Hi, here is your weekly round-up of highlights from Out-Law News. As always, there are plenty of other stories from this week. You can also access our archive of weekly emails.
This is the final weekly round-up from Out-Law News for 2011. It has been an exciting year with lots of new developments for us here, thank you for your support, and we hope you have happy holidays. We'll be back in January.
This week's news on Out-Law.com
TMT & Sourcing & IP
Selling user data to advertisers is legitimate, watchdog says in Facebook audit
report
Selling user data to advertisers is legitimate, watchdog says in Facebook audit report
It is "legitimate" for Facebook Ireland to use information users provide about
themselves on the social networking site to enable advertisers to serve targeted
ads, the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has said.
21/12/2011
VOD regulator wrong to deem paper's video content TV-like, Ofcom rules
The UK's video-on-demand (VOD) regulator has reversed its previous rulings that
videos on newspaper websites were subject to its regulation after Ofcom said it
was wrong to rule that The Sun's video content was subject to VOD rules.
21/12/2011
Council of Ministers backs EU signing of ACTA
EU ministers have given their backing to a controversial international
intellectual property (IP) rights treaty paving the way for representatives of
the trading bloc to sign the agreement.
20/12/2011
Irish ISP ordered to stop using 'three strikes' system against illegal file-sharers
The Irish data protection watchdog has ordered the country's largest internet
service provider (ISP) to stop using its 'three strikes' system for identifying
and warning alleged illegal file-sharers, according to media reports.
20/12/2011
Sky follows BT in blocking Newzbin2
Sky has blocked access to a copyright infringing website following a UK court
order, the company has said.
19/12/2011
Football fixtures not protected by database copyright, says ECJ advisor
Databases of football fixture lists are not protected by EU database copyright
laws because the creation of the fixtures themselves is not part of what the EU
law protects, an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said.
16/12/2011
Banking & Restructuring
Consultation reveals 'strong support' for single insolvency practitioner regulator
Insolvency practitioners could be supervised by a single regulator after a
consultation on proposed regulatory reforms revealed "strong support" for the
idea, Employment Minister Ed Davey has said.
21/12/2011
Draft Financial Services Bill must be "significantly amended" to avoid another crisis, MPs say
The Chancellor of the Exchequer should be given "automatic" control over the Bank of England in the event of another economic crisis, a committee has said. 21/12/2011
Retail & Leisure
UK is right to seek to block '28th regime' plans, says expert
OPINION: The European Union was founded as a trading bloc and it is no surprise
that the European Commission is annoyed that online commerce has not led to a
massive upsurge in online sales.
21/12/2011
Pensions
'Pension unlocking' loan schemes ruled unlawful
Loans between pension schemes are "unauthorised payments" which cannot be used
as a way of unlocking pension capital before a scheme member retires, the High
Court has ruled.
21/12/2011
Tax
MPs publish "damning indictment" of alleged HMRC deals with big businesses
There are "specific and systemic" failures in the way in which HM Revenue and
Customs (HMRC) handles tax disputes with big companies which must be addressed,
an influential committee of MPs has said.
20/12/2011
Energy
Government sets out capacity mechanism plans in update to Electricity Market
Reform
The Government will pass new laws designed to ensure that consumers will
continue to enjoy reliable electricity supplies, the Department for Energy and
Climate Change (DECC) has announced.
19/12/2011
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