Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• EU - UK Government attacks EC's 'dangerous' online media plans  +/-

  (ZDNet UK) The British Government has launched a fierce attack on the European Commission over proposed legislation that seeks to regulate online content. The UK Government called the proposals "ill thought-through and ill-conceived", and said that the proposals would inhibit economic growth. Shaun Woodward MP, Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism said "The problem is the absolute lack of clarity." Woodward said that the exact scope of the legislation the European Commission is proposing is "unclear", as it could cover a range of Internet services and mobile content providers.

• EU / UK : Minister compares Audiovisual Media Services Directive to Common Agricultural Policy  +/-

  (CommsWatch) At the Westminster Media Forum seminar on the Television Without Frontiers Directive, Minister for Creative Industries Shaun Woodward constantly left his prepared script to make trenchant criticisms of the European Commission's new Audiovisual Media Services Directive. He confided in his audience that his officials had warned him against giving the impression that the UK Government is completely negative about Commissioner Reding's proposals, but then insisted: 'We are'. He asserted: 'She's got it wrong. We are right to be completely negative about it.'

Computer crime

• FR Publication de la Convention sur la cybercriminalité au Journal Officiel  +/-

  (FDI) La Convention sur la cybercriminalité, signée par la France le 23 novembre 2001, est entrée en vigueur avec l'adoption du décret du 23 mai 2006. Conséquence directe de cette publication au Journal Officiel, la Convention internationale est désormais opposable et invocable par les justiciables français.

• RU - Internet child porn crime rate low  +/-

  (Itar-Tass) The incidence of crimes related to the dissemination of child pornography on the Internet in Russia is not high, the Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass. 'An analysis of the criminal situation shows that the crimes related to the dissemination on the Internet of pornographic materials involving minors are not of mass character. The Russian segment of the Internet is actively used by owners of foreign porn sites for redirection of users'.

• UK - Child porn convictions will be reported to banks  +/-

  (out-law.com) Police will be able to pass details of child pornography offenders on to banks so that offenders' credit cards can be revoked. The Home Secretary has issued an order for the amendment of the Data Protection Act which will be read in both houses of Parliament. The order was requested by credit card issuers and is the result of three years of negotiation between the industry and the Home Office according to a spokeswoman for issuers' organisation APACS, the UK payments association. see also Home Office child porn control goes too far, says privacy chief.

• US - Net companies pledge child porn crackdown  +/-

  (CNET News.com) In an attempt to forestall potentially intrusive new federal laws, a coalition of Internet companies has launched a campaign against child pornography that they say will tip off police to illegal images. The Internet companies - AOL, EarthLink, Microsoft, United Online and Yahoo - are pledging $1 million in cash and technical assistance to develop technology that can 'detect and disrupt the distribution of known images of child exploitation' on the Internet. The coalition's effort will take place under the auspices of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Consumer protection

• FR - Services télécoms et SMS surtaxés épinglés par le CSA  +/-

  (ZDNet France) Le Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel met en garde les chaînes de télévision. Elles doivent veiller à ce que les pubs qui incitent les consommateurs à envoyer des SMS ou appeler des numéros surtaxés, affichent clairement les tarifs à l´antenne.

• FR - UFC-Que Choisir multiplie les procédures contre Alice  +/-

  (ZDNet France) L'association UFC-Que Choisir va déposer une centaine de plaintes dans toute la France contre Alice. Elle reproche au fournisseur d´accès de ne pas tenir ses engagements commerciaux auprès de ses abonnés.

• UK - Regulator awards itself powers to ban SMS scammers  +/-

  (out-law) The premium rate phone regulator is overhauling its policies so that it can take more direct action against rule breaking content providers. Mobile phone content providers who break the ICSTIS rules could be banned from operating any premium rate services in new rules to be introduced in September.

Content regulation

• CN - China aims to enhance censorship of Internet  +/-

  (New York Times) The Chinese authorities have announced their intention to greatly increase efforts to police and control the Internet, along with other communications technologies, like instant messaging and mobile telephones. Cai Wu, director of the powerful Information Office of the State Council, or China's Cabinet, said that new control measures were needed 'because more and more harmful information is being circulated online.'

