Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• EU - Audiovisual media services directive  +/-

  (Europa) Sppech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media. Audiovisual media services directive: the right instrument to provide legal certainty for Europe's media businesses in the next decade. Seminar "Regulating the new media landscape". Brussels, 7 June 2006. it is necessary to correct a misperception with which some players try to influence the discussion. This Commission proposal is not about new restrictive provisions but about giving effect to the freedoms of the EC Treaty and about paving the way for a better exercise of the fundamental right of freedom of expression across the borders in the EU. The overwhelming majority of blogs would not be covered by the Directive, in particular: private websites or blogs of a non-commercial nature; Blogs that do not have as their "principal purpose the delivery of moving images".

Calls for proposals / tenders

• EU - eContentplus - Call for proposals 2006  +/-

  (Europa) Draft versions of the eContentplus 2006 Work Programme and call for proposals are now online as drafts. The provisional date for publication of the definitive versions is July 2006. The provisional deadline for receipt of proposals will be 19 October 2006.

• EU - Safer Internet - Call for proposals 2006  +/-

  (Europa) Draft versions of the Safer Internet plus 2006 Work Programme and call for proposals are online. The provisional date for publication of the definitive versions is July 2006. The provisional deadline for receipt of proposals will be 29 September 2006.

Consumer protection

• FR - Hotlines: le ministre de l'Industrie charge les FAI et les opérateurs  +/-

  (ZDNet France) Les négociations entamées en septembre 2005 entre FAI et opérateurs pour faciliter les relations avec leurs abonnés ne satisfont pas François Loos. Il menace de légiférer si elles n´aboutissent pas d´ici à la fin juin.

Content regulation

• Amnesty to target net repression  +/-

  (BBC) Internet users are being urged to stand up for online freedoms by backing a new campaign launched by human rights group Amnesty International. The campaign will highlight abuses of rights the net is used for, and push for the release of those jailed for speaking out online. It will also name hi-tech firms aiding governments that limit online protests. Called Irrepressible.info, the campaign will revolve around a website with the same name.

• China, the Internet's Broken Link  +/-

  (Technometria) by Phil Windley. Danny Weitzner from the W3C discussed the Internet and Society called "China: A Broken Link on the Web". Is it the case that if everyone's a publisher, then too is every government a filter and interceptor? He starts off noting the story of Yahoo! "helping jail a Chinese writer" and made some interesting points: Yahoo! has no basis for ignoring Chinese law while obeying the laws of other countries; that leaves the choice of simply not doing business in China: there's an argument that being in China and obeying the law is better for the cause of freedom in China than not being there at all.

• DE - Jugendschutz.net beanstandete 2005 fast 2000 Internetangebote  +/-

  (Heise) Die Zentralstelle jugendschutz.net in Mainz hat im vergangenen Jahr bundesweit fast 2000 pornografische, rechtsextreme oder gewaltverherrlichende Internetangebote beanstandet. Das war im Vergleich zum Jahr 2004 eine Steigerung um 12 Prozent.

• UK - Journalists call for Yahoo boycott  +/-

  (Reuters) The union representing journalists in the U.K. and Ireland called on its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo products and services to protest the Internet company's reported actions in China. The National Union of Journalists sent a letter to Dominique Vidal, Yahoo Europe's vice president, denouncing the company for allegedly providing information to Chinese authorities about journalists. The union also said it would stop using all Yahoo-operated services.

Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology

• Digital convergence: a whole new way of life  +/-

  (Europa) Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media. Digital Lifestyle Exhibition, Brussels, 30 May 2006.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• DE - Police act on German file-sharing  +/-

  (BBC) Police in Germany have charged 3,500 users of a file-sharing network in the biggest single action against the illegal distribution of music online. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) - the record industry's global body - said each could face five years in prison. They may also have to pay compensation for offering up to 8,000 files at a time for download on the eDonkey site.

• EU warns China on piracy problem  +/-

  (BBC) European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has made a fresh call for China to do more to improve market access and cut down on piracy. He warned China would face a backlash in Europe unless it did more to 'apply rather than circumvent the rules'. Mr Mandelson's comments came during a visit to Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart Bo Xilai.

