Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• EU - TV without Frontiers: Commission proposes modernised rules for digital era TV and TV-like services  +/-

  (RAPID) A proposal to update the EU's 1989 "TV without Frontiers" Directive, to keep pace with rapid technological and market developments in Europe's audiovisual sector, was tabled by the European Commission. In line with the principle of better regulation, the proposal aims to reduce the regulatory burden on Europe's providers of TV and TV-like services and to give more flexibility for financing audiovisual content by new forms of advertising. The proposal will also create a level playing field for all companies that offer TV-like services, irrespective of the technology used to deliver them (e.g. broadcast, high-speed broadband, third generation mobiles). The Commission therefore proposes replacing disparate national rules on protection of minors, against incitement to racial hatred and against surreptitious advertising with a basic, EU-wide minimum standard of protection for audiovisual on demand services. the modernised TV without Frontiers Directive would govern TV and TV-like services. To open up the present EU rules to technological developments, the proposal distinguishes between "linear" services (e.g. scheduled broadcasting via traditional TV, the internet, or mobile phones, which "pushes" content to viewers), and "non-linear" ones, such as on-demand films or news, which the viewer "pulls" from a network. Today's TV broadcasting rules would apply to linear services in a modernised, more flexible form, whereas non-linear ones would be subject only to a basic set of minimum principles, e.g. to protect minors, prevent incitement to racial hatred and outlaw surreptitious advertising. The proposed modernisation of the TV without Frontiers Directive does not affect private correspondence, electronic versions of newspapers or magazines, web sites not primarily intended to provide audiovisual media content, mere audio transmissions or radio.

• Europe set to relax rules on TV product placement  +/-

  (out-law.com) The European Commission has set out its plans to update 1989's Television Without Frontiers Directive, extending the rules to all TV-like services and relaxing the rules of advertising to allow product placements. The main purpose of the shake-up is to reduce the regulatory burden on Europe's providers of TV and TV-like services and to allow them more flexibility in financing their productions. At present there are disparate national rules on the protection of minors, against incitement to racial hatred and against surreptitious advertising, and the Commission hopes to replace these with a basic, EU-wide minimum standard of protection for audiovisual on-demand services. see also Plan to ease media rules draws industry criticism (FT), EU's proposed ad rules back product placement (Guardian), EU's proposed ad rules back product placement (IHT).

Competition

• EU - Commission improves rules for access to the file in merger and antitrust procedures  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has revised its rules for access to the Commission's files by parties involved in its merger and antitrust cases in order to increase the transparency of competition procedures and underline the Commission's commitment to due process and parties' rights of defence. The revision takes the form of an update to the existing Notice on the rules of procedure for access to the Commission's competition file from 1997 (see IP/97/50), taking into account the revisions to the Merger Regulation (see IP/02/1856), the modernisation of antitrust enforcement (see IP/02/1739) and experience gained in applying the former rules. The revised Notice clarifies both the extent and the exercise of the right of access to the file. The revised Notice also increases procedural efficiency by confirming that access to the file can be granted either electronically or on paper.

Consumer protection

• BEUC in defence of consumer rights online  +/-

  (EurActiv) BEUC, the European consumers' organisation, has started a new campaign to combat overly restrictive digital rights management and terms of use with digital content. In an interview with EurActiv, the organisation's senior legal advisor explains the issue. 'We fear and we observe that consumer's rights, which they do have in other areas, are more and more restricted in the digital environment', says Cornelia Kutterer, naming digital rights management (DRM) technologies and usage restrictions for content bought as well on CDs as downloaded from online services as examples. She comments on the launch of Consumer's Digital Rights, BEUC's campaign to protect consumer rights on the internet.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• EU - Intellectual property: evaluation of EU rules on databases  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has published an evaluation of the protection EU law gives to databases. EU law protects databases by copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Other databases may benefit from a new form of protection introduced by the 1996 Database Directive, known as the 'sui generis' database right. Stakeholders are invited to comment on the evaluation by 12 March 2006.

