Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• UK - Assessing Indirect Impacts of the EC Proposals for Video Regulation  +/-

  (Ofcom) An independent study conducted by RAND Europe, which looks at the potential indirect impact of the European Commission's proposed Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. Ofcom asked RAND Europe to look in particular at the potential indirect effects in three key sectors: IPTV, mobile multimedia and online games. Indirect effects refer, in particular, to the possible effect that regulation could have on companies' investment and location decisions. Ofcom believes that this report highlights some important economic risks inherent in the Commission's proposals. These risks are particularly important in relation to the new media industries that RAND Europe has examined and which are strategic for European future competitiveness. Executive Summary, 184 Kb. Full Print Version, 2.2 Mb

Competition

• EU - Commission renders commitments by music publishers and collecting societies legally binding  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has made legally binding under EC Treaty competition rules the commitments given by the five major music publishers (BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner) and thirteen European collecting societies (AEPI, AustroMechana, GEMA, MCPS, MCPSI, NCB, SABAM, SDRM, SGAE, SIAE, SPA, STEMRA, SUISA), the signatories of the Cannes Extension Agreement, regarding Central Licensing Agreements. The commitments ensure that record producers can continue to receive rebates from collecting societies on royalties paid in the context of Central Licensing Agreements. These rebates are currently the only form of price competition among collecting societies.

• EU - Intel expected to face Commission antitrust action  +/-

  (OUT-LAW News) European competition officials are close to presenting their antitrust case against Intel. The five year investigation of Intel centres on its behaviour in a market that it dominates. The company has 80% of the world's micro chip market and the Commission is investigating whether or not it abused that power.

• EU - Microsoft changes Vista over antitrust concerns  +/-

  (CNET News) Microsoft said it has made changes to its Windows Vista operating system in response to concerns raised by antitrust officials in Europe and Korea. Microsoft officials said they now feel comfortable that they have addressed the three main concerns European Commission regulators raised last month. see also Commission statement on Microsoft Vista (RAPID). The European Commission has been informed of Microsoft's intention to deliver its Vista operating system worldwide, with no delay in Europe. The Commission has not given a 'green light' to Microsoft to deliver Vista because, as the Commission has consistently stated, Microsoft must shoulder its own responsibilities to ensure that Vista is fully compliant with EC Treaty competition rules and in particular with the principles laid down in the March 2004 Commission anti-trust decision concerning Microsoft. In line with the Commission's obligations under the EC Treaty and its practice, the Commission will closely monitor the effects of Vista in the market and, in particular, examine any complaints concerning Vista on their own merits.

• EU - Music licensing for the 21st century  +/-

  (RAPID) Speech by Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Music Publishers' Congress Brussels, 3 October 2006.

• US Government lobbied EU Commissioner on Microsoft's behalf  +/-

  (OUT-LAW News) The US Government directly lobbied the EU's Competition Commissioner in an attempt to influence her on Microsoft's behalf. Commissioner Neelie Kroes has said that the intervention was not welcome and that that behaviour is "not done". Kroes went ahead and fined Microsoft ?280.5 million in July.

Computer crime

• DE - Regierung will 'letzte Lücken' im Computerstrafrecht schließen  +/-

  (Heise) Mit einer deutlichen Verschärfung des Strafrechts will die Regierung den 'Schutz vor Hackern, Datenklau und Computersabotage' verbessern. Eine heute vom Bundeskabinett beschlossene Gesetzesänderung stellt klar, dass 'Hacking' strafbar ist. Gemeint ist damit das 'Knacken' von Computersicherheitssystemen, wie es in einer Mitteilung des Bundesministeriums der Justiz heißt.

• World's largest banks join forces to stamp out child internet porn  +/-

  (Guardian) Large banks in the UK are being asked to join a financial coalition against child pornography, and back its 'light a million candles' awareness campaign, by Standard Chartered, the London-based bank which does most of its business in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and which led the series of meetings at the IMF. Mike DeNoma, Standard Chartered's head of consumer finance, wrote to the British Bankers' Association urging it to join the international campaign.

Consumer protection

• EU - European Commission to review Distance Selling Directive  +/-

  (OUT-LAW News) Consumer confidence in cross-border retailing may have been undermined by the rash of laws that followed the European Commission's Distance Selling Directive, according to Europe's consumer protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. The Commission has announced that it will conduct a review of the Directive to assess how much it needs to be updated. The Directive, which is critical in laying down the legal parameters of internet retailing in Europe, was passed in 1997.

Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology

• Your television is ringing  +/-

  (Economist) The past couple of years have seen a series of huge takeovers and mergers among network operators and makers of telecoms equipment around the world. All of these transactions were prompted by a single underlying trend that has become the industry's new mantra: convergence. What this means, roughly, is the coming together of previously separate communications and entertainment services: fixed and mobile telephony, broadband internet access and television. But more often the word is used in a quasi-mystical way to evoke information heaven.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• BE - MSN is latest target of Belgian copyright complaint  +/-

  (IDG) Looking to avoid Google's legal tangles, Microsoft's MSN division in Belgium is in talks with Copiepresse, a group of newspaper publishers, over the rights to publish their content on its Web site. The group has asked MSN to stop posting Belgian newspaper articles to its Web site without permission.

• EU - Vote on proposals to harmonise patent litigation across Europe  +/-

  (The Register) The European Patent Office (EPO) is ramping up its PR activity ahead of this week's parliamentary vote on proposals to harmonise patent litigation across Europe's states. EPO president Alain Pompidou addressed the annual EPO online services conference in Lisbon arguing for an "enhanced patent culture" in Europe.

• EU - Mandelson mulls WTO case against China over piracy  +/-

  (OUT-LAW News) European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has threatened to take China to the World Trade Organisation over patent infringements. Mandelson says that he "reserves the right to take a case to the WTO" over patent piracy.

• IT - Sky football exclusivity extends to Internet  +/-

  (Repubblica) E' illegale la diffusione gratuita dei link delle partite di calcio sulle quali Sky vanta un diritto di esclusiva. Lo ha stabilito la corte di Cassazione che ha disposto un nuovo processo nei confronti di due milanesi indagati per avere 'illecitamente diffuso e trasmesso via internet eventi sportivi' rispetto ai quali Sky vantava, appunto, l'esclusiva. [Patrizio Menchetti comments: The Italian court of cassation held that it is a criminal offence to link to the web site of a Chinese TV where football matches are streamed which in Italy are protected by exclusive broadcasting rights. The judgment reversed the judgment of a lower court which had acquitted the offenders, who had put the links on their web site, on the basis that the Chinese TV had paid full broacasting rights for the events. The case was raised by Sky TV which broadcasts the events in Italy on an encrypted paying channel].

Data Protection (privacy)

• Passenger data deal for US and EU  +/-

  (BBC) The US and the European Union have struck a new deal for sharing airline passenger data. The new interim agreement will replace a deal struck down by the European Court of Justice in May. EU officials described the deal, as a "very important result" for the EU.

• US - Class action suit over ID theft tossed out  +/-

  (CNET News) A federal judge has thrown out a class action lawsuit against Acxiom, which exposed massive amounts of Americans' personal information in a high-profile Internet security snafu three years ago. Even though a spammer had downloaded more than one billion records from the company, U.S. District Judge William Wilson ruled that there was no evidence that Acxiom's purloined database had been used to send junk e-mail or postal mail.

Digital content

• Calling all critics  +/-

  (IPKat) The Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice, published by OUP, is looking for bright, enthusiastic volunteers to review some of the titles that the journal is receiving. The journal also reviews blogs, articles in other journals - even films. If you'd like to be considered for a review, email Jeremy and tell him, in brief, what your areas of interest or expertise are. He'll pass all serious responses on to the Review editor, Phill Johnson, who handles the allocation of reviews in person. If you are an author or publisher and want JIPLP to review your book, read the details .

• Music online: new content and services for the digital age  +/-

  (Europa) Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, 1st Music Publishers' EU Congress, Brussels, 3rd October 2006

Domain names

• A domain by any other name  +/-

  (Jonathan Zittrain) The public's dislike of Icann comes partly from the opinion that it exercises too much control over the internet, but that's not the case.

• Dot eu: Commissioner Reding pays first visit to managers of Europe's new internet domain  +/-

  (RAPID) Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding has visited EURid, the independent consortium managing the '.eu' domain name. Commissioner Reding was accompanied by several Members of the European Parliament. The purpose of the visit was to understand the way the new domain name registration system - that so far has attracted more than two million users - functions.

