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The UK High Court has rejected a challenge to provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2010 designed to limit file-sharing in breach of copyright law. They provide that internet service providers must notify subscribers if their internet protocol addresses are reported by copyright owners as being used to infringe copyright, must keep track of the number of reports about each subscriber and must compile on an anonymous basis a list of those reported on. After obtaining a court order to obtain personal details, copyright owners will be able to take action against those on the list. These provisions...

The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport has announced that he intends to accept undertakings from News Corporation on their proposed merger with BSkyB rather than referring the merger to the Competition Commission (see IRIS 2011-2/4; IRIS 2011-3/22). The minister took advice from Ofcom, the communications regulator, and from the Office of Fair Trading, the competition authority, before doing so, and allowed 18 days for consultation on the proposed undertakings. The use of undertakings avoids the delay of six-eight months that referral to the Competition Commission would entail,...

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is the body that classifies films and videos/DVDs. Originally established as a self-regulatory body by the film industry, it acquired statutory responsibility for videos and DVDs under the Video Recordings Act 1984. It is financed by fees charged for classification, according to a tariff approved by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Classification is carried out through ratings setting out the audience for whom viewing is appropriate (U, PG, 12A, 15, 18, R18). Since 2008 the BBFC has been working with the video industry to provide a content...

The European Commission has finished the preliminary analysis of the measures implementing the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive into national law notified by 16 Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. Subsequently, the European Commission has sent fact-finding letters to these states inquiring about these implementing measures. The Commission is thus seeking to ensure that all provisions of the AVMS Directive have been correctly transposed into...

ITV Broadcasting Limited, ITV 2 Limited, ITV Digital Channels, Channel 4 Television Corporation, 4 Ventures Limited and Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited are alleging that TV Catchup “has infringed the copyrights in their broadcasts by communicating those broadcasts to the public by electronic transmission.” This hearing was generally to determine whether there was any real prospect of the claimants succeeding and whether specifically “the fact that the defendant's transmissions are not broadcasts is necessarily fatal to the claim.” TV Catchup facilitates live video streaming of content (including...