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• CN - Music industry to sue Yahoo China  +/-

  (BBC) The music industry is to sue Yahoo China for allegedly providing links to pirated tracks. Yahoo China is the second largest search engine in the country, and is 40% owned by Yahoo. Last year the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries, whose members include EMI, Sony BMG and Warner Music, sued Baidu, the most popular search engine in China and the dispute is ongoing.

• DE - Legal victory for Google in library project  +/-

  (Guardian) Google has won a crucial victory in a German court as it tries to persuade publishers that its drive to digitise library books to get at the information inside is not an attempt to smash copyright laws. Scientific publisher Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG), backed by the German publishers association, had asked a Hamburg court for an injunction stopping the American web giant from scanning its books as part of its library project. The copyright chamber of the regional court of Hamburg indicated that its petition for an injunction was unlikely to succeed. The court rejected WBG's argument that the scanning of its books in the US infringes German copyright law.

• ES - Spain adds levy to blank discs  +/-

  (out-law.com) The Spanish government will add a levy to blank media such as CDs and DVDs to hand over to copyright holders to compensate for the duplication of copyrighted materials. The move follows the lead of most European countries, which charge a levy on goods likely to be used to copy music or films or other copyrighted works. Though the UK bans all copying, most European countries permit copying for personal use and use the levy as a way to reimburse copyright holders.

• FR - Le projet Dadvsi définitivement adopté par le Parlement  +/-

  (ZDNet.fr) Malgré les appels pressants des opposants au texte, le Sénat et l'Assemblée nationale ont aujourd'hui adopté définitivement le projet de loi Dadvsi. ZDNet.fr décrypte les principales mesures qui ont été validées en commission mixte paritaire (CMP). Le texte légitime les DRM et redéfinit le concept d´interopérabilité. Il précise également les sanctions encourues par les éditeurs de logiciels "peer-to-peer".

• FR - Virgin France fined over piracy  +/-

  (BBC) French music retailer Virgin France has been fined 600,000 euros for music piracy. The firm, owned by Lagardere, was fined for illegally downloading Madonna's Hung Up to resell on its own website. An industrial court found Virgin France unit Virginmega had ignored an exclusive deal reached by Warner Music France with France Telecom and Orange.

• UK lawsuit proceeds against Russian MP3 site  +/-

  (Reuters) The British music industry's trade group has been cleared to sue the controversial Russian music download site AllofMP3.com in London's High Court. AllofMP3.com, which offers album downloads for as little as £1, is Britain's second-most popular online music service. The Russian site claims to be in compliance with local copyright laws, but music labels say they have not given permission for AllofMP3 to sell their songs.

Data Protection (privacy)

• EU - Commission opens online public consultation on radio frequency identification (RFID)  +/-

  (RAPID) An online public consultation on how the European Commission can help to ensure that the growing use of radio frequency identification devices (RFID) boosts the competitiveness of the Europe's economy and improves the quality of life of its citizens, whilst safeguarding their basic rights, and in particular their privacy, has been launched.

• UK - Information Commissioner issues first website enforcement order  +/-

  (out-law) The operator of a website designed to allow searches for people's contact details has been issued with an enforcement order by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). It is the first time that the ICO has issued an order over a website.

Digital content

• Creative destruction in the library  +/-

  (Economist) The normal mechanism is that scientists offer the fruits of their research -often bankrolled by the taxpayer - for nothing to publishers. Those publishers then charge money to people who wish to read their journals. Publishers have been making handsome profits from this arrangement. But change is afoot. Open-access publishing, in which papers are freely available immediately upon publication, is sweeping the dusty corridors. The catch is that the sponsors of research will have to fork out more money to pay for it.

• UK - Royal Society tries open access  +/-

  (The Scientist) Britain's Royal Society dipped a cautious toe into the waters of open access publishing, allowing authors whose papers are accepted by any of its seven journals to pay a fee and have their work made freely available on the web.