• FR - Peer-to peer : deux rapports contradictoires  +/-

  (Droit et Nouvelles Technologies) par Thibault Verbiest. A la veille du débat parlementaire sur le projet de loi « droit d'auteur dans la société de l'information » (qui débutera, sous le bénéfice de l´urgence, le 20 décembre prochain), les différents protagonistes du débat houleux – voire passionnel – du peer-to-peer fourbissent leurs armes. En effet , deux rapports viennent d´être publiés – simultanément – qui préconisent des solutions diamétralement opposées. D´un côté, le Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique (CSPLA), chargé de conseiller le ministre de la culture et de la communication, publie synthèse des travaux commencés un an auparavant. En porte à faux avec la dernière jurisprudence en la matière, le CSPLA se déclare hostile à l´exception de copie privée appliquée au téléchargement d´œuvres (« downloading »). Afin de contrecarrer les conclusions du CSPLA, un rapport favorable à une « légalisation » du peer-to-peer a été rendu public le même jour. Ce rapport émane de l' »Alliance Public-Artistes », qui réunit plus de 15 organismes représentant, entre autres, les intérêts des musiciens, comédiens, producteurs indépendants et des consommateurs.

Data Protection (privacy)

• EU - MEPs approve Data Retention Directive  +/-

  (out-law.com) The European Parliament approved a draft Directive on data retention that will see ISPs and telcos retain phone and internet records for up to two years for use in investigation of criminal and terrorist offences. Backroom talks ensued and MEPs voted to adopt the Directive with 378 votes in favour, 197 against and 30 abstentions. The Directive sets out an EU-wide system of retaining communications data - data that identifies the caller, the time and the means of communication (e.g. subscriber details, billing data, e-mail logs, personal details of customers and records showing the location where mobile phone calls were made). It does not allow for the retention of the content of the communications, but will retain details of connected, but unanswered calls. The inclusion of these so-called "los" calls is controversial, and had been one of the sticking points between MEPs and Ministers. MEPs were concerned that telcos do not currently register such calls, because no bills are issued in respect of them, and it would be expensive for these firms to adapt their systems. The data will be retained for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 24, and will be made available to the police and judiciary in order to investigate terrorism and serious crime. The data retained will only be disclosed in specific cases and will be subject to strict data protection rules. Any abuse of the data will be subject to sanctions. see also Ireland to contest data retention law at EU Court (EUobserver.com).

Digital content

• Social-Bookmarking: A Delicious New Web Idea - Forbes.com  +/-

  (Forbes.com) Yahoo!'s acquisition of social-bookmarking site Del.icio.us is a sign that large portal companies are catching on to the fact that users don't mind a little help deciding what to read. Social bookmarking and social content sites rely on the opinions of users to determine what Web sites are most worth reading. Del.icio.us allows users to 'tag' their favorite Web content and share those tags with others. And Del.icio.us is not alone; a host of other social-networking sites are stepping up to take on the challenge.

• Wikipedia's open-source label conundrum  +/-

  (CNET News.com) The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is often referred to as an 'open-source' project because it is written, edited and policed by a global group of volunteers. However, the open-source label doesn't really fit Wikipedia. 'Free-for-all,' in fact, may be a better match. see also Wikipedia prankster confesses (Seattle Times) and Wikipedia bans anonymous contributors to prevent libel (Guardian).

Human Rights

• RU - After European pressure, Putin announces softer NGO law  +/-

  (Euractiv) After concerns expressed by the Council of Europe and European NGOs, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a controversial bill on nongovernmental organisations to be 'thorougly revised'.

Information society and Internet policy

• So what happened at WSIS?  +/-

  (Singapore Internet Research Centre) by Peng Hwa Ang. So what happened at the WSIS? Did the USA "win", as the US media seemed to have portrayed? I'll let you draw your own conclusions at the end of this.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• DE - Juristische Niederlage für Strafanzeigen-Maschinerie gegen P2P-Nutzer  +/-

  (heise online) Der Schweizer Dienstleister Logistep darf Internetprovider im Kampf gegen Urheberrechtsverstößen durch Tauschbörsen-Nutzer nicht mehr massenhaft zur Speicherung von Verbindungsdaten anhalten. Dies geht aus einem Urteil des Landgerichts Flensburg hervor, das sich auf die Haftungsregeln im Teledienstegesetz (TDG) beruft. Der erste juristische Erfolg gegen die Strafanzeigen-Automatik könnte sich aber schon bald als Pyrrhus-Sieg erweisen. Zum einen hat das EU-Parlament gerade eine heftig umstrittene Richtlinie abgesegnet, mit der Telekommunikationsanbieter verpflichtet werden, Verbindungs- und Standortdaten für einen Zeitraum zwischen mindestens sechs und 24 Monaten vorzuhalten und Sicherheitsbehörden zugänglich zu machen. Es ist zwar noch nicht heraus, ob die Ermittler auch bei der Verfolgung von Verstößen gegen das geistige Eigentumsrecht in den gigantischen Datenbergen schürfen dürfen. Doch zum anderen hat Bundesjustizministerin Brigitte Zypries gerade einen Gesetzesentwurf vorgestellt, wonach Verwerter bei einem "gewichtigen Eingriff" in ihre Rechte Auskunftsansprüche gegen Provider geltend machen können. Die künftig zu speichernden IP-Adressen und die dahinter steckenden Identitäten dürften daher von der Unterhaltungsindustrie rege nachgefragt werden.

