Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• BE - La "délocalisation" de RTL-TVI au Luxembourg agite la classe politique belge  +/-

  (Le Monde) La chaîne commerciale francophone belge RTL-TVI, filiale à 66 % du groupe CLT-UFA détenu par Bertelsmann et RTL Group, a décidé d'utiliser, à partir du 1er janvier 2006, la licence d'émission qu'elle détient au Luxembourg. Elle n'a donc pas sollicité le renouvellement de celle qu'elle possédait en Belgique. Ce faisant, RTL-TVI se place, comme les chaînes néerlandaises du groupe, sous la tutelle de l'Etat luxembourgeois et se dégage de celle de la Communauté française de Belgique, l'instance politique qui réunit la Wallonie et Bruxelles. Il s'agit d'un "habillage juridique" d'une délocalisation, a accusé en décembre Evelyne Lentzen, la présidente du Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel belge (CSA) qui a ouvert une procédure d'infraction pour absence d'autorisation à l'encontre de RTL-TVI. Philippe Delusinne, son administrateur délégué, rejette catégoriquement ces accusations relayées par la classe politique wallonne.

• EU - UK alone on TWF Directive  +/-

  (CommsWatch) The Foreign Policy Centre organised a seminar on the subject of the revision of the European Television Without Frontiers Directive. The keynote address was given by the DCMS Minister for Creative Industries, James Purnell. He expressed 'serious concerns' about the proposed extension of the Directive to all audio-visual material and claimed that the proposals would mean 'a significant regulation of the Internet'. Other speakers covered the definitional problem of the proposed Directive with the distinction between linear and non-linear services being at best porous and at worst unenforceable. However, it was conceded that the UK position is currently an isolated one and it was generally agreed that much more needs to be done to explain to our European partners how self-regulatory processes and practices could deliver what the Commission is seeking to achieve.

• UK - Minister opposes EU plan to regulate internet  +/-

  (Times) Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, said day that a European Union plan to introduce internet regulation was unwelcome, arguing that new media were best left to govern themselves. The Minister, speaking at the Oxford Media Convention, also came close to warning Ofcom, the communications regulator, about the consequences of introducing product placement in television programmes- but changed her mind in a late redraft of her address.

• UK battles against Web TV regulation  +/-

  (ZDNet UK) The UK government is fighting an attempt by the European Commission to change the way television is regulated in Europe, amid fears that this could lead to the regulation of Internet content. James Purnell, the broadcasting minister, plans to lobby a number of European countries against proposed changes to the Television Without Frontiers directive.

Competition

• Commission publishes discussion paper on abuse of dominance  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has published a Staff Discussion Paper on the application of EC Treaty competition rules on the abuse of a dominant market position (Article 82). The Discussion Paper is designed to promote a debate as to how EU markets are best protected from dominant companies' exclusionary conduct, conduct which risks weakening competition on a market. The paper suggests a framework for the continued rigorous enforcement of Article 82, building on the economic analysis carried out in recent cases, and setting out one possible methodology for the assessment of some of the most common abusive practices, such as tying, and rebates and discounts. Other forms of abuse, such as discriminatory and exploitative conduct, will be the subject of further work by the Commission in 2006. The Commission is inviting comments on the discussion paper by 31 March 2006.

• EU - Commission clears acquisition of O2 by Telefónica, subject to conditions  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of UK telecommunications company O2 by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica. The Commission was concerned that the acquisition would result in distortions of competition in the market for international roaming services, in particular in the UK. In order to remove the Commission?s concerns, Telefónica has undertaken to leave the FreeMove alliance. In light of this commitment, the Commission has concluded that the transaction will not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any part of it.

Computer crime

• UK - Denial of Service to be criminalised  +/-

  (out-law.com) Launching a Denial of Service attack in the UK is set to become a new offence. The Government included updates to the country's main cybercrime law, with new offences and stiffer penalties in its Police and Justice Bill. The Computer Misuse Act is now 15 years old and legal experts have long questioned whether it adequately outlaws Denial of Service attacks. This is an attack in which a web or email server is deliberately flooded with information to the point of collapse. A court cleared a teenager last November on charges of sending five million emails to his former employer, because the judge decided that no offence had been committed under the Act.

Content regulation

• CN - Google move 'black day' for China  +/-

  (BBC) Google's launch of a new, self-censored search engine in China is a 'black day' for freedom of expression, a leading international media watchdog says. Reporters Without Borders joined others in asking how Google could stand up for US users' freedoms while controlling what Chinese users can search for.