Domain names

• ICANN - New WHOIS definition survives Marrakech meeting  +/-

  (Internet Governance Project) For now, it appears that the new, more technically focused and privacy-friendly definition of the purpose of Whois survived the Marrakech meeting. The U.S. Government and the copyright and law enforcement interests mounted a major onslaught against the GNSO action, using the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) as their pressure point. But it became clear during a lively GAC-GNSO open meeting that there is no unity among goverments on this issue.

e-Government

• EU - e-Government survey  +/-

  (RAPID) The maturity of online public services in the EU keeps improving and they have now reached an overall level of sophistication where full two-way interaction between citizens and governments is the norm. Nearly 50% of services allow the citizen to conduct the whole process on-line, says the latest e-Government survey carried out for the Commission.

• EU - Re-use of Commission Information  +/-

  (Europa) The Commission Decision on the Re-use of Commission Information was adopted on 7 April 2006. his Decision determines the conditions for the re-use of documents held by the Commission or on its behalf by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities (Publications Office) with the aim of facilitating a wider re-use of information, enhancing the image of openness of the Commission, and avoiding unnecessary administrative burden for re-users and the Commission services alike.

Hotlines

• EU - Private hotlines questioned at EC Safer Internet Forum  +/-

  (EDRI-gram) With its newly adopted Communication on a 'comprehensive EU strategy to promote and safeguard the rights of the child', the Commission intends to pursue its global action on children's rights. One may however wonder whether the strategy for fighting child porn on the Internet, which mostly relies on private hotlines, is really efficient and compliant with the rule of law. These were the main issues raised at the afternoon session of the These were the main issues raised at the afternoon session of the EC Safer Internet Forum 2006, held in Luxembourg on 21 June, on 'Illegal Content: Blocking access to child sexual abuse images'.

Human Rights

• EU - EU network of independent experts on fundamental rights reports  +/-

  (RAPDI) The network of independent experts on fundamental rights has just presented its report for 2005 to Mr Frattini, Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for completion of the European area of freedom, security and justice.

Mobile and wireless

• EU - Brussels split over mobile roaming rates  +/-

  (FT) Contentious plans to slash the prices Europeans pay to make mobile phone calls while abroad are in doubt after splits emerged in Brussels about the damage they might cause telecommunications companies. Peter Mandelson and Günter Verheugen, two of the European Commission's biggest hitters, claim that excessive new regulations could damage the competitiveness of mobile phone operators such as Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile.

• EU - Reducing mobile roaming charges for Europe's business customers  +/-

  (RAPID) Speech by Viviane Reding. Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media. The importance of reducing mobile roaming charges for the competitiveness of Europe's business customers. Conference of EVUA - the Enterprise Virtual Private Networks Users Association. Brussels, 29 June 2006.

Portals, browsers and search engines

• DE - German experts think search engines should be monitored  +/-

  (EDRI-gram) During the workshop 'The Rising Power of Search-Engines on the Internet: Impacts on Users, Media Policy, and Media Business' that took place in Berlin on 26-27 June 2006, the experts expressed the opinion that the search engines should be more regulated.

• DE - Wie mächtig sind die Internet-Suchmaschinen wirklich?  +/-

  (Deutsche Welle) Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Chinesische Yahoo-Startseite Internet-Suchmaschinen sind in die Kritik geraten. Medienexperten bemängeln ihren unkontrollierten Einfluss. Sie fordern mehr Kontrolle, damit die Macht der Suchmaschinen begrenzt wird.

• US - Low ranked firm sues Google over zero score  +/-

  (out-lwa.com) Google has defended its right to rank web pages in any manner it likes in a groundbreaking court case over its search engine results. The search giant is being sued in California by a parenting website which claims it lost most of its traffic when its ranking dropped to zero.

Protection of minors

• Congress targets social-networking sites  +/-

  (CNET News.com) by Declan McCullagh. The concept of forcing companies to record information about their users' Internet activities to aid in future criminal prosecutions took another twist this week. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, originally proposed legislation in April that would require Internet service providers to retain activity logs to aid in criminal investigations, including ones involving child abuse. Now DeGette and some of her colleagues in the House of Representatives are suggesting that social-networking sites should be required to do the same thing.

• EU - Communication on the Rights of the Child  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has adopted its Communication "Towards an EU strategy on the Rights of the Child". This is the first time the Commission has taken such a transversal and cross-cutting approach to children’s rights. It concerns both internal and external policies of the Union and covers more than ten of these policies such as civil and criminal justice, employment, development cooperation, trade negotiation, education and health. See also Press briefing.

