October 2007
Wed, Oct, 31 2007
A ban on taxing internet access and email will almost certainly become law in the US. Both houses of Congress have approved an extension to the existing law, and President George Bush is expected to sign the bill within days.
Wed, Oct, 31 2007
A company’s claim for ownership of the copyright in a piece of software has failed because it was not explicitly stated in a contract. Meridian International Services had said that its ownership was an implied term of an agreement.
Wed, Oct, 31 2007
US internet service providers, newspaper publishers, journalists and book publishers have joined together to lobby the US Court of Appeal. They are asking the court to find an anti-pornography law unconstitutional.
Tue, Oct, 30 2007
Tarzan’s distinctive yell cannot be registered as a trade mark because it is almost impossible to represent graphically. Sounds can be registered as trade marks, but the ruling could limit that to sounds that can be written in standard musical notation
Tue, Oct, 30 2007
Goodwill in trade marks can last for 40 years even if the mark is rarely used in that time, the High Court has ruled. The Court ruled in favour of the Football Association (FA) which was defending its ownership of a mascot from the 1966 World Cup
Mon, Oct, 29 2007
The Scottish Information Commissioner has ordered a health board to disclose the details of a private finance initiative (PFI) hospital deal worth ₤1.2 billion. The decision could have far-reaching consequences, says a freedom of information law expert.
Mon, Oct, 29 2007
Europe's regulatory regime for the trading of securities is overhauled this week by the Markets in Financial Services Directive (MiFID). The new law comes into force on 1st November.
Fri, Oct, 26 2007
The body that regulates the structure of the internet is investigating whether unscrupulous operators are stealing domain name ideas from customers.
Fri, Oct, 26 2007
The New Zealand performance artist who brought down Amazon.com’s one-click patent said that he gained much of his information from a subsidiary of Amazon itself. He also said that he acted because so little happens in New Zealand that he was bored.
Fri, Oct, 26 2007
The UK Government is considering setting up a new national police unit to tackle computer crime, just two years after the National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) was disbanded.
Thu, Oct, 25 2007
A ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in a Spanish case last week could strengthen the hand of an age pressure group appealing against UK retirement laws, according to an employment law expert.
Thu, Oct, 25 2007
The UK Government has dropped controversial proposals that critics said would have neutered the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. Changes to the charging structure that would have allowed bodies to refuse more requests will not now go ahead.
Thu, Oct, 25 2007
The European Commission wants to create a new layer of intellectual property protections because it says that existing structures such as WIPO are not flexible enough.
Thu, Oct, 25 2007
It was the worst-kept secret in the internet industry, but today Microsoft proved all the rumor-mongers right by confirming that it is taking a stake in Facebook, and shutting Google out of the social networking website.
Wed, Oct, 24 2007
A man who has been refused permission to appeal his defamation action to the House of Lords has said that he will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Wed, Oct, 24 2007
A law requiring publishers of sexually explicit content to document and record the age of participants in material has been ruled unconstitutional by a US court. Experts had warned that the law could cause problems for photo-sharing websites
Tue, Oct, 23 2007
A man was arrested in Middlesbrough today and web servers seized in Amsterdam in a raid on a website accused of facilitating unlawful file-sharing of unreleased albums.
Tue, Oct, 23 2007
Italian bloggers are protesting at a proposed law that would force them to register with the government in order to write a blog, even a personal one with no commercial purpose.
Tue, Oct, 23 2007
An exemption for paper records from the Data Protection Act runs out at midnight. The transitional relief exemption only lasted until 23rd October, imposing less stringent conditions on the holding of paper records than electronic ones.
Mon, Oct, 22 2007
Microsoft confirmed today that it will not appeal last month's landmark ruling by the European Court of First Instance. The software giant also agreed to changes to comply with the European Commission's decision of 2004.
Mon, Oct, 22 2007
A man was arrested in England last week for allegedly running a website that linked to unauthorised copies of TV shows and movies on the web. However, it is not clear how the provision of links will be prosecuted as a criminal offence.
Mon, Oct, 22 2007
CCTV needs a set of standards and a system of licensing that can be enforced by the UK's Information Commissioner, according to a Home Office report which suggests that over 80% of today's CCTV footage is "far from ideal" for police purposes
Fri, Oct, 19 2007
The High Court has protected the identities of seven individuals who made comments on a football website's message board. Comments that are "strictly defamatory" can still be so trivial that they do not warrant an invasion of the authors' privacy rights.