• ICANN - Commission welcomes move towards full private-sector management  +/-

  (RAPID) The United States government's decision to give more autonomy to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was welcomed by the European Commission. On 30 September, a highly prescriptive Memorandum of Understanding between the US Department of Commerce and ICANN expired. It has now been replaced by lighter arrangements intended to end definitely by 2009. The European Commission has been working for several years on a system of internet governance entrusted fully to the private sector without government interference in the internet's day-to-day management. see also ICANN : Internet control 'nears autonomy' (BBC).

• UK - British politician falls victim to cybersquatters  +/-

  (Reuters) The leader of Britain's Conservative Party has fallen victim to cybersquatters and some people trying to access his Internet blog have found themselves entering the world of a little-known Australian poet. David Cameron, modernizing leader of the opposition party, launched his blog www.webcameron.org.uk over the weekend in a bid to appeal to younger voters and revamp the image of his party. But the party did not take the precaution, common in such circumstances, of securing the domains of similar Web site names including www.webcameron.info and www.webcameron.co.uk.

e-Government

• EU - European voting machines flawed, easily manipulated  +/-

  (INQUIRER newsdesk) Vo used in Europe look like they may be as dodgy as those that have caused such a rumpus on the far side of the Pond. A paper published on a Web site named, "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (translation: We don't trust voting machines) details a bunch of flaws researchers claim to uncovered in machines used in Holland Germany and France.

Electronic commerce

• US - Gaming firms plan for US upheaval  +/-

  (BBC) A new law effectively makes internet gambling illegal in the US. Legislation which makes it a federal offence for firms to accept or handle money obtained from online gaming in the US was signed into law by President George W Bush. There is still some uncertainty about the scope of the law and how it will be implemented. The government has 270 days in which to issue regulations stating that banks and other institutions must block gaming-related transactions.

• EU - European Commission threatens legal action on gambling  +/-

  (Guardian) The European Commission has threatened legal action against France, Italy and Austria for restricting sports betting and gambling services, including banning foreign online gaming and casino operators. Its move, bringing to nine the number of EU countries whose gambling legislation is under investigation, was hailed as a shot in the arm by the €50bn European betting sector - several of whose leading executives have been prosecuted for offering cross-border services. see Commission Press Release.

• EU - Study on gambling  +/-

  (Europa) To obtain a detailed overview of the legal and economic aspects of gambling and games of chance, the Commission asked the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law to carry out a study into the sector. The study is the result of close to two years work and provides an analysis of the legal regimes governing gambling and games of chance in the European Union. The study also attempts to give indications on the economic development of the sector. The study confirms that in all Member States the sector is subject to rules and regulations aimed at safeguarding public interest objectives. While pursuing broadly similar aims the national laws and regulations vary considerably and often lead to barriers to the freedom to provide services and the freedom of establishment that are incompatible with Community law.

Information society and Internet policy

• Internet's future in 2020 debated  +/-

  (BBC) The internet will be a thriving, low-cost network of billions of devices by 2020, says a major survey of leading technology thinkers. The Pew report on the future internet surveyed 742 experts in the fields of computing, politics and business. More than half of respondents had a positive vision of the net's future but 46% had serious reservations. Almost 60% said that a counter culture of Luddites would emerge, some resorting to violence.

Interception

• IT - Italy blocks phone tapping leaks  +/-

  (BBC) Italy has passed a decree banning the use of illegally tapped telephone conversations in the media and as evidence in court. Leaked phone taps sparked a series of scandals in Italy, including one that rocked the country's football league. The former security chief at Telecom Italia was recently arrested as part of the investigation. The new legislation makes it illegal to possess or publish the contents of unauthorised phone taps. Newspapers face a fine of 50 euro cents for every single copy published containing such information. The fine can rise to as much as one million euros for major broadcasters and publishers.

Media Literacy

• EU - Commission announces support for media literacy mission  +/-

  (EurActiv) The European Charter for Media Literacy, set up to help citizens play a full role in 21st-century European culture, democracy and social life has been endorsed by the Commission. The charter website at www.euromedialiteracy.eu has been online since April 2006 and has already collected more than 100 signatories from a wide range of countries, institutions and individuals.

• EU - Commission begins public consultation on media literacy  +/-

  (RAPID) To cultivate and improve media literacy in the digital age, the European Commission has opened an EU-wide survey of best practices, and will set out its findings and proposals in a Communication in 2007. The survey questionnaire seeks the public's views on media literacy in connection with digital technologies, and information about initiatives in commercial communications, film and the online world. The deadline for replies is 15 December.

