have endorsed the creation of the international child sexual exploitation database, which will allow police in their countries to share and compare paedophile images found on the internet. The system should make it possible to identify offenders and victims more quickly.

• Phishers going after small fry  +/-

  (CNET News.com) While most of the fraud schemes still focus on big businesses such as major banks, smaller financial companies are increasingly being hit, said a report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

• UK - Scotland - MSPs pass internet 'grooming' law  +/-

  (BBC) A bill to clamp down on paedophiles grooming children on the internet has been passed by MSPs at Holyrood. The Protection of Children Bill will make it an offence to set up meetings with under-16s via internet chatrooms and carry a maximum 10-year sentence. The law will allow courts to impose a new risk of sexual harm order (RSHO) to curb the activities of those suspected of being a danger to children.

Content regulation

• CN - Microsoft helps China to censor bloggers  +/-

  (Guardian) Civil liberties groups have condemned an arrangement between Microsoft and Chinese authorities to censor the internet. The American company is helping censors remove 'freedom' and 'democracy' from the net in China with a software package that prevents bloggers from using these and other politically sensitive words on their websites. The restrictions are built into MSN Spaces, a blog service launched in China last month by Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology, a venture in which Microsoft holds a 50% stake.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• ES - Record labels close Spanish song site  +/-

  (CNET News.com) One of the oldest Web sites offering inexpensive music downloads has closed, after years of legal battles with record labels. Weblisten.com, which has operated in Spain since 1997, offered subscribers the ability to download an unlimited number of songs for about $40 a month. It also offered shorter, cheaper windows of time that lasted a week or a weekend.

• EU - IT groups win EU ruling on patents  +/-

  (FT) Big technology groups such as Nokia, Siemens and Philips scored a significant victory when a key European parliament committee rejected plans that would have curtailed their ability to win patents for their inventions. In a narrow and keenly awaited decision, the parliament's legal affairs committee threw out proposals for a sweeping overhaul of a controversial European Union proposal known as the software patents directive. Most importantly, they voted down the overwhelming majority of amendments that would have made it more difficult for companies to win patent protection for software-related inventions.

• UK - Mother faces music for girl's illegal downloads  +/-

  (Guardian) A teenager's penchant for the bands Coldplay and Oasis left her mother contemplating prison yesterday. Sylvia Price has received a demand for £4,000 in compensation by solicitors acting for the music industry after her daughter, Emily, was caught illegally downloading songs by her favourite artists. Mrs Price, a self-confessed computer illiterate, said: 'I don't know where I'm going to get the money from. I'll have to go to prison because I haven't got that kind of money.'

• UK - Software piracy 'seen as normal'  +/-

  (BBC) Campaigns to persuade people to stop downloading pirated games or software from the internet are not working, a report suggests. Two UK university researchers found that people did not see downloading copyrighted material as theft. The findings are unwelcome news for the games industry, which says it loses more than £2bn annually from piracy. The report of the government-funded study, called Fake Nation, is by Dr Jo Bryce of the University of Central Lancashire and Dr Jason Rutter of the University of Manchester.

Data Protection (privacy)

• EU - Access by vehicle registration authorities to Schengen Information System  +/-

  (RAPID) The Council has adopted a Regulation to give vehicle registration authorities access to the Schengen Information System (SIS). The Commission presented a proposal to this end on 21 August 2003, following Council Conclusions. The Regulation will contribute to better combating the theft of vehicles, by allowing public vehicles registration authorities to attain this information and to consult the SIS prior to re-registering a vehicle imported from another EU Member State. see also SIS II: Commission presents a set of proposals for enlarging the Schengen area to the new member states.

• UK - ID cards to cost £300 per person  +/-

  (Observer) The government's plans to introduce identity cards were dealt a body blow after it emerged the true cost of the scheme could top £18 billion, more than triple the official estimate. The figure has been calculated by experts at the London School of Economics, who have spent months producing one of the most authoritative analyses of the scheme. Text of the Identity Cards Bill UK Identity Cards and Social Exclusion (Privacy International).

Domain names

• ICANN - Stage set for '.xxx' Internet addresses  +/-

  (AP) The Internet's primary oversight body approved a plan to create a virtual red-light district, setting the stage for pornographic Web sites to use new addresses ending in 'xxx'. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said it would begin negotiations with ICM Registry Inc., run by British businessman Stuart Lawley, to iron out technical issues and prices for the new Web addresses.

• US - Not much to do in kids' online domain  +/-

  (Reuters) More than 1,700 .kids.us names were reserved after the domain was opened for registration in June 2003, but two years later only 21 Web sites are up and running.

