Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• EU - Public Consultation on the Revision of the TVWF Directive  +/-

  (Europa) The Commission will propose by end 2005 a revision of the Television without frontiers directive to modernise the rules on audiovisual media services. The following issues papers summarise various inputs concerning the future legislative framework for audiovisual content services. They are subject to public consultation during summer 2005 in preparation of a major audiovisual conference co-organised by the European Commission and the UK Presidency in September 2005. They address the following topics: 1. Rules applicable to Audiovisual Content Services 2. Rights to Information and Short Extracts 3. Cultural Diversity and Promotion of European and Independent Audiovisual Production 4. Commercial Communications 5. Protection of Minors and Human Dignity, Right of Reply. A sixth issues paper deals with the question of media pluralism. Observations on these issues papers by 5 September 2005.

• EU - Television With or Without Frontiers?  +/-

  (OfcomWatch) Post about a Westminster Media Forum seminar concerning the revision of the Television Without Frontiers directive. See also a speech by Ed Richards, Ofcom Senior Partner Strategy & Market Developments, Trends in Television, Radio and Telecoms and Roger Darlington's posts about this speech and the De Sarnez report on the protection of minors and human dignity and the right of reply by the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education. See also EU - Brussels spouts (Guardian);

Content regulation

• US - Rating change for 'GTA: San Andreas' could signal start of crackdown  +/-

  (AP) The video game industry's decision to give an adults-only rating to the best-selling "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" because of explicit sexual content could signal the start of a crackdown on raunchy games. see also US - Content rating systems

• US - The media industry and indecency - Scrubbing the airwaves  +/-

  (Economist) America's media firms are struggling to contain Congress's anger about indecency.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• EU - Commission proposes European criminal-law provisions to combat IPR infringements  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has adopted proposals for a directive and for a framework decision to combat infringements of intellectual property rights. The purpose of the proposed measures is to align national criminal law and improve European cooperation so as to deal effectively with counterfeiting and piracy activities, which are often carried out by criminal organisations. Proposal for a directive and framework decision COM(2005)276

• UK - William Hill wins horseracing database appeal  +/-

  (out-law) Bookmaker William Hill has won its appeal against a High Court ruling that said its online publication of lists of runners infringed the British Horseracing Board?s database rights. Applying a European Court judgment, it confirms that database rights are narrow.

• US - Web Could Unclog Patent Backlog  +/-

  (Wired) In a bid to shake up the beleaguered American patent system, a law professor has crafted a proposal that would shift the patent-application process away from individual examiners to an internet-based, peer-review method. Called Peer to Patent, the proposal by Beth Noveck, director of New York Law School's Institute for Information Law and Policy, aims to relieve the current system, in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a backlog of half a million cases. Noveck's plan would turn the review process over to tens or hundreds of thousands of experts in various fields who would collectively decide an application's fate via a massive rating system not unlike that of eBay. Under the plan, inventors who submit their work for peer review would be eligible for a 20-year patent. Inventors could also choose to use the existing system. However, in that case, patents would be granted for five years

Data Protection (privacy)

• EU - Commission proposal on data retention  +/-

  (EDRI) The European Commission has finally produced its draft directive on data retention.EDRI has received a copy of the Interservice Consultation, which is circulated amongst Commission officials from several Directorate Generals. The final, possibly amended version is expected to be published some time in August 2005, before the informal JHA Council. According to the Commission, all fixed and mobile telephony traffic and location data from all private and legal persons should be stored for 1 year. Data about communications 'using solely the internet protocol' should be stored for 6 months.

• EU - Data retention may get support, but not 'blind obedience'  +/-

  (out-law) Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke told MEPs that security must take priority in the fight against terrorism in Europe, despite the concern of many MEPs that his plans for data retention laws could undermine citizens' rights. Addressing the Civil Liberties Committee six days after the London bombings that killed at least 48 people, Mr Clarke gave support to moves to speed up draft EU legislation. It would oblige the retention of communications data from phone calls and emails to help fight terrorism, a plan rejected by MEPs in June when they sent the proposal back to the parliamentary committee for further debate.

• EU - Public access to documents and data protection  +/-

  (EDPS) A Background Paper by the European Data Protection Supervisor. Summary.

