Opponents of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act in the Senate are asking Congress to delay efforts to forge new anti-piracy legislation. In a letter sent to Capitol Hill, some 70 advocacy groups, Internet companies, and venture capitalists have urged Congress to hold off on new legislation until the true […]
Darrell Issa, Chairman of the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has unveiled the crowd-sourced sections of the Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act at KeepTheWebOPEN.com. Internet users generated improvements to six sections of the OPEN Act, representing the first-ever legislative mark-up truly open to the American public. Issa and […]
The first ever free to air Premier League football match broadcast in the UK, drew an average audience of 903,000 viewers. The game between Manchester City and Fulham on February 4th was screened by ESPN and made available for free in nearly 19 million homes via Freeview as part of ESPN’s ‘Free Weekend’ promotion to […]
Deutsche Telekom will bid on its own for exclusive satellite and cable rights to show Germany’s Bundesliga football matches live, according to Der Spiegel, opening a possible bidding war with Sky Deutschland. Should Telekom win the rights, which are estimated to be worth about €295 million a year. The Deutsche Fussball Liga, or DFL, is […]
Research carried out by research firm BTIG Research suggests there is not a major industry risk to collapsing the theatrical-to-home entertainment window. The firm sought to ascertain views on how would releasing movies earlier in the home impact movie spending and piracy; whether people are all inherently movie thieves, or would a wider array of […]
BTjunkie, a popular bittorrent website, has “voluntarily” shut down operations in the wake of last month’s closure of Megaupload. BTjunkie, which launched in 2005, said in a message on the site: “This is the end of the line my friends. The decision has not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been […]
Poland has put on hold plans to ratify a controversial international online anti-piracy accord after widespread off-and-online protests in the country. “I consider that the arguments for a halt to the ratification process are justified,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters. “The issue of signing of the ACTA accord did not involve sufficient consultation with […]
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Members will be offered generic applications to deploy Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) during the Olympics and the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), when audiences peak. Three ‘white label’ interactive applications will be provided free to participating EBU Members to customise generic content for entertainment, news or sport. The applications from EBU […]
The English Premier League and the importers of foreign STBs and cards are both claiming victory after the latest High Court ruling. After a High Court hearing this week, the League says it will take action against pubs for breach of copyright. But the importers say they are free to carry on their business. The […]
The Huffington Post is making its first move into TV, with a live online video channel described as a “never-ending talkshow”. Arianna Huffington announced that the HuffPost Streaming Network would launch in the summer and feature 12 hours of original programming for five days a week. Roy Sekoff, co-founder of the Huffington Post, described the […]