• How to Outwit the World's Internet Censors  +/-

  (New York Times) The OpenNet Initiative, an international human rights project linking researchers from the University of Toronto, Harvard Law School and Cambridge University, tracks Internet censorship and the techniques used to evade it. To surf the Web in China and elsewhere without censorship and in marginal safety, said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor and a member of the initiative, the primary tool is an old standby: the proxy server.

• IR - Iran blocks BBC Persian website  +/-

  ((BBC) The Iranian authorities have started to block the BBC's Persian language internet site, for the first time. The BBC says the level of traffic to the site from within Iran has dropped sharply over the last three days. No official explanation has been given. The BBC has expressed concern at the action, saying it deprives many Iranians of a trusted source of news.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• Music lovers caught in DRM battle  +/-

  (BBC) Dan Simmons reports on whether our newly found freedom to buy almost any song using the internet is being unduly fettered by the digital music police.

• UK - Fears raised over digital rights  +/-

  (BBC) A UK consumer watchdog has called for new laws to protect users' rights to use digital music and movies. The National Consumer Council (NCC) said anti-piracy efforts were eroding established rights to digital media. The NCC had little faith that industry self-regulation would adequately protect consumers' rights. It made its comments to a parliamentary inquiry into technologies that limit what people can do with CDs, DVDs and downloaded media.

• UK - Record labels win landmark filesharing case  +/-

  (Press Association) The record industry has won a landmark court case resulting in bills of thousands of pounds for individuals caught illegally swapping music on the internet. Five individuals have been accused of, between them, making 8,906 songs available to millions of people around the globe.

• UK court to unmask 'file-sharers'  +/-

  (BBC) Ten internet service providers have been ordered to hand over the details of 150 UK customers accused of illegally sharing software. The High Court order follows a 12-month covert investigation by the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast). Among the internet providers are BT, NTL, Telewest and Tiscali. Over the next two weeks, they are expected to provide the names, addresses and other personal details of the alleged file-sharers.

Data Protection (privacy)

• EU privacy chief wants tweaks to anti-terror database plan  +/-

  (out-law.com) The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has welcomed the inclusion of data protection requirements in EU proposals to improve access to a forthcoming EU-wide database known as VIS. He also suggested possible improvements. The VIS, also known as the Visa Information System, is intended to be a system for the exchange of visa data between Member States and is primarily an instrument to support the common visa policy. It will also facilitate checks at the external borders and within the Member States, assisting the exchange of data between Member States on applications and on the decisions in respect of those applications.

• UK - Lords defeat for ID cards scheme  +/-

  (BBC) The government has been defeated in the Lords as peers said its controversial ID cards scheme could not go ahead until its full costs were revealed. Ministers say it will cost £584m a year to issue cards but say revealing costings for the full scheme could make it harder to get a good value deal. Peers voted by 237 votes to 156 to block the scheme until the National Audit Office and MPs vet the figures. The government is likely to try to overturn the defeat in the Commons.

• US - Google refuses White House search request  +/-

  (Guardian) Google is resisting a White House subpoena to hand over the records of the searches internet users are asking it to perform, it has emerged. The White House argues that a list of all requests entered into its search engine over a single week - which could span tens of millions of queries - will help it build up a profile of internet use it needs to defend an online pornography law. It also wants a million randomly selected addresses from the index of websites that Google searches. The papers said Google's search record 'would assist the government in its efforts to understand the behavior of current web users [and] to estimate how often web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches'.

Digital content

• EU - Reding urges 'change in mentality'  +/-

  (RAPID) In a speech in Munich, Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding has called for reforms and optimism, for better rewards for innovation, faster networks and more high-quality content. Commissioner Reding said the most important step to take for Europeans if they want to catch up with globalisation was a 'change in mentality', which included being more positive about other EU countries and also about the state of the European economy. The three core challenges for Europe's ICT and media industry: Ensure that European innovations - such as the World Wide Web, mp3 and Linux - are rewarded in Europe and not mainly abroad; Further enhance high-speed networks based, for instance, on fibre-optics, to provide high-quality 'always-on' services; Create an EU-wide Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime with uniform rules and a single licence for all of the EU, in order to encourage the creation of more online content. A Triple Play for Europe, Digital Lifestyle Day 2006, Munich, 23 January 2006 by Viviane Reding. Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media.