• Google launches literacy portal  +/-

  (BBC) Search engine Google has launched a portal to connect literacy organisations around the world. The Literacy Project enables teachers, organisations, and those interested in literacy to use the internet to search for and share literacy information. Users can search for information in digitised books and academic articles, and share information through blogs, videos and groups.

Portals, browsers and search engines

• DE - Medienforscher: Suchmaschinen sind keine Gatekeeper  +/-

  (Heise) Der Kommunikationswissenschaftler Professor Christoph Neuberger sieht Suchmaschinen nicht als Pförtner am Eingang zum vernetzten Weltwissen. "Es gibt zahlreiche alternative Zugangswege", erklärte der Münsteraner Professor auf einer Tagung der Freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Diensteanbieter (FSM) zur Verantwortlichkeit und Haftung von Suchmaschinenanbietern. Der Forscher spricht daher lieber von "Gatewatchern" als "Gatekeepern".

Protection of minors

• ES - Teléfono móvil para educar a niños a partir de seis años  +/-

  (PC World Digital) Imaginarium ha llegado a un acuerdo con Movistar para el lanzamiento en España de Mo1. Se trata de un teléfono móvil adaptado a niños a partir de seis años y pensado para ayudar a los padres a educar a sus hijos en el correcto uso de este sistema de comunicación, cada vez más presente en la vida familiar de la sociedad actual.

• UK - Child plea made to games industry  +/-

  (BBC) A government minister has made a plea to the games industry to get involved in the debate surrounding children and playing videogames. Experts recently warned that young people were spending too many hours in front of consoles and missing out on healthy childhoods. Creative industries minister Shaun Woodward said the industry had to deal with its image problem. He added that videogames also had a vital role to play in the UK economy.

Safer Internet awareness

• EU Kids Online  +/-

  (EU Kids Online) EU Kids Online is a project funded by the EC Safer Internet plus Programme. The EU Kids Online project (2006-2009) will examine research carried out in 18 member states into how children and young people use the internet and new media. This three-year collaboration aims to identify comparable research findings across Europe to evaluate the social, cultural and regulatory influences affecting both risks and children's and parents' responses to them. It will chart available data, note indicate gaps and identify factors that shape the research capability of European research institutions. Finally, it will examine methodological issues relating to cross-cultural analyses and the study of children's online experience in order to develop a best practice guide to research.

• US - Magazine and schools to help MySpace educate parents  +/-

  (Reuters) Social-networking site MySpace.com plans to unveil a campaign to educate parents, schools and teenagers about Internet safety as it moves to protect many of its young users. MySpace will announce a partnership with Seventeen magazine, the National School Boards Association and the National Association of Independent Schools to offer parents tips on how to protect minors online.

Security and encryption

• Hackers find use for Google Code Search  +/-

  (IDG News Service) Google has inadvertently given online attackers a new tool. The company's new source-code search engine, unveiled as a tool to help simplify life for developers, can also be misused to search for software bugs, password information and even proprietary code that shouldn't have been posted to the Internet.

• UK - Internet banking security criticised  +/-

  (BCS) Britain's major banks have been criticized in a new study for failing to adequately protect their online banking customers. A report by Heise Security claims that many ebanking sites contain vulnerabilities and flaws that can be exploited by web criminals. The company also states that security holes can make it easier for phishing scammers to create more convincing attacks and employ frame spoofing techniques.

• UK - Thousands of Brits fall victim to data theft  +/-

  (CNET News) U.K. police struggle to contact people whose passwords and credit card details have been stolen. The police said that a computer seized in the U.S. had been found to contain personal information from around 2,300 PCs based in Britain. This included e-mail addresses, passwords, credit card numbers and details of online transactions.

Telecommunications

• EU - Commission requests more market data on the German wholesale leased lines markets  +/-

  (Europa) The Commission has informed the German telecom regulator Bundesnetzagentur ("BNetzA") that it has serious doubts as regards the compatibility of the notified draft measures for the German wholesale leased lines markets with Community law. It will call for and assess further market data from BNetzA and market players. On the basis of the additional data received, the Commission will decide whether BNetzA will need to withdraw or whether it can adopt the proposed regulatory measure.

