The European Council’s permanent representatives committee (Coreper) has agreed its position on a draft directive aimed at adapting EU copyright rules to the digital environment. The common position will serve as a mandate for the presidency of the Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament, once the latter has agreed its own position. “All […]
As part of Operation Trojan Horse, Hong Kong Customs recently undertook a series of raids against four retail outlets in Sham Shui Po and Wan Chai. Over a two-day period (May 25-26 2018), Hong Kong Customs raided retail outlets and arrested four shop owners and four salespersons found to be selling pre-loaded TV boxes (also […]
Philip Hammond, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, has targeted seeing full-fibre to the premises connections being available to 15 million premises by 2025 and committed to delivering a nationwide full-fibre to the premises network by 2033. Delivering a speech at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Annual Dinner 2018, Hammond said that the government […]
Spotify, the popular music streaming app, will pay out $112 million (€96m) in a settlement agreement, following two lawsuits that claimed songwriters hadn’t been paid enough in exchange for their music appearing on the service. The class action originally came from David Lowery, a musicians’ rights advocate from the band Camper Van Beethoven, and Melissa […]
As the football world gears up for the showdown between Liverpool and Real Madrid in this weekend’s UEFA Champions League Final, data from digital platform security specialist Irdeto reveals that a total of 5,100 unique illegal streams were detected redistributing games over the Internet during this year’s Champions League knockout stages. Of this total, 2,093 […]
The BPI, the UK record labels association, has welcomed the announcement from the Government that it will bring forward legislation in the autumn to improve safety and reduce harm online. The BPI will press the Government to use the opportunity to bring in new measures to boost the UK’s fast-growing creative industries, which now contribute […]
Matthew Hancock, the UK’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, has indicated that Comcast’s $31 billion (€25.4bn) bid for Sky does not raise the same concerns as the initial, rival bid by Fox for the 61 per cent of the broadcaster it does not already own. In a Statement, Hancock said: “On […]
The launch of a campaign to clamp down on social media firms has got off to a rocky start, as the culture secretary, Matt Hancock, admitted it was likely to be two years before there was any new law. In a round of media interviews, Hancock said there was no date for legislation, but it […]
British households are paying for broadband services that are, on average, 51 per cent slower than advertised, according to analysis from consumer body Which?. Results generated from 235,000 uses of the Which? broadband speed-checker tool show that, on average, customers are paying for speeds of up to 38 megabits per second, but actually only receiving […]
The US Senate has voted to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Restoring Internet Freedom Order which replaced previous net neutrality legislation, passing a bill that has little chance of advancing in the House but offers net neutrality supporters and Democrats a political rallying point for the midterm elections. Democrats forced the May 16th vote […]