• UN - Understanding Knowledge Societies  +/-

  (ITU) This UN study on the construction of knowledge societies puts forward 'the idea that if societies desire to follow the path of knowledge-based growth and development, a very thorough reconstruction of their institutions must occur. It suggests to political leaders, public administrations and the public at large that a broad, well-informed debate about this institutional shift should be undertaken.

Domain names

• AU - Nominet wins damages in data mining dispute  +/-

  (Outlaw.com) Nominet UK, the national registry for all .uk domain names, has been awarded AUD $1.3 million (£550,000) in damages following a data mining scam that led to thousands of Nominet registrants receiving misleading domain name notices. The case dates back to January 2003, when Nominet discovered that its WHOIS database - which lists domain names and their owners - had been subjected to unauthorised data mining. The details of registrants were 'scraped' from Nominet's database and 50,000 registrants received misleading notices from an outfit calling itself UK Internet Registry.

• ICANN - Deal places limits on .com fees  +/-

  (BBC) The body which oversees the internet has put forward a revised deal to settle a long-running dispute over the crucial .com domain name. The tentative settlement was reached between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) and the current .com owner, Verisign. The proposals would limit fees for .com addresses charged by Verisign. But Verisign would still retain control of the lucrative .com domain until at least 2012.

e-Government

• EU - The e-Commission - The Information Worker of Tomorrow  +/-

  (RAPID) Speech by Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud. The Microsoft Government Leaders Forum. Lisbon, 31 January 2006.

• UK - Appraising the Freedom of Information Act, one year on  +/-

  (out-law.com) The Freedom of Information Act came into force 12 months ago and most public authorities say it is helping to create a culture of greater openness. But the Act's regulator has had over 2,300 complaints about the public sector improperly refusing to release information. According to the Information Commissioner's Office, over 1,000 of these complaints have been resolved either by negotiation, informal resolution or by formal decision notice. Only 135 such notices have been issued so far.

e-Learning

• EU - A pan-European virtual community  +/-

  (RAPID) Mr Ján Figel´, Member of the European Commission responsible for Education, training, culture and multilingualism. Welcome address to the eTwinning conference; Linz, 13 January 2006.

Electronic commerce

• UK sets up summit on online gambling  +/-

  (Financial Times) The UK is to host the firstinternational summit on online gaming this year amid growing ministerial concern about the need to protect children and the industry's potential for criminal infiltration by rogue operators. The UK last year became the only industrialised nation to introduce a regulatory framework for the online gambling industry with passage of the Gambling Act. However, with other countries - notably the US - refusing to regulate the industry, ministers acknowledge the UK is operating in isolation. They want to ensure agreed measures are in place to stop children from using online gambling sites and to prevent the possibility of money laundering.

Information society and Internet policy

• UK - How we could regulate the Internet  +/-

  (CommsWatch) Ofcom has regular lunchtime sessions open to all its staff where different guest speakers are invited to address topics concerning regulation of communications. Roger Darlington gave a presentation entitled "The Regulation Of The Internet". The presentation was prompted by the growing debate about whether existing controls on Internet content adequately meet the concerns of users and what happens when the heavily regulated world of broadcasting collides with the virtually unregulated world of the Internet. The essence of his case was that: The Internet cannot - and should not - be regulated like "old" media. However, more can and should be done, especially in relation to harmful content. New initiatives should be low-cost, practical and promoted on a voluntary basis. Most problematic Internet content is not illegal or harmful and users must take appropriate responsibility while being advised on tools and techniques.

Internet access and use

• US The internet improves Americans' capacity to maintain their social networks and get help  +/-

  (Pew Internet & American Life Project) The internet and email expand and strengthen the social ties that people maintain in the offline world, according to a new report The Strength of Internet Ties. One major payoff comes when people use the internet to press their social networks into action as they face major challenges. People not only socialize online, but they also incorporate the internet into their quest for information and advice as they seek help and make decisions.