Rating and filtering

• CN - Academics break the Great Firewall of China  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Computer experts from the University of Cambridge claim not only to have breached the Great Firewall of China, but have found a way to use the firewall to launch denial-of-service attacks against specific Internet Protocol addresses in the country.

• UK - How net providers stop child porn  +/-

  (BBC) Tracking and blocking websites which feature child pornography brings together domestic users, police forces, internet security professionals and internet service providers (ISPs). In the UK, where BT has revealed that its servers block 35,000 attempts to view child pornography each day, domestic internet users are a key link in the chain. People who discover a site that harbours suspicious content are invited to report the site to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).

Safer Internet awareness

• UK - Safety tips for social networks  +/-

  (BBC) Parents are to get safety advice on networking websites such as MySpace to protect children from paedophiles who could use the sites to 'groom' victims. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) will run a series of workshops in UK for parents, children and teachers. Ceop said it was concerned that children were posting personal details on so-called community sites.

Telecommunications

• EU - Consultation on regulatory framework for electronic communications  +/-

  (RAPID) The Commission is launching today a public consultation on policy options for updating the EU?s telecom rules of 2002, the 'regulatory framework for electronic communications'. The Commission notes substantial progress since 2002 in opening up national telecom markets to competition and proposes to phase out ex-ante regulation in at least 6 of the existing 18 telecoms market segments, including those for national and international calls. For those markets where competition is not yet effective (such as the crucial broadband supply market), the Commission wants EU rules applied more effectively, so as to step up competition throughout the single market. The Commission thereby takes a clear stance against the idea of "regulatory holidays" for incumbent operators. The Commission also advocates moving towards a common, more market-based, approach to allocating the radio spectrum needed for innovative services and devices to work EU-wide. The Commission?s target is for the new rules to be fully transposed into national laws by 2010. See The Review 2006 of the EU?s regulatory framework for electronic communications: Frequently Asked Questions.

• EU - The Review 2006 of EU Telecom rules  +/-

  (RAPID) Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media. The Review 2006 of EU Telecom rules: Strengthening Competition and Completing the Internal Market. Annual Meeting of BITKOM, Brussels, Bibliothèque Solvay, 27 June 2006.

Market & Technology

Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology

• UK - BSkyB poised for aggressive 'triple-play' deals  +/-

  (Guardian) BSkyB is expected to confirm on July 18 whether it will raise the stakes in the battle of the broadband providers and match competitors' offers of 'free' high-speed internet access. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of BSkyB, told investors in his News Corporation group that the pay-TV group would unveil its broadband strategy in the middle of next month. The full launch of BSkyB's internet and voice-call service is expected soon after.

Mobile and wireless

• UK - Mobile phone users can now access Google news and email  +/-

  (Guardian) British mobile phone users will be able to access Google's news and email services using their handsets and personalise their own mobile version of the search engine's homepage, as the American company pushes ever further into the mobile internet.

Statistics

• DE - Studie: Interesse an mobiler Mediennutzung nimmt zu  +/-

  (Heise) Das Interesse an an mobiler Mediennutzung ist unter den Internet-Nutzern in Deutschland stark angestiegen. Das ergibt die noch nicht online erhältliche ARD/ZDF-Online-Studie 2006 im Auftrag der ARD/ZDF-Medienkommission. 34 Prozent der "Onliner" verfügten bereits über die Möglichkeit, via Laptop und Handy ins Netz zu gehen. Weitere 16 Prozent planten den mobilen Empfang. Auch wachse die Nachfrage nach mobilem Fernsehen: 44 Prozent der Internet-Nutzer bekundeten demnach starkes Interesse, wobei als Empfangsgerät der Laptop vor dem Handy und dem Organizer rangiert.

Forthcoming events

• 2006-07-11 EU, Brussels - European Mobile Broadcasting Council (EMBC) - Opening meeting  +/-

  (Europa) European industry is setting up the European Mobile Broadcasting Council (EMBC) in order to develop a common vision for the development and implementation of mobile broadcasting in the EU. Participation in EMBC is open to any stakeholder, who has an interest in introducing mobile broadcasting successfully to the EU. The first meeting of EMBC will take place in Brussels on 11 July 2006.

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