Days before the BitTorrent piracy case involving Aussie ISP iiNet goes to court, anti-piracy group AFACT has made a second legal retreat. The group, which represents Hollywood movie studios, has now dropped its claims that iiNet engaged in primary acts of copyright infringement. Next week, the case of Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount […]

NDS has announced that Canal Overseas, the international arm of Canal+ Group, is introducing a personal video recorder service with a Flash-based Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) developed by NDS. This is the first PVR service for Canal Overseas markets across the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific will benefit […]

BT Group has criticised a government proposal that would allow UK authorities to suspend Internet access temporarily for those who engage repeatedly in copyright-infringing file sharing. BT said the 'summary justice' proposal undermines rights to due process and raise costs for consumers by requiring expensive network interventions on the part of ISPs. BT also said […]

According to reports in the US internal YouTube e-mails, handed over in the preliminary discovery phase of the pending court action brought by Viacom, indicate that YouTube managers were aware of unauthorized content on the site and chose not to remove it. If true this would harm You Tube's defence that it cannot be responsible […]

From Colin Mann in Cannes KIT digital, a leading global provider of on-demand software solutions for managing and monetising Internet Protocol (IP)-based video assets, has reached deals to acquire two of its leading competitors, Nunet of Cologne, Germany and The FeedRoom, based in New York City. The aggregate consideration paid for Nunet and The FeedRoom […]

Warner Music Group and YouTube are finalising an agreement that would allow music videos from artists to once again be featured on the popular video portal. The deal would resolve a dispute over licensing rights that caused Warner Music to pull music videos by its artists from Google's YouTube in December. A deal would mean […]

CTAM cable marketing delegates have been warned that business models must be in place before they provide content everywhere. Thomas Franzen, CEO of Swedish cable operator Com Hem, said subscribers had a right to expect access to their content but he said too many rushed to provide free services for fear of being left out […]

Virgin Media has made a major agreement with Disney featuring a raft of new kids' content to be made available across Virgin Media's three entertainment platforms. This is the first deal of its kind for Virgin Media, and means customers will soon be able to watch Disney content in their home or on the move. […]

A federal judge in the US has ruled that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbour provisions protected Veoh, the video-sharing site – from liability for hosting pirated clips uploaded by users. “The DMCA does not place the burden of ferreting out infringement on the service provider,” the judge said. Universal Music had sued Veoh […]

France’s lower house of parliament has approved the '3 strikes' bill allowing authorities to cut off Internet access to people who download illegally. The measure passed in the National Assembly following approval by the Senate in July. It must clear another hurdle to become law, gaining approval from a small committee from both houses of […]