Fri, Oct, 19 2007
A set of copyright principles for user-generated content has been published by internet and media giants including Microsoft, MySpace, Viacom, CBS and Disney. YouTube has rejected the project, though, describing such mandates as "generally a bad idea."
Thu, Oct, 18 2007
Facebook has agreed to add safeguards to protect children from sexual predators, obscene content and harassment after New York prosecutors threatened the social networking site with fraud charges for failing to live up to its own safety claims.
Thu, Oct, 18 2007
Mobile phones will soon be heard on commercial aircraft, subject to regulatory approval. The UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, published a proposal today that would license the right for passengers to make calls above an altitude of 3,000 metres.
Thu, Oct, 18 2007
Rastafarians are protected by UK laws that ban workplace discrimination on the grounds of philosophical belief. But a tidy-hair policy does not discriminate against someone with dreadlocks, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled
Thu, Oct, 18 2007
Senators on both sides of the House have backed a bill that would allow American victims of identity theft to seek restitution for the money and time they waste repairing their credit histories.
Thu, Oct, 18 2007
Orange will indeed offer Apple's iPhone on France, but the most interesting aspect of the two firms' partnership will be the availability, for the first time, of officially unlocked handsets.
Wed, Oct, 17 2007
A permanent injunction has been imposed on the distributor of the Morpheus file-sharing software. A US court ruled yesterday that StreamCast Inc. must use "the most effective means available to reduce the infringing capabilities of the system."
Wed, Oct, 17 2007
Most of the claims in Amazon's controversial patent for shopping with a single mouse click have been rejected by the US Patent Office. It follows a campaign by a New Zealander who filed evidence of prior art with funding from readers of his blog.
Wed, Oct, 17 2007
A man who used more than 5,500 copycat domain names to divert surfers to his adult website has agreed to pay $164,000 to settle charges brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). A court previously ordered him to pay almost $2 million.
Wed, Oct, 17 2007
An advert for budget airline Ryanair has been banned by the UK's advertising watchdog after it made misleading and unfair comparisons with online travel agent Lastminute.com. The advert broke rules on truthfulness and comparative advertising.
Tue, Oct, 16 2007
OPINION: Barely a year since the British Government brought the age discrimination laws into force, it is perhaps ironic that the political arena is home to some of the most blatant age discrimination to date.
Tue, Oct, 16 2007
A US court has snubbed a ruling by a Canadian court that ordered the removal of defamatory comments from a US website. The author had also asked that his comments be removed, but the site refused to comply and the US court has supported that decision.
Tue, Oct, 16 2007
Firms across Europe have just two weeks to comply with a law that aims to create a single European market for financial services. But most are struggling with the Directive's record-keeping duties, according to survey findings published today.
Tue, Oct, 16 2007
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill on Saturday designed to give new protections to credit card holders by placing tough limits on the type of payment information retailers can store on their customers.
Mon, Oct, 15 2007
Payments processing body SWIFT will stop processing European banking transactions in the US in 2009. It is planning a restructuring of its network and the building of a new operations centre in Switzerland.
Mon, Oct, 15 2007
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has issued High Court proceedings against a Northern Irish firm, accusing it of using unlicensed software. It is not yet clear if the company, Kelman Ltd, will defend the action.
Mon, Oct, 15 2007
The set of rules which Google proposed as the foundation for a global privacy standard are inadequate, a privacy law expert has said. The rules are not specific enough to operate as a global standard, said the expert.
Fri, Oct, 12 2007
News agency Associated Press (AP) is suing Verisign over that company's unlicensed use of AP news stories. The suit relates to Verisign-owned news aggregation site Moreover.
Fri, Oct, 12 2007
An agreement that could slash the cost of filing a patent across Europe can come into force after the French Government signed up to the system. Called the London Agreement, it could not take effect without French backing.
Fri, Oct, 12 2007
European data protection officials will not pass verdict on Google's privacy policies until early 2008, an official has said. The Article 29 Working Party met this week and decided to delay issuing an opinion while it widened its investigation.
Thu, Oct, 11 2007
A new top-level domain has been launched this week. The first 'sunrise' period for .asia names is only for holders of registered trade marks. Where a name has more than one qualifying applicant, an auction will be held to determine the winner.
Wed, Oct, 10 2007
California law may require websites to be accessible to disabled internet users, according to a ruling in a case against retail giant Target. Despite recent improvements to the accessibility of Target.com.
Wed, Oct, 10 2007
Siemens has won a patent infringement case against a fire alarm company over its protective coating technology for printed circuit boards. The German electronics giant will be awarded damages partly because of a gap in the law.
