April 2004 

EU report takes Microsoft to task
A record fine imposed on Microsoft in Europe last month arose from the
longstanding nature of the software company's anticompetitive
practices, according to a massive report from European regulators. The
European Commission's 300-page document says the more than five-year
duration of those practices pushed the fine to 497 million euros--now
about $590 million--well above what Microsoft would have been charged
simply on the basis of its business practices. 'The amount of the fine
to be imposed on the basis of the gravity of the infringement should
therefore be increased by 50% to take account of its duration. On that
basis, the base amount of the fine is EUR 497,196,304,' the document
says.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5197411.html
http://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/antitrust/cases/decisions/37792/en.pdf

CA - Minister vows to fight music file swapping
Music downloaders may have a short honeymoon from potential
prosecution as Hélène Schérrèr, the new federal Heritage Minister has
promised to punish music file sharers. Officials at Heritage Canada,
in tandem with Industry Canada, will soon meet to draft legislation to
amend a loophole in the Copyright Act that permits music downloading.
In addition, the minister will push to have the federal government
ratify two international treaties that protect the ownership of
copyright materials. In a judgment last month, the Federal Court of
Canada ruled that swapping songs on the Internet for personal use does
not break the law.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem17832.htm

 EU - Commission adopts rules for licensing of patents, know-how
and software copyright
The European Commission has adopted new rules for applying competition
policy to the licensing of patents, know-how and software copyright.
see also Commission finalises modernisation of the EU antitrust
enforcement rules.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem17809.htm

. EU - Copyright: the Commission advocates European legislation on
the governance of collecting societies
Community legislation on the collective management of rights, and
particularly on the governance of collecting societies, would be
highly desirable. This is one of the main conclusions arrived at in a
Communication COM(2004) 261 by the European Commission following an
in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding the management of
copyright and related rights. Moreover, the Commission is immediately
launching a further consultation exercise on what such legislation
might consist of. The Commission asks all interested parties to submit
any additional comments before 21 June 2004. The Communication also
concludes that interoperability and acceptance by all stakeholders,
including consumers, of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems is a
pre-condition for their emergence. Lastly, the Communication sets out
several options for improving the situation regarding the development
of Community-wide licensing for the exploitation of rights.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem17829.htm

US - Hollywood's new lesson for campus file swappers
by Stefanie Olsen. Hollywood is poised to up the ante in its war
against file swappers, with new technology that could make it easier
to remove suspected pirates from campus networks. Movie studios,
record labels and technology companies have been testing the system
for months, according to sources familiar with the project. Known as
the Automated Copyright Notice System (ACNS), the technology promises
to make copyright enforcement easier on peer-to-peer networks, saving
schools and Internet service providers (ISPs) time and money. ACNS
allows them to automatically restrict or cut off Internet access for
alleged infringers on notice from a record label or movie studio. For
example, universities using ACNS could instantly send notices of
copyright infringement to students by e-mail and restrict their
network access until they have removed the file.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5194341.html

 Google is watching you
Once it was a plucky upstart, but now the multi-billion-dollar firm is
charged with invading our privacy. 'Google's Email raises Privacy
Fears,' declared the Indian Express, a headline echoed around this
world after the company announced it is to offer a free email service
called Gmail. On a technological level, Gmail (which will start as a
pilot project) is far superior to similar services currently offered
by the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft. The initial analysis was that
Google had continued its tradition of besting the competition. And
then people read the small print. There, the company revealed it would
be employing technology that would search through the contents of its
users' emails, thereby enabling it to place related adverts alongside
those emails. If, for example, a user mentioned DVDs in the text of
his or her email, then Google could attach an advert for a company
selling cut-price DVDs. see also: Privacy International files
complaint about Google's Gmail service (PI). Privacy International has
filed a complaint asking the privacy and data protection commissions
in France,Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Spain, Czech
Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Poland,
Austria,Australia and Canada along with the European Commission and
the EU Commissioners internal Article 29 Data Protection Working Group
to investigate the serious privacy problems that Google's Gmail
service poses.
 Blasting Gmail as a horrific intrusion into Internet users' privacy, a
California state senator has introduced
legislation to block Google's free email service. State Senator Liz
Figueroa, a Democrat, said that it should be illegal for a company to
scan the text of its customers' email correspondence and display
relevant advertising - even if customers explicitly agree to the
practice in exchange for a gigabyte of storage.  The Fuss About Gmail
and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus (Tim O'Reilly).
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem17808.htm
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4707

US - SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT: spam labelled by FTC
Spam is not illegal in US federal law. But from 19th May, any spam
that contains sexually oriented material must include the warning
"SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT: " in the subject line or US spammers face fines
for violations of federal law. The CAN-SPAM Act, passed in 2003,
outlaws fraudulent e-mail and requires marketers to include an
unsubscribe option; but it continues to allow legitimate, albeit
unsolicited, commercial e-mail. The Act also directed the Federal
Trade Commission to adopt a rule requiring a mark or notice to