Information society and Internet policy

• WSIS - UN at odds over internet's future  +/-

  (BBC) The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) charged with deciding how the net should be run has failed to reach a decision. The group's report suggests four possible futures for net governance that range from no change to complete overhaul. The proposals will go forward to a key UN net and society conference due to take place in November. The report comes as the US says it plans to keep its role as overseer of the net's core administrative body. see also Background report .

Junk mail (spam)

• AU - Regulator wins AU spam injunction  +/-

  (Australian IT) Australia's broadcasting and telecommunications watchdog has won its first injunction against an alleged spammer under anti-spam laws introduced early last year. The Federal Court in Perth granted Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) an interim injunctions against Clarity 1 and its managing director Wayne Mansfield.

• UK - Regulator wants powers to stop the spammers  +/-

  (out-law) The Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO), enforcer of the UK's main anti-spam laws, has received around 600 spam complaints in the past 12 months. But it has taken no legal action, in part because its powers are inadequate and impractical.

• US - FTC cracks down on porn spam  +/-

  (Reuters) Five companies have agreed to pay $1.16 million in fines to settle charges of sending spam without a warning that it contains sexually explicit material. Three other businesses also face lawsuits for allegedly sending improperly labeled e-mail, the Federal Trade Commission said.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• UK - Parliament to discuss child porn regulations  +/-

  (ZDNet UK) A Labour MP has proposed a bill to force ISPs to declare whether they have taken steps to prevent access to paedophilic Web sites. Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton South, has introduced the bill under the 'Ten Minute Rule', which allows a brief discussion on the issue, but is unlikely to lead to an immediate change in the law.

Rating and filtering

• DK - Denmark to get child porn filter  +/-

  (DR Nyheder) Danish police and Internet suppliers are planning to introduce a national child porn filter. The filter will make it harder for Danish paedophiliacs to access child porn on the Internet. It will block access to most child porn sites while at the same time informing people who try to enter these sites that they are breaking the law.

• ICRA Unveils New System To Make Internet Safer  +/-

  (Press Release) ICRA (the Internet Content Rating Association) has unveiled a new labelling system, based on the RDF (Resource Description Framework) standard, making the process of labelling across large complex websites far simpler in order to encourage many more major online brands to label their sites and thereby make the Internet considerably safer for children.

• NZ internet industry tests porn filter  +/-

  (Sydney Morning Herald) Internet industry groups in New Zealand are teaming up with the Government to test a system to filter out online child pornography. The Internal Affairs Department will test the British CleanFeed system, which was developed by Britain's Internet Watch Foundation and blocks access to sites that have been blacklisted for hosting such material, an industry group that monitors child porn online. The CleanFeed list of banned sites is updated through Web monitoring and public complaints.

• US - Content rating systems  +/-

  (USA Today) Summary of US content rating systems for video games, films, television and music.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• UK - Home delivery is the deal-breaker in e-commerce  +/-

  (out-law) The biggest challenge to e-commerce is delivery, according to Britain's e-commerce trade body, which is launching a new trust mark scheme to encourage merchants and transporters to give consumers more options. The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) says very few e-tailers are getting it right. The consumers don't buy because they don't know when goods will arrive; and the merchants don't offer flexible delivery times because the transporters charge more for these services than consumers will pay.

Telecommunications

• EU - Commission warns on cost of roaming  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission is warning consumers about the high cost of using their mobile phones while abroad. Known as "international roaming charges", these prices have been for some time already a concern both to the Commission and national regulators. The Commission is not satisfied that the prices to be paid by consumers already reflect the result of effective competition. The Commission therefore will take measures to enhance the transparency of international mobile roaming charges to allow consumers the choice of the best offer. The Commission will start publishing, from autumn 2005 onwards, a special website listing samples of international roaming retail tariffs of operators in the 25 EU Member States.

Terrorism

• UK - Fake Tube safety e-mail spreads  +/-

  (BBC) London Transport and mobile firms are warning people about an e-mail spreading rapidly containing inaccurate safety information. The message claims that passengers on the London Tube system can contact emergency services via a satellite signal from their mobiles underground. Mobiles do not work in the London Underground, and satellite signals cannot reach there either.