• FR - French book publisher sues Google  +/-

  (BBC) A French publishing group is to sue Google for publishing book excerpts online without permission. La Martiniere accuses the technology company of 'counterfeiting and breach of intellectual property rights' by digitising about 100 of its titles.

• Piracy fears over net generation  +/-

  (BBC) Net freedom fighter Lawrence Lessig has called for an end to what he described as 'extremism' in copyright laws. The Stanford law professor fears they could stifle the creativity of a new generation in the digital age. Prof Lessig told the Hay Festival in Wales that the 'age of prohibition' could turn 'kids into pirates'.

• RU - On a Russian Site, Cheap Songs With a Backbeat of Illegality  +/-

  (New York Times) AllofMP3.com, a music downloading service based in Moscow, offers a vast catalog of music that includes artists not normally authorized for sale online, at a fraction of the cost of services like iTunes. AllofMP3 asserts its legality by citing a license issued by a royalty collecting society, the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, known as R.O.M.S. for its Russian initials. According to Russia's 1993 copyright law, collecting societies are permitted to act on behalf of rights holders who have not authorized them to do so.

• SE - Swedish piracy row gathers pace  +/-

  (BBC) The row between supporters of a Swedish website accused of piracy and the nation's authorities is escalating. A raid on The Pirate Bay site by Swedish police is thought to have been the catalyst for hack attacks on official websites. The attacks are being investigated by the Swedish security service, its domestic intelligence agency. Protestors took to the streets of Stockholm to show their support for the BitTorrent search site.

• SE - Website back after Swedish raids  +/-

  (BBC) A website accused of directing users to pirated films, music and software has reopened using servers in the Netherlands days after Swedish authorities shut it down. ThePirateBay.org has described itself as the largest search index for BitTorrent, a system used for sharing large files over the internet. But critics in the entertainment industry argue it is a major source of music and film piracy. The Pirate Bay says it does nothing wrong. Its operators maintain that the site's function is to direct users towards the files that they search for and manage the uploads and downloads. The website itself does not hold any copyright files.

Data Protection (privacy)

• EU - PNR: EDPS first reaction to the Court of Justice judgment  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) gives his initial reactions to the judgment of the Court of Justice in the two PNR-cases concerning the transfer of flight passenger's personal data to the US. The EDPS has used, for the first time in these cases, his powers to intervene before the Court in support of the Parliament. Peter Hustinx, EDPS, says: "The judgment seems to have created a loophole in the protection of European citizens whereby their data are used for law enforcement purposes. This makes it all the more important that a comprehensive and consistent legal instrument ensuring the protection of personal data outside of the first pillar is adopted without delay".

• EU court blocks data deal with US  +/-

  (BBC) The European Court of Justice has blocked an EU-US agreement that requires airlines to transfer passenger data to the US authorities. The court said the decision to hand over the data was not founded on an 'appropriate legal basis'. But the court gave EU member states until 30 September 2006 to find a new legal solution "for reasons of legal certainty".

Digital content

• OECD - Digital Content Strategies and policies  +/-

  (OECD) The summary of the OECD - Italy MIT Conference on the Future Digital Economy: Digital Content Creation, Distribution and Access is now online. See also the presentations, slides and webstreams of the meeting and the OECD study on Digital Content Strategies and policies. As complement to the Rome conference, this study identifies and discusses six groups of business and public policy issues and illustrates these with existing and potential OECD Digital Content Policies;

e-Government

• EU - eGovernment for all Europeans  +/-

  (Euroa) The Council of the EU meeting in Luxembourg, 8-9 June 2006 has given a strong political support to the realisation of the objectives for eGovernment 2010 set by Member States and the European Commission in the 'Manchester Ministerial Declaration' and the 'eGovernment Action Plan'. These conclusions reinforce the momentum which is already in place through joint efforts of all stakeholders to realise the ambitious objectives for eGovernment by 2010.

Information society and Internet policy

• US- Jefferson Rebuffed - The United States and the Future of Internet Governance  +/-

  (Kennedy School of Government) by Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger and Malte Ziewitz. The United States has long resisted internationalization of Internet governance, fearing in particular the growing influence of China and similar nations. In September 2005 the European Union put forward a proposal which would have offered a constitutional moment for Internet governance by suggesting internationalization based on fundamental values of the Internet community. The swift rejection of the proposal by the US was surprising, both from a tactical as well as a substantive viewpoint.

