The European Parliament has adopted a non-legislative report on enforcement of intellectual property rights, calling for tougher application of intellectual rights and copyright harmonisation at the EU level. Meanwhile, civil liberties activists warn that such moves would undermine fundamental freedoms in the bloc. “Online piracy is an infringement of copyright and causes serious economic damage […]
Google has won a landmark ruling in Spain successfully defending broadcaster Telecinco’s claim that it should compensate for copyrighted material posted to the YouTube video sharing website. The Madrid court threw out Telecinco’s claim, filed in June 2008, and ordered the broadcaster to pay Google’s court costs. Telecinco claimed YouTube was damaging its business […]
Ofcom says the Government has made clear that establishing Local TV in the UK is a policy priority and has set up the Shott enquiry to examine what conditions might be necessary to make Local TV commercially viable. Following discussions with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Nicholas Shott and his team, it […]
Warning emails will be sent out by mid-October to people in France who have made illegal downloads, says anti-internet piracy body Hadopi. The new authority was supposed to be ready to act in April, then June, then September, but it has been held up by legal complications. Now the body says that it has sent […]
Tom Rogers, CEO at TiVo, says its long-running legal battles with EchoStar and its Dish Network sister company will likely end in February or March 2011. The DVR manufacturer has been locked in a tight legal embrace with EchoStar since 2004 when TiVo accused satellite TV provider EchoStar’s Dish Network system of violating TiVo’s patent […]
Telus, Canada’s third-largest wireless phone company, is asking the country’s broadcast regulator to ensure rivals can’t distribute television content exclusively to their mobile subscribers. Telus is using public hearings that began this week into Shaw’s $1.9 billion purchase of Canwest Global Communications’s television assets to argue against content exclusivity. Telus, which competes with Shaw and […]
Sky Italia and Mediaset are back in their war of words with Sky CEO Tom Mockridge writing to the press to accuse Mediaset of dominating the Italian TV and arguing that “more freedom in the TV sector” was needed to encourage competition. Mockridge says Mediaset controlled 65 per cent of advertising revenue. Mediaset chairman Fedele […]
US lawmakers are planning to pass an act which could force US ISPs to block websites that offer pirated intellectual property. The sites could host pirated music, movies and TV shows, as both free or paid for downloads. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act has been proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from […]
Three complementary measures to facilitate the roll out and take up of fast and ultra-fast broadband in the EU have been adopted by the European Commission. The package comprises a Commission Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access (NGA) networks that provides regulatory certainty to telecom operators, ensuring an appropriate balance between the need […]
Ofcom has officially handed responsibility for the regulation of editorial content of video-on-demand services to the Association for Television on Demand. Ofcom first designated ATVOD as co-regulator for on-demand editorial content in March. Last month the independent regulator revealed it would jointly regulate the VOD ad market with the Advertising Standards Authority once new codes […]