Junk mail (spam)

• Build a better spam trap and ... spam multiplies  +/-

  (International Herald Tribune) Any e-mail users would argue that spam is still going strong, and some spam fighters even warn that the number of unsolicited e-mails is on the increase. The unwanted commercial messages circulating on the Internet far outnumber legitimate e-mails. Outblaze, a company that manages more than 40 million e-mail accounts around the world, calculated a ratio of more than 14 spam messages to each genuine message. What is more, a fundamental shift is under way in the world of cybercrime toward using spam to make specific organizations targets for extortion, a report from IBM warned.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• Risks and rewards of net data  +/-

  (BBC) Efforts by the US government to gain access to records from the world's leading search engines highlights the issue of holding onto huge amounts of internet data, argues law professor Michael Geist. Companies retain data for lengthy periods, using sophisticated data mining technologies to analyse the information. The same data can be mined for purposes that extend far beyond the reasons for which it was initially provided.

• US - Court dismisses Yahoo's free-speech lawsuit  +/-

  (CNET News.com) A divided federal appeals court has ducked the question of whether a French court order censoring Nazi-related materials can apply to Yahoo's U.S.-based Web site. In a case that pits European restrictions on 'hate speech' against the values of free expression enshrined by the United States' First Amendment, a slender 6-5 majority of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Yahoo's case involving the online display of Nazi-related books, posts and memorabilia.

• US - New Yahoo Decision Raises Old Questions  +/-

  (Michael Geist) The recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Yahoo decision involving the long-running battle over Internet jurisdiction. The majority and dissent present two competing views of the Internet and that that the courts remains as conflicted as ever as they seek to reconcile the challenges of law, borders and the Internet.

Mobile and wireless

• UK - Mobile TV is not a turn-on, BT trial finds  +/-

  (Guardian) Mobile phone users are more interested in listening to digital radio through their handsets than watching mobile television services, according to research, and are only willing to pay about £5 a month for the privilege of catching up with their favourite shows on a phone's small screen. The first major British trial of real broadcast mobile television was carried out by BT and Virgin Mobile among 1,000 users within London's M25 motorway.

• UK - Ofcom to probe mobile roaming charges  +/-

  (out-law.com) Ofcom is to investigate the UK's wholesale international roaming market, amid reports that UK holidaymakers could be paying up to five times more than necessary for using their mobile phones overseas. The telecoms regulator has also published a consumer guide to using mobile phones abroad.

Rating and filtering

• Do Web filters protect your child?  +/-

  (CNET News.com) The recent DOJ subpoena for search records from Google and others - an attempt, the department says, to determine the effectiveness of Web porn filters - has raised the question of just how well such filters work. Experts say the technology is not flawless, but it has become more sophisticated. Still, filtering companies have to handle an exploding amount of content, and they're grappling with new kinds of Web-capable devices, such as the video iPod and cell phones.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• EU - Co-Regulation Measures in the Media Sector  +/-

  (Hans-Bredow-Institut) by the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, Hamburg, Germany, and the Institute of European Media Law, Saarbrücken, Germany. This study under a European Commission contract aims at providing a complete picture of co-regulatory measures in the media sector in all 25 Member States and in three non-EU-countries, as well as of the research already done. The contractors presented the draft final report of the study on 19 January 2006 in Brussels. See also presentation and press release. All interested parties are invited to comment on the draft by 5 February 2006.

• UK - Watchdog rebukes 'irresponsible' T-Mobile  +/-

  (Guardian) Mobile phone operator T-Mobile has been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority for implying that its BlackBerry handheld email devices could be used while driving.

Telecommunications

• EU - Commission endorses Spanish measure on MVNOs  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has endorsed a measure proposed by the Spanish national telecom regulator Comisión del Mercado de las telecomunicaciones´ (CMT) to regulate the market for mobile access and call origination in Spain, but also asked the Spanish regulator to keep the market development under close review. Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) will be granted access to the networks of the three Spanish mobile telephony operators Telefónica, Vodafone and Amena. MVNOs are operators that offer mobile telephony services using network infrastructure leased from other mobile telephony operators.

Market & Technology

Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology

• King content  +/-

  (Economist) Don't write off Hollywood and the big media groups just yet. The internet is still in the digital equivalent of the silent-film era. It has been formidable for text, still images and music, but is only now, with broadband access, entering an age of high-quality video. As it does so, Time Warner, News Corporation, Disney and other media companies will be able to cash in on their film and television archives.

Market

• DE - Warner Bros. to start German file-sharing service  +/-

  (BBC) The movie industry has been taking action against illegal file-sharers Films such as Batman Begins and TV series The OC are to be made available over the internet via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks by studio Warner Bros. The firm will sell movies and TV shows over the internet in Germany, Austria and Switzerland from March. Its In2Movies service will use the same file-sharing technology that has led to an increase in movie piracy.