Mobile and wireless

• FR - L'Arcep dénonce les tarifs du "roaming" pour les communications mobiles  +/-

  (ZDNet France) Le régulateur des télécoms français va solliciter Bruxelles pour encadrer les tarifs d´itinérance du téléphone mobile. Il estime que les alliances entre opérateurs européens empêchent toute pratique concurrentielle, susceptible de faire baisser les prix. Le régulateur français des télécoms, l'Arcep (Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes), a entrepris de s'attaquer à l'épineux dossier du roaming, qui concerne les appels passés depuis l'étranger vers la France et inversement. Passant d'un réseau à un autre, les communications sont acheminées par les différents opérateurs mobiles. Des prestations dites d'«itinérance» qu'ils se facturent entre eux au prix de gros, puis répercutent jusqu'au consommateur.

• US - Cellphone technology rings in pornography in USA  +/-

  (USA TODAY) Quickly developing into big business overseas, cellphone pornography is a step closer to taking off in the USA. Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest cellphone service provider, quietly has launched filtering devices and password-enabled blockers that help thwart underage consumers from buying adult content. The absence of V-chip-style parental controls largely has kept U.S. consumers from using cellphones to access porn, but Cingular, along with rivals, could launch a huge new porn platform.

Protection of minors

• AU - Parents and Teens Poles Apart Regarding Online Safety  +/-

  (NetAlert) New research from ninemsn and NetAlert reveals a huge disconnect between parents and their teenage children over online behaviour. The research highlighted three big issues facing parents and their teenage children regarding Internet use: 1) Online social networking - with teens communicating online, what's the potential to turn online communication into real-life meetings? 2) Illegal content downloads - in a growing trend, teens are routinely downloading content without parental knowledge or approval. 3) Parental supervision of online behaviour - or the lack of it.

• iPod porn  +/-

  (Stephen Balkam) In preparation for the Roundtable that my organization, ICRA, is hosting in London, I went down to Circuit City and bought the new video-enabled iPod. With my ICRA hat firmly on, I went off in search of iPod porn. This was not at all difficult as Google dutifully rewarded me with a plethora of choices within 1.4 seconds. In the past 30 years, hard core porn has moved from the smutty downtown book store, to the VCR, to the desktop and now to compelling mobile devices such as the iPod, cell phones and PDAs. The pornification of society is upon us and our efforts to protect our kids from this is far from perfect. It is going to take an almighty effort from governments, industry and parental groups to ensure that very young kids are shielded from this. All sectors of society will need to play a part in keeping our kids safe unless we want to hide behind crude government censorship which only tends to make the content more desirable.

Racism and xenophobia

• AU - Bigots storm racist websites  +/-

  (Australian IT) Racist online forums have been inundated with postings by Australian white supremacists since the Cronulla race riots. The Australian forum on Stormfront - a white nationalist site offering advice to activists and dating advice for white singles - is a marginal website that frequently records fewer than 10 Australian members or guests at any one time. But a discussion board titled 'Do you think Cronulla is the start of the true fight for White Australia?' had attracted many responses, with some members calling for action.

Security and encryption

• UK - eBay faces up to online fraud  +/-

  (BBC) The online auctioneer eBay has admitted an 'extreme growth' in the number of personal accounts being hijacked by fraudsters. Criminals are obtaining the secret passwords of eBay subscribers and using their sites to conduct bogus auctions for non-existent goods. The hijacking of sellers' accounts is a particularly sensitive issue for the auction site, which relies to a large degree on the level of trust between the buyer and seller of goods for its success. There are more than three million items for sale on the site at any one time. eBay blames its account holders for not installing proper security on their home computers and for replying to so-called "phishing" emails. These are fake emails made to look like official eBay messages and which demand the secret passwords to users accounts. Viruses are also said to be infecting home computers by installing themselves inside hard drives, where they monitor the keystrokes of eBay users, make a record of passwords before sending them onto the fraudsters.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• UK - ATVOD: The Association for Television On-Demand  +/-

  (ATVOD) The Association for Television On-Demand (ATVOD) is a self-regulatory body committed to protecting consumers of on-demand audiovisual content services provided by its members. Such content may be delivered via a platform which allows the user to select content and view it at any time. Its members have put in place and maintain adequate means of protecting children and other customers from material that may be inappropriate for them. See Code of Practice and Practice Statements.