• WIPO Recommends Uniform Mechanism to Regulate Domain Name Registrations  +/-

  (ITU) The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recommended the introduction of a uniform intellectual property (IP) protection mechanism designed to further curb unauthorized registration of domain names in all new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). This came in a report by WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center (WIPO Center) on the IP implications of introducing additional generic Top-Level Domains (new gTLDs). The report, New Generic Top-Level Domains: Intellectual Property Considerations, said that such a preventive mechanism would complement the curative relief provided by the existing Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

Electronic commerce

• EU - Commission seeks mandate to negotiate UN Convention on "e-contracting"  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has asked the Council for authorisation to open negotiations, on behalf of the EU, on a draft UN Convention aiming to make it easier to conclude international business to business contracts electronically. The negotiations will take place within the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Information society and Internet policy

• EU - Commission launches i2010 initiative  +/-

  (RAPID) The Commission has adopted the initiative i2010: European Information Society 2010 to foster growth and jobs in the information society and media industries. i2010 is a comprehensive strategy for modernising and deploying all EU policy instruments to encourage the development of the digital economy: regulatory instruments, research and partnerships with industry. The Commission will in particular promote high-speed and secure broadband networks offering rich and diverse content in Europe.

• EU - Commission outlines EU negotiation principles for WSIS  +/-

  (RAPID) Preparations for the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis (16-18 November 2005) have entered a crucial phase. This summit should reach an international consensus on two key unresolved issues from the first phase: Internet governance and financial mechanisms for bridging the digital divide between developed and developing countries. The European Commission has now adopted a communication outlining the EU?s priorities for the Tunis meeting. To promote an Information Society for all, respectful of human rights and of freedom of expression and cultural and linguistic diversity, the EU wishes to preserve and strengthen the sound foundations laid during the first summit in Geneva.

• OSCE - Guaranteeing media freedom on the internet  +/-

  (Reporters sans frontières) This declaration by Reporters Without Borders and the representative of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on Freedom of the Media aims to deal with the main issues facing countries seeking to regulate online activity. Should the Web be filtered ? Can online publications be forced to register with the authorities ? What should the responsibility of service providers (ISPs) be ? How far does a national jurisdiction extend ?

Interception

• EU - Commission to restrict data retention proposals  +/-

  (out-law.com) The European Commission is shortly to put forward proposals for EU data retention legislation that will limit the retention period to one year, Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding announced. Her remarks come a few days after an influential committee of the European Parliament recommended that the current proposals be rejected. MEPs are due to vote on the issue next week.

Junk mail (spam)

• Microsoft pushes spam-filtering technology  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Sometime around November, Hotmail and MSN will flag as potential spam those messages that do not have the tag to verify the sender. The move is meant to spur adoption of Sender ID. Sender ID is a specification for verifying the authenticity of e-mail by ensuring the validity of the server from which the e-mail came. Critics say Sender ID, which includes technology developed by Microsoft, is not an accepted standard and has many shortcomings.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• DE - Not guilty in hyperlink case  +/-

  (Heise) An appeals court has ruled that Stuttgart media designer Alvar Freude is not guilty of aiding and abetting in incitement to hatred and violence against minority groups. The judges ruled without reservation that Freude's reporting about the Nazi web sites, which caused the district government of Dusseldorf to file charges, constitutes documentation of historical events. In his online documentation, Freude had provided links to neo-Nazi web sites and the homepage of Tasteless, which the district government had incriminated.

• FR - Le juge des référés impose le blocage d'un site négationniste  +/- Translate

  (legalis.net) Dans son ordonnance de référé du 13 juin 2005, le vice-président du TGI de Paris a fait injonction à huit fournisseurs d'accès à l'internet (FAI) "de mettre en œuvre toutes mesures propres à interrompre l'accès à partir du territoire français au contenu du service de communication en ligne hébergé actuellement à l'adresse www.vho.org/aaargh" (un site négationniste). Ces professionnels doivent justifier des dispositifs mis en place, dans un délai très court de dix jours, mais sans astreinte, à compter du prononcé de la décision. Le juge s'est appuyé sur la nouvelle procédure prévue par l'article 6-I-8 de la LCEN, qui l'autorise à prescrire, en référé "toutes mesures propres à prévenir un dommage ou à faire cesser un dommage occasionné par le contenu d'un service de communication au public en ligne".

Market

• US - Paper's 'wikitorial' trial halted  +/-

  (BBC) The Los Angeles Times has temporarily ended its short-lived trial which gave readers the chance to edit its editorials on its website. The online version of the paper started its 'wikitorial' experiment last week. It was meant to give readers a 'voice'. It was suspended after it was bombarded with inappropriate material. But the paper said it might try the idea again.

Mobile and wireless

• UK - Warning over 'bullying by mobile'  +/-

  (BBC) One in five young people has been bullied by mobile phone or via the internet, a study suggests. Children's charity NCH surveyed 770 youngsters and found 14% of 11- to 19-year-olds had been threatened or harassed using text messages. see Putting U in the picture - Mobile bullying survey 2005. See also When 'digital bullying' goes too far (CNET News.com.

Protection of minors

• UK - Text ad banned over stranger danger  +/-

  (Guardian) An advert for a text dating service has been banned because of fears it could encourage teenagers to meet strangers. The poster advert for Textandmeet showed a cartoon-style illustration of a bikini-clad woman texting while three men watched her from a swimming pool. The advert encouraged people to 'Get Texting to Get Dating'. 'The advertisement implied that it was acceptable for young people to make dates with strangers,' the Advertising Standards Authority said.

