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Ofcom, the UK communications regulatory, has authorised the BBC to add copy protection in the form of content management technology or digital rights management (DRM) to its high definition Freeview digital terrestrial platform. Other Freeview services will not be affected. The BBC proposed that its licence be varied to allow it to restrict access to broadcast Electronic Programme Guide data to only those high definition receivers that include content management technology. This would enable broadcasters to control the multiple unauthorised copying of broadcast high definition content and its retransmission...

The High Court has upheld a finding of the communications regulator, Ofcom, that the offensive language and manner of a radio talkshow presenter failed to comply with generally accepted standards; the finding was not a disproportionate interference with freedom of expression. Under the Broadcasting Act 1990 broadcasters must comply with the requirement that nothing in their programmes “offends against good taste or decency or is … offensive to public feeling” and this is implemented by Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code covering television and radio. The Code requires that generally accepted standards must...

On 24 June 2010, the European Commission issued a set of reasoned opinions to 12 member states (Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia) requesting that they proceed with updating their national broadcasting legislation in order to bring it into compliance with the Audiovisual Media Service (AVMS) Directive. The Directive, which replaced the Television without Frontiers Directive of 1989 (as amended), was adopted in December 1997 with the intention of bringing the EU’s broadcasting rules up to speed with the digital age. The...

The Digital Economy Act received royal assent on 8 April 2010 and came into force (with the exception of certain sections which were granted immediate effect) on 8 June 2010. The Act is intended to regulate digital media and, to a large extent, implements the legislative proposals of last summer’s Digital Britain report (see IRIS 2009-8: 14/20). The Act includes provisions relating to the UK’s communications infrastructure, public service broadcasting, copyright licensing and online infringement of copyright, as well as security and safety online and in video games. Most of the provisions of the...

The Digital Economy Act 2010, Section 3, concerning ‘Online infringement of copyright’, has amended the Communications Act 2003, Section 124. The Explanatory Memorandum for Section 3 of the 2010 Act states that the Act imposes duties on Internet Service Providers to (a) “notify their subscribers if the internet protocol (“IP”) addresses associated with them are reported by copyright owners as being used to infringe copyright” and (b) “keep track of the number of reports about each subscriber and, on request by a copyright owner, compile on an anonymous basis a list of those subscribers who are...