Standards

• EU - Commission welcomes changes in ETSI IPR rules to prevent 'patent ambush'  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has closed its investigation of the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute (ETSI) following ETSI's recent change to its standard-setting rules. This change strengthens the requirement for early disclosure of those intellectual property rights (IPRs) which are essential for the implementation of a standard in order to minimise the risk of so-called 'patent ambush' (where a company hides the fact that it owns IPRs essential for a standard).

Telecommunications

• EU - Telecoms: Commission opens new round of infringement proceedings  +/-

  (RAPID) In a further round of infringement proceedings concerning the EU?s telecom rules, the European Commission has decided to take Sweden and Poland to the European Court of Justice for failing to implement EU rules on electronic communications. In 12 cases from the previous infringement rounds, the Commission has sent reasoned opinions (step two in the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty) to the Czech Republic (2), France, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Poland (2), Slovakia, Germany, Finland and the UK. In addition, the Commission has sent letters of formal notice (step one in the infringement procedure ? failure of a Member State to fulfill an obligation) to the UK, Portugal, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. At the same time, the European Commission is closing 9 cases from previous infringement rounds, as the Member States concerned have meanwhile ensured effective implementation of the EU framework for electronic communications. see also Infringement proceedings in the field of electronic communications: What are the issues at stake?

Market & Technology

Digital content

• FR - L'INA et la BNF prêts pour archiver l'internet  +/-

  (ZDNet France) La Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) et l'Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA), déjà chargés de constituer la mémoire nationale classique, se verront confier la nouvelle mission de la mise en place d'un dépôt légal pour les sites internet français. Le texte leur laissera trois ans pour installer progressivement leurs solutions. Les deux organismes n'ont pas attendu que le calendrier législatif soit défini pour commencer à travailler sur le sujet. En accord avec les pouvoirs publics, ils ont convenu de se partager la tâche, comme ils le font actuellement pour le dépôt légal classique.

• US - A juggernaut called MySpace.com  +/-

  (Philadelphia Inquirer) From a small base of musicians creating pages to showcase their bands, MySpace.com rapidly morphed into the dominant force in online social networking. By offering users the capability to build highly personalized, techno-charged pages, it overtook its competitors - reportedly without a penny spent on promotion. MySpace has 41 million registered users and ranks 19th on the list of most-visited Internet sites. That makes MySpace the prime gateway to marketing's dream demographic: 14- to 30-year-olds. see also Rivals try to sing along with MySpace (CNET News.com).

Technology

• E-Stonia Becomes Unlikely High-Tech Hub  +/-

  (Associated Press) Estonia, a nation of 1.4 million people that just a decade ago was among Europe's poorest, is undergoing a technological revolution that has changed the way its residents do business and produced technology companies that are grabbing the world's attention.

Useful addresses

• The Internet of Things  +/-

  (ITU) The internet as we know it is set to transform radically, according to a new ITU Internet Report entitled The Internet of Things, specially prepared to coincide with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in November 2005. According to ITU's report, we are standing on the brink of a new ubiquitous computing and communication era, one that will radically transform the Internet, and with it, our corporate, community, and personal spheres. The new ITU report looks at key enabling technologies for ubiquity (e.g. RFID, sensors and sensor networks, telematics, robotics, nanotechnology) and how they might impact the future human and technological landscape.

• US - For bloggers of all ages: New resource!  +/-

  (Net Family News) It's simple, in name and mission: BlogSafety.com. Created by Larry Magid of SafeKids.com with help from NetFamilyNews, BlogSafety offers advice on safe blogging for teens and their parents, teachers, and other caregivers.

QuickLinks consists of

• a free newsletter appearing approximately once a week. The newsletter is distributed by electronic mail through an "announcement only" mailing list.
• a Web site with frequent updates, an events page, news items organised by category as well as chronologically by issue and full text search.