• US - Complaints force Yahoo to shut down chat rooms  +/-

  (Associated Press) Reacting to angry protests from several of its top sponsors, Yahoo Ihas pulled the plug on perhaps hundreds of chat rooms operating on its site after a media report revealed that some of the rooms were used to promote sex with minors. Companies such as PepsiCo Inc., State Farm Insurance and Georgia-Pacific Corp. stopped advertising on Yahoo after they were informed that adults were attempting to lure children into sexual encounters within some of Yahoo's user-created chat rooms, according to a report by KPRC-TV in Houston.

Rating and filtering

• UK - Parents 'ignore game age ratings'  +/-

  (BBC) Parents tend to ignore warnings on games that say they are unsuitable for children, research shows. A study commissioned by the UK games industry found that parents let children play games for adults, even though they knew they were 18-rated.

Safer Internet awareness

• AU - Internet safety needs highlighted  +/-

  (ABA) NetAlert and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) have found that children are online younger and longer with the growth of broadband. Their 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.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• AU - New industry codes for child protection in online and mobile access  +/-

  (Internet Industry Association) The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has approved three Content Codes of Practice for the internet industry. Developed by the Internet Industry Association (IIA), the Codes will be binding on all ISPs, content hosts and mobile carriers in Australia and will be underpinned by law.

• DE - Studie: Suchmaschinen verstoßen gegen eigenen Verhaltenskodex  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Medienwissenschaftler sind bei einer Untersuchung der gängigen Internet-Suchmaschinen auf Verstöße gegen deren eigene Selbstverpflichtung gestoßen. So seien bei der Eingabe des Begriffs "Teenies" ausgerechnet beim Marktführer Google die ersten Treffer pornografische Websites gewesen, berichtete Professor Marcel Machill von der Universität Leipzig heute in Düsseldorf. Ansonsten erfülle Google aber die meisten Kriterien des Verhaltenskodex der "Freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Diensteanbieter" (FSM). Am schlechtesten schnitt bei der Untersuchung Lycos ab.

• UK - BBC unveils new ethics code  +/-

  (BBC) BBC staff are to be told that 'accuracy is more important than speed' in breaking news, as the corporation publishes the first major overhaul of its editorial guidelines since the publication of the Hutton report. The new guidelines mark the first time the BBC has made the commitment to accuracy explicit and are designed to reflect the 'changing media environment'.

Telecommunications

• FR - L'ART devient officiellement l'Arcep  +/- Translate

  (ZDNet France) Ce changement était programmé depuis le début de l'année: l'Autorité de régulation des télécoms (ART) s'appelle désormais Arcep, nouvel acronyme pour Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes. Un nom de baptème officiel depuis la promulgation au Journal officiel de la loi relative à la régulation des activités postales, intervenue le 21 mai. Ce texte donne de nouvelles prérogatives à l'Arcep: en plus de la régulation des télécoms, l'organisme devra gérer celle du secteur des postes, appelé à s'ouvrir à la concurrence d'ici à 2009.

Market & Technology

Statistics

• Broadband tips scales against print  +/-

  (Guardian) Broadband internet growth will propel the value of the worldwide entertainment and media industries to $1.8 trillion (£990bn) by 2009, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts, as print publishers cede ground to new media. Legal online distribution of games, videos and movies is also tipped to accelerate, countering the effect of piracy. Total spending from new revenue streams such as broadband and digital downloads will rocket from $11.4bn to $73bn over the next five years, according to PwC's report, Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2005-2009.

• EU - High-speed internet connections growing fast  +/-

  (RAPID) Take-up of high-speed broadband internet connections is growing fast. There are now 40 million broadband lines in the EU, an increase of 70% on last year. This represents 45 000 new broadband lines on average per day, up from 29 000 per day in 2003. Broadband access in the EU - Situation at 1 January 2005.

• Europe - TV & Radio lose out to Internet among youth audience  +/-

  (Press Release) 15-24 year olds across Europe are spending less time watching TV and listening to the radio as a result of using the Internet, according to research from the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), the pan-European trade organisation for sellers of interactive media. Almost half of 15-24 year olds (46%) are watching less TV, preferring instead to browse the web while 22% are listening to less radio. A third of those questioned are even reading less, choosing to consume information over the Internet.

Technology

• Microsoft works on own BitTorrent  +/-

  (BBC) Microsoft researchers in Cambridge, UK, are developing their own peer-to-peer file-sharing software. Codenamed Avalanche, the program makes it easy to share content by dividing files such as software, audio or video, into chunks, much like BitTorrent.

• New wrinkle in movie swapping  +/-

  (CNET News.com) A group of anonymous programmers has released a new software tool online that threatens to raise the stakes for Hollywood studios fighting Internet movie-swapping. Dubbed RatDVD, the new software crunches video from movies into small packages, while creating a single file that keeps intact DVD 'extras' - alternate endings, outtakes, director's commentary and the like. Because it retains all these extra features, allowing them to be burned back onto a DVD or browsed on a computer, the software is already being discussed in video-focused Net circles as a potential successor to the most popular formats used for trading movies online today.

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