Mobile and wireless

• US - Verizon to launch mobile chaperone service  +/-

  (Reuters) Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. cell phone service provider, plans to launch a wireless service that lets parents check their children's whereabouts and alerts them when they venture out of bounds. Parents can use the service to set up geographic limits and receive text alerts if their children, who also carry phones, go too far from home. The service also lets parents check where their offspring are via a map on their cell phone or computer.

Protection of minors

• CoE - Children and young people: well-being and risk on-line  +/-

  (CoE) The Council of Europe the Council of Europe has commissioned an independent study to "elaborate the meaning of 'harmful content" in order to promote coherence in the protection of minors in all media in the Information Society. The abridged version of the study has been prepared to promote the accessibility and discussion of its findings in Council of Europe member states. The full version of the study will be released in the coming months.

• UK - Teen site moves to block photos  +/-

  (BBC) A website aimed at young people says it is moving to block explicit photographs from being downloaded onto its site. Sarah Gavin from Bebo UK was responding to an investigation by BBC NI over privacy and child safety issues. Bebo has become one of the most popular social networking websites with schoolchildren in Northern Ireland.

Rating and filtering

• Blue Coat censorware company blocks BB for criticizing censorware  +/-

  (Boing Boing) Blue Coat, a censorware company, has blacklisted Boing Boing because some of our entries criticize censorware and describe the means by which it may be circumvented. Boing Boing presently hosts nearly 28,000 entries, and fewer than 100 of those deal with 'proxy avoidance.' Blue Coat has blocked the entirety of the site.

Security and encryption

• EU - Commission seeks to improve network and information security in Europe  +/-

  (Europa) Businesses, individuals and public administrations in Europe still underestimate the risks of insufficiently protecting networks and information. Security presently represents only around 5-13% of IT expenditure, which is alarmingly low. The Commission is therefore promoting greater awareness, in a policy document, through an open and inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogue on a new IT Security Strategy for Europe. See also The Commission's New Approach to Network and Information Security: Frequently Asked Questions.

Standards

• CN - China Walks Out of Encryption Meeting  +/-

  (AP) An international dispute over a wireless computing standard took a bitter turn with the Chinese delegation walking out of an IEEE meeting. The delegation's walkout escalated an already rancorous struggle by China to gain international acceptance for its homegrown encryption technology known as WAPI. It follows Chinese accusations that IEEE used underhanded tactics to prevent global approval of WAPI.

Taxation and tariffs

• EU - E-tailers can still shop for best VAT regime  +/-

  (out-law) A bid to stop e-commerce companies shopping around for the best VAT regime has failed to win support at European Union level. Though the discussions came close to an agreement, objections from Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal mean that only an interim arrangement can be put in place. VAT is currently charged at the rate of the seller's country. In order for e-commerce to be more effective, argued the EU, it should be charged at the rates of the buyer's country. That situation has led to e-commerce firms shopping around for the lowest VAT rate nations and establishing their businesses there.

Technology

• Next-generation networks: challenges ahead  +/-

  (Ovum) by Dan Bieler, Research Director. The shift towards next-generation networks (NGNs) is possibly the most fundamental transformation the ICT segment has ever seen. However, it is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary development, which has long-term implications. As a rough timeframe for OECD countries, we expect NGNs to be in place by around 2012 for fixed and 2020 for mobile infrastructure.

Voice over IP

• Internet Phones: Please Wait for the Next Available Opportunity  +/-

  (New York Times) When eBay decided ago to acquire Skype Technologies, the Luxembourg-based wunderkind that offers free Internet calls around the world, it seemed that free or nearly free Internet telephony would soon reach every American den, and no one would have to sign up for a separate phone service with the cable company. The happy day of free calls will not arrive, however, until existing phones are replaced or adapted to plug into the Internet.

Market & Technology

Internet access and use

• CN - Mob rule on China's Internet: The keyboard as weapon  +/-

  (New York Times) There is a growing phenomenon which the Chinese call Internet hunting which morality lessons are administered by online throngs and where anonymous Web users come together to investigate others and mete out punishment for offenses real and imagined.