• Long-lost tunes dug up for jukebox of the net  +/-

  (Guardian) Universal Music Group, home to U2 and the world's biggest record company, will next month take the first step towards rescuing more than 100,000 tracks from its archives over the next three years.

• Mobile et Internet sauveront-ils le disque?  +/-

  (Silicon.fr) 2005 aura été l'année du décollage de la musique 'dématéralisée'. Elle devrait représenter 25 % du marché en 2010. Mais les Majors devront véritablement améliorer leurs offres pour faire oublier le piratage et la gratuité.

• Road maps for the digital revolution  +/-

  (International Herald Tribune) Given the opportunity to start a new media empire from scratch, what would be the ideal approach? Four high-ranking media executives who were in Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum, shared their visions with Thomas Crampton.

• UK - MySpace looks to UK music scene  +/-

  (BBC) A UK version of the social networking site MySpace.com is to be launched 'within the next 30 days'. The announcement was made by Fox Interactive Media president Ross Levinson at a meeting of the National Association of Television Programme Executives in Las Vegas. The site allows users to share video and photos, write blogs and network with other users. Despite only being two years old, it has 50 million registered users. Some 32 million of these are actively using the site.

Mobile and wireless

• Vodafone - Calling for a rethink  +/-

  (Economist) Vodafone has a unique approach of being a mobile-only operator with unrivalled global scale. But this strategy is now being called into question. Telecoms operators are starting to integrate their fixed and mobile networks. Many operators are also gearing up to offer "quadruple play" bundles of fixed and mobile telephony, broadband and television services. If such "converged" bundles prove popular, Vodafone's mobile-only strategy will leave it isolated. Its voice revenues could also be undermined as cheap voice-over-internet technologies, such as Skype, spread from fixed to mobile networks.

Portals, browsers and search engines

• EU - Media giant about to back European 'Google killer'  +/-

  (EurActiov) Bertelsmann's announcement that the German media company is close to signing up as a partner behind the European search engine project Quaero has kindled discussion on Quaero's role in the emerging 'search engine wars'.

• Europäische Google-Konkurrenz nimmt langsam Formen an  +/-

  (Heise) Der deutsche Medienriese Bertelsmann soll auf deutscher Seite eine führende Rolle bei der Entwicklung der europäischen Google-Konkurrenz Quaero einnehmen, berichtet die Financial Times in ihrer heutigen Ausgabe. Das Unternehmen würde sich über seine Informationslogistik-Tochter Empolis an dem Projekt beteiligen, wird seit einigen Tagen in Medien vermutet. Bei Empolis werde eine Beteiligung an Quaero derzeit geprüft. Auf französischer Seite würde der Thomson-Konzern – neben der Agentur für Industrielle Innovation (Agence pour l'innovation industrielle, AII) – eine ähnliche Funktion ausüben.

• Search Engine Wars  +/-

  (out-law.com) There may only be room for one winner in the battle which will soon break out in the search market. MSN and Google have been eyeing each other up for the last year - each trying to exploit their own strengths and overcome their weaknesses as they face a competition in which the stakes are all too high.

Voice over IP

• OECD - VoIP - Developments in the Market  +/-

  (ITU) The growing importance of VoIP services is reflected in the regulatory debate at both the national and international level among OECD countries. There are a range of issues that need to be addressed surrounding the issue of whether traditional regulations should or should not apply to VoIP services. They include classification of the application/service, interconnection, possible market entry barriers, numbering, universal service issues, customer protection, privacy protection, emergency call capabilities, law enforcement issues, and technical safeguards (e.g. solutions for possible low quality of sound). See Study.

Forthcoming events

• 2006-04-21 US, New Haven CT - Access to Knowledge - Call for papers  +/-

  (International Journal of Communications Law and Policy) The International Journal of Communications Law & Policy (IJCLP) is pleased to announce a special (additional) call for papers supported through a grant from the Open Society Institute (OSI), in the framework of the Yale Information Society Project's (ISP) Access to Knowledge (A2K) Conference taking place on April 21-23, 2006 at Yale Law School. Authors from countries listed as developing and transition countries are invited to submit papers related to A2K by May 1st, 2006. Any paper selected for publication will receive financial support from our OSI grant. Such support shall include a small stipend to each author in addition to free editorial processing by the Journal. Please note that authors who submit papers for this specific call are also eligible for the general call for papers and the writing competition awards announced on our web site.

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