Wed, Oct, 10 2007
The anti-counterfeit laws that prevent fake whisky being sold are to be strengthened to protect Scotland's £2.5 billion Scotch whisky industry, according to the Government.
Wed, Oct, 10 2007
The Walt Disney Company has been censured by the UK advertising watchdog for not making clear that a children's mobile phone game cost £5 in its advertising.
Tue, Oct, 9 2007
New guidelines on web accessibility are nearing completion after years of delay, according to the body behind them. But outspoken critic Joe Clark says that the guidelines will be ignored when they are published.
Tue, Oct, 9 2007
Companies in the European Union will next year be able to file just one application to protect their designs and have those designs protected across Europe and in many countries around the world.
Tue, Oct, 9 2007
The Kwik-Fit garage chain is being taken to court accused of violating musical copyright. Royalties agency the Performing Rights Society (PRS) is suing the company because of the volume at which mechanics play the radio while working.
Tue, Oct, 9 2007
A worker has won the right to compensation for his sacking after being accused of poaching customers from his employer and starting up his own rival firm. The employer lost the case despite a tribunal finding 'powerful evidence' in the employer's favour.
Mon, Oct, 8 2007
The Information Commissioner will no longer regulate the use of Bluetooth mobile technology, prompting fears of a wave of 'bluetooth spam'. The Commissioner no longer considers the wireless connection technology to be covered by the UK's privacy laws.
Fri, Oct, 5 2007
Author Niema Ash has agreed not to publish further editions of her book about new age singer Loreena McKennit. The book was at the centre of a controversial case which has helped to redefine the privacy laws in England.
Fri, Oct, 5 2007
The internet's most famous companies are the subject of a patent suit claiming rights to a method for conducting business over the internet. The suit has been filed in a court renowned for patent violation cases.
Fri, Oct, 5 2007
A forthcoming decision by the House of Lords could seriously dent confidence in cross-border e-commerce. The Lords have been hearing arguments in the case this week.
Fri, Oct, 5 2007
From next week BT will encourage its broadband users to share their connections over wireless networks, a practice till now forbidden by the company's terms and conditions.
Thu, Oct, 4 2007
The Recording Industry of America today won its first jury trial against an individual accused of illegally downloading music.
Wed, Oct, 3 2007
User-generated content could land publishers in prison, according to a legal expert. The warning follows a watchdog's ruling that lad mag FHM broke media rules when it printed a mobile phone photo of a topless 14-year-old girl without her consent.
Wed, Oct, 3 2007
Live television competition operators cannot simply offer a free internet entry form in order to escape their competitions being regulated as lotteries, according to new guidance from the Gambling Commission.
Wed, Oct, 3 2007
Ofcom is appealing a decision by the Information Tribunal to the High Court that the media regulator says could derail a system which tells the public where mobile phone masts are located.
Wed, Oct, 3 2007
The proposed $3.1 billion merger of search giant Google and online advertising company DoubleClick would lead to "a massive violation of data privacy rights", a German privacy watchdog has warned.
Tue, Oct, 2 2007
The European Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into chip maker Qualcomm. It is the third chip or memory competition case launched by the Commission since July and follows a recent Commission competition court victory over Microsoft.
Tue, Oct, 2 2007
Sky's purchase of 17.9% of ITV was anti-competitive and against the public interest, the Competition Commission has ruled. It could force the broadcaster to sell the shares which are now worth over £200 million less than Sky paid in 2006.
Tue, Oct, 2 2007
Users of encryption technology can no longer refuse to reveal keys to UK authorities after amendments to the powers of the state to intercept communications took effect yesterday.
Mon, Oct, 1 2007
A would-be candidate for Governor of New York who failed to gather enough signatures to be placed on the ballot has failed in his attempt to sue Yahoo! and Ask.com for undermining his 'master election plan'.
Mon, Oct, 1 2007
Google has proposed breaking up the information gathered on users of its services in order to better preserve their privacy. The company told the US Senate that it was investigating the measure after consultation with privacy groups.
Mon, Oct, 1 2007
UK telecoms firms must keep phone call logs for a year under legislation which comes into force today. But an industry trade association said the new rules will make "little practical difference" to telecoms providers.
Mon, Oct, 1 2007
The Equality and Human Rights Commission opened today with the aim of making Britain a fairer, more equal place to live. A survey to mark the launch reveals the scale of its challenge, as nearly half of Britons say they have faced unfair discrimination.