Market & Technology

Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology

• Telecoms, television and the internet - The war of the wires  +/-

  (Economist) Established telecoms companies are fighting an increasingly bitter battle against innovative attackers. They plan to deliver TV, movies and other entertainment to customers via hugely enhanced broadband connections using internet protocol?a service known in short as IPTV. IPTV forms part of a larger, and quite desperate, defensive strategy now being adopted by telecoms firms against fierce attacks on multiple fronts. On one front are cable giants, which are luring customers with a bundle of TV, broadband and telephony services. On a second front are mobile-phone operators, which young customers in particular are increasingly using to "cut the cord" from their fixed-line company. But arguably most dangerous of all is the third front, where traditional telecoms firms are under attack from voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) providers, which use the internet to carry conversations that would previously have taken place via a conventional phone.

Electronic commerce

• Happy e-birthdays  +/-

  (Economist) After ten years, what has been learnt about succeeding as an e-business?

Mobile and wireless

• FI - Mobile phone becomes 'state ID' for Finns  +/-

  (OfcomWatch) In an initiative led by the Finnish Population Register (VRK), a department of the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, SmartTrust is helping mobile users in Finland to securely identify themselves and sign for goods and services across a range of public and private sector providers using just their mobile phone.

• Mobile - The bigger picture  +/-

  (Guardian) Mobile operators and manufacturers are defying detractors by pushing ahead with plans to make mobile TV the view of the future.

• Mobile phones and development  +/-

  (Economist) Mobile phones have become indispensable in the rich world. But they are even more useful in the developing world, where the availability of other forms of communication - roads, postal systems or fixed-line phones - is often limited. A recent study by London Business School found that, in a typical developing country, a rise of ten mobile phones per 100 people boosts GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points.

Statistics

• Boom in legal music downloads  +/-

  (Guardian) Legal music downloads have tripled in the past year, an international record industry lobby group said, citing the figures as further proof it is winning the war against piracy. IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents 1,450 record companies in 75 countries, said there were more legal downloads in the US, Britain, Germany and France in the first half of 2005 than in the whole of 2004. IFPI Press Release.

• UK - Online file sharers 'buy more music'  +/-

  (Guardian) Computer-literate music fans who illegally share tracks over the internet also spend four and a half times as much on digital music as those who do not, according to research conducted by the music research firm The Leading Question.

• UK prefers broadband to dial-up  +/-

  (BBC) Broadband has officially overtaken dial-up as the most popular way for Britons to connect to the internet, government statistics show According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), broadband overtook dial-up in May, making up 50.7% of all net connections.

• US - Teens spurn e-mail for messaging  +/-

  (BBC) US teenagers prefer instant messaging rather than e-mail to stay in touch with each other, research shows. A Pew Internet and American Life Project study found online teens are increasingly tech-savvy. Nearly nine out of 10 teenagers say they use the net, up from 74 percent in 2000, according to the Pew study. While e-mail is seen as a tool for communicating with adults, instant messaging was proving the most popular way to chat with friends. Press release.

Technology

• Podcasting - Fiddly no longer  +/-

  (Economist) Podcasts are audio files that professionals and amateurs alike create and publish on a website, for downloading by anyone who wants to listen. Apple, which dominates the online-music business, has now integrated the requisite software into the latest release of iTunes, the jukebox software that accompanies the iPod. Finding and subscribing to podcasts, once a fiddly business, is now simple.

Forthcoming events

• 2005-09-12 CoE, Strasbourg - Human Rights in the Information Society: Responsible Behaviour by Key Actors  +/-

  (CoE) Palais de l'Europe, Strasbourg (France) 12 and 13 (morning) September 2005. Building an inclusive Information Society, based on respect for human rights, requires new forms of solidarity, partnership and cooperation among governments, civil society, the private sector and international organisations. Through open discussions and exchanges of information worldwide, a multi-stakeholder governance approach will help shape agendas and devise new regulatory and non-regulatory models which will account for challenges and problems arising from the rapid development of the Information Society. Interested persons who will actively contribute to the debates and results of the Forum should apply to the Media Division of the Council of Europe enclosing a curriculum vitae and a letter of motivation explaining their interests and credentials. The deadline for applications is 16 August 2005.

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