Members of online hacktivist group Anonymous have targeted sites related to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) following the suicide of Aaron Swartz, the Reddit co-founder who championed open access to documents on the Internet. Swartz was arrested in July 2011 and accused of stealing four million documents from MIT and Jstor, an archive of […]
Yemini observers say there has been a tendency for TV broadcasters in the Middle East generally, and in particular those new TV channels that have emerged following the freedoms won following the ‘Arab Spring’ series of revolutions, for channels to “outdo each other to present the worst that can be offered”. Abd-al-Salam al-Shurayhi, an anchorman […]
China is continuing to be especially tough on the ownership of unauthorised satellite dishes, especially in its Tibetan (Malho) prefecture in Qinghai province. A crackdown over the past few days has seen “hundreds” of dishes and receivers confiscated, according to Radio Free Asia. Those found with the satellite equipment, which Tibetans have also used to […]
Adult programming is not allowed on Indian TV, but some broadcasters continually try to get around the legislation. A special committee of India’s Information & Broadcasting regulator has issued a tough set of penalties on three channels that pushed their luck. The SS TV Channel had showed a movie trailer back in September for an […]
In the latest cable versus broadcaster argument over carriage fees, a dispute between Raycom Media and Cox Communications was seemingly resolved late on January 4th. Raycom operates a series of local stations including the important CBS affiliate in Tucson, Arizona and NBC affiliate in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Raycom’s 8 stations were taken down for 48 […]
Uruguay’s industry ministry on December 31st issued an official decree that has the effect of limiting the market share of pay-TV broadcasting. The new rules state that no single company y might enjoy a more than 25 per cent overall share in the nation, or a 35 per cent domination in one locality. Currently no […]
The Chinese government has revealed new measures to supervise and manage the copyright status of films and TV series broadcast online. Following a meeting of the National Copyright Administration (NCA) addressing the progress of an online copyright infringement crackdown, a statement was issued suggesting that supervision and management measures on the online use of TV […]
Germany’s competition regulator the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) has imposed fines totalling €55 million on broadcasting groups RTL and Pro7Sat1 and against two persons deemed responsible. The companies are accused of collusion in the introduction of encryption of free-to-air digital TV services. The Bundeskartellamt has also secured agreement from the pair to offer SD quality […]
The United States and the Russian Federation (Russia) have agreed an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Action Plan to improve IPR protection and enforcement. The IPR Action Plan addresses priority areas including combating IPR infringement over the Internet and strengthening IPR enforcement. “Agreement on the IPR Action Plan represents a significant step at a historic time […]
BT has been fined £95 million (€117m) by Ofcom for “overcharging” rival telecoms firms for access to its network. Cable & Wireless Worldwide, BSkyB, Talk Talk, Virgin Media and Verizon are all entitled to refunds. Ofcom said BT had overcharged these firms for “certain wholesale ethernet services” between April 2006 and March 2011 and must […]