• EU telecoms rules: 9 new infringement cases opened, while 8 cases go into the second round  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has opened nine new infringement cases against Member States for possible infringements of EU telecoms rules. The Commission is also sending a reasoned opinion, thereby opening the second stage of infringement proceedings, to eight Member States. The majority of cases in this new round concern a failure to complete market reviews to assess the status of competition on national telecom markets or the lack of caller location information to emergency authorities. The Commission also closed 9 cases, following satisfactory implementation of EU legislation in the Member States concerned. see also New round of infringement proceedings in electronic communications: What are the issues?

Market & Technology

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• Change in Windows Vista licensing terms  +/-

  (Ed Bott's Blog) Microsoft's new Software License Terms says that you may "reassign the license to another device one time" or "make a one time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party." That limitation on retail licenses is a remarkable change. Previously, a retail license could be removed from one computer and reinstalled on another with no limits. Now, you get to reinstall one time and one time only. see also Microsoft Vista licence restrictions hit hardware hard (The Inquirer).

Market

• CN - China's pied piper  +/-

  (Economist) Jack Ma is attracting a following among entrepreneurs in China and internet companies worldwide.

• Google buys YouTube for $1.65bn  +/-

  (Guardian) Google has acquired YouTube in a $1.65bn all-share deal making the 18-month-old video-sharing website one of the fastest internet success stories ever. The deal, which dwarfs the $580m that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation paid for social networking website MySpace last year, puts Google ahead of its rivals as the internet moves into the video generation. see also Google faces copyright fight over YouTube. Dick Parsons, the chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, fired a shot across the bows of Google, saying his group would pursue its copyright complaints against the video sharing site YouTube.com.

• IT - Your call may be recorded  +/-

  (Economist) Telecom Italia is mired in controversy over political meddling in its business strategy and the emergence of a phone-tapping scandal.

• UK - Carphone Warehouse buying AOL UK  +/-

  (BBC) Carphone Warehouse has won the auction to buy the UK's third-largest internet provider, AOL UK. BBC business editor Robert Peston said Carphone Warehouse, owner of the TalkTalk broadband and phone offering, was paying £370m for the operation. AOL UK has 2.1 million customers across the country - 600,000 on dial-up and 1.5 million with broadband connections.

Mobile and wireless

• UK - Operators switch on mobile TV trial  +/-

  (vnunet.com) Mobile operators 3 UK, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone have launched a joint mobile TV trial. The technology adopted by the firms for the test broadcasts is TDtv. TDtv is designed to enable mobile operators to deliver multiple TV channels to an unlimited number of customers. Mobile operators deploying TDtv would also be able to deliver digital audio, multicast or other IP datacast services.

Statistics

• UK - Net crime 'big fear' for Britons  +/-

  (BBC) More Britons fear net crime than they do burglary, a survey suggests. The Get Safe Online study released by the government found 21% of respondents felt most at risk from net crime, while 16% worried most about being burgled.

Technology

• From hypertext to hypervideo  +/-

  (Economist) New technology that links together segments of online video delights viewers, vloggers and video-on-demand vendors.

Telecommunications

• How Europe's struggling telecoms incumbents compare  +/-

  (Economist) Eight years after their industry was liberalised and five years after a financial crisis that brought some close to collapse, Europe's big telecoms incumbents face troubled times. Telecom Italia's woes - slowing growth in mobile telephony, a decline in core fixed-line revenues, a growing threat from upstart competitors, huge debts and government intrusion - are common to its dinosaur-like peers in other European countries.

Forthcoming events

• 2006-11-01 UK, London The database state?  +/-

  (Ian Brown) The UK government is pushing ahead with an ambitious programme of wide-spread sharing of personal data and building massive national databases on both adults and children. Is widespread data sharing a panacea for effective 21st century government? Is it legal within the European privacy framework?

• 2006-11-13 UK, London Blocking Denial of Service Attacks on the Internet  +/-

  (Communications Research Network) This workshop will bring together a range of experts to discuss technical, legal, regulatory and contractual measures that would have a real effect in reducing Denial of Service attacks on-line. Denial of Service attacks, where high-profile websites are overwhelmed with a flood of traffic from compromised machines on the Internet, are becoming a real problem for UK business and government. Organised criminals are getting involved, using the threat of attacks to extort large sums of money from a range of organisations in the UK and overseas.

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