Japan’s upper house has approved a revision to the Copyright Law making downloading of pirated content illegal. The revision will go into effect on January 1st. Uploading of pirated music and video content is already proscribed, but downloading has been tolerated as long as it is for personal use. Legislators have prescribed no penalties for […]

Despite receiving some money against the £35m (E41m) it is owed, the English Premier League has told Setanta if it does not pay the balance by Friday, 19 June, it will put its remaining games – 46 live matches in the 09-10 season – out to tender. “In view of the shortage of time before […]

Virgin Media and Universal Music have unveiled plans for a digital music service designed to bring about a rapid and permanent change in the way UK consumers buy and listen to music. The service will enable Virgin Media broadband customer to both stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from […]

Disney has confirmed it will replace Jetix with its Disney XD brand in the UK this August. The company has been gradually phasing out Jetix, having taken full control of the channel last year, and introducing Disney XD in its place.

Signalling an increased emphasis on intellectual property rights, NBC Universal is moving one of its senior communication executives, Cory Shields, to a newly created position of executive vice president for global policy strategies. For the past three years, Shields has been the main public relations adviser to the NBC Universal chief executive, Jeff Zucker. “One […]

Virgin Media and Universal Music have unveiled plans for a digital music service designed to bring about a rapid and permanent change in the way UK consumers buy and listen to music. The service will enable Virgin Media broadband customer to both stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from […]

Sky says the “crown jewels” list of sporting events reserved for free-to-air television amounts to a “tax on sport” that subsidises terrestrial broadcasters. In its submission to the government’s review of the A list of sporting events that must shown on free to air TV, the pay-TV broadcaster also argues that the policy reduces competition […]

Sweden’s Pirate Party, striking a chord with voters who want more free content on the Internet, won a seat in the European Parliament. The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden, enough to give it a single seat. The party wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and reduce surveillance on the […]

C4 is to put its back catalogue online free of charge – giving viewers the chance to watch every episode of its homegrown shows. From July, more than 4,000 hours of the channel’s archived content – about 10,000 programme titles – will be added to the 4oD catchup service. The catchup service currently offers viewers […]

The board of UK and Ireland football broadcaster Setanta is meeting this week to assess whether it has any options other than placing the business in administration. Last week the company failed to pay the Scottish Premier League £3m (E3.4m). The SPL has had to find £3m from its own funds to distribute to the […]