• Here come the 'Family 2.0' sites  +/-

  (CNET News.com) by Stefanie Olsen. A growing number of parent-entrepreneurs who are putting their time and money behind their familial interests and starting a new generation of Web sites for parents and older people - sites that borrow many of the social networking concepts, such as photo-sharing and the wiki.

• Social sites wrestle for top spot  +/-

  (BBC) Community websites MySpace and Bebo are fighting to see who is most popular among young people. Analysis by Nielsen NetRatings shows the two companies have regularly swapped the top spot in sites that give people space to blog and post pictures. Nielsen said the pair are the fifth and sixth biggest brands on the net when measured by page views.

• The viral video online revolution  +/-

  (BBc) Within 15 months, Youtube.com has become one of the internet's most watched websites, with 25 million hits a day. More than 40 million original clips and TV segments have been uploaded by visitors. It is entertaining, addictive and viral. Many more video sites popping up, some even offering cash for contributions.

Market

• Google launches web spreadsheet  +/-

  (BBC) Internet search engine Google has released a web-based spreadsheet application, on a limited test basis. Google said its free, web-based application can be shared by up to ten users simultaneously. The dominant stand-alone spreadsheet is Excel from Microsoft, and Google's move could put the two on collision course.

• UK - BBC website shows World Cup games  +/-

  (BBC) All of the BBC's 2006 World Cup matches will also be broadcast exclusively live on the BBC Sport website. The service will be available to UK broadband users and will mirror terrestrial and interactive coverage. In addition there will be four-minute highlight packages from every single game of the tournament on demand.

Mobile and wireless

• BBC and ITV to trial mobile TV  +/-

  (vnunet.com) ITV and the BBC are to take part in trials of mobile TV services, according to industry rumours. The six-month experiment to broadcast television content live to mobile phones will be carried out with handset makers LG and Samsung.

• UK - Handsets look to eclipse cameras  +/-

  (BBC) Camera phones could replace digital cameras as the main gadgets people use to take pictures, a study suggests. It found that 44% of people already use their handset as their main camera. The days of the MP3 player also look to be numbered, as 67% of those questioned said they expected their phone to replace their portable music player. The survey, commissioned by handset maker Nokia, comes as the number of mobile phones in use around the world approaches 2.5 billion.

Security and encryption

• Help is at hand for web security  +/-

  (BBC) A survey released in mid-May revealed the dangers inherent in just poking around the web. On average, between 4% and 6% of the sites found during common searches were classified as dangerous.The search results were analysed using the Site Advisor add-on for the Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers that flags up dangerous websites. One other way that web users can see at a glance if a site is nice or nasty is by using the Scandoo website created by British firm ScanSafe.

Statistics

• US - Home Broadband Adoption 2006  +/-

  (Pew Internet) Home broadband adoption is going mainstream and that means user-generated content is coming from all kinds of internet users. At the end of March 2006, 42% of Americans had high-speed at home, up from 30% in March 2005, or a 40% increase. And 48 million Americans - mostly those with high-speed at home - have posted content to the internet.

• US - Internet Penetration and Impact  +/-

  (Pew Internet) internet penetration among adults in the U.S. has hit an all-time high. Our latest survey shows that fully 73% of respondents (about 147 million adults) are internet users, up from 66% (about 133 million adults) in our January 2005 survey.

Forthcoming events

• 2006-06-21 ITU, Mainz - The Regulatory Environment for Future Mobile Multimedia Services  +/-

  (ITU) An international experts workshop under the ITU New Initiatives Programme on the "The Regulatory Environment for Future Mobile Multimedia Services" will be held from 21-23 June 2006 in Mainz, Germany. The workshop will be hosted by Germany's Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA). Programmme. See also background papers: The regulatory environment for future mobile multimedia services: Issues Paper - (.pdf version) and Towards more flexible spectrum regulation and its relevance for the German market - (.pdf version).

Editorial information

• QuickLinks Daily Update  +/-

  (QuickLinks) The QuickLinks Daily Update is now sent out using FeedBlitz. All updates will come from FeedBlitz@mail.feedblitz.com and will be easily recognizable because subject lines always start with [FeedBlitz]. Existing subscribers who received the update from bloglet@bloglet.com should update their filters.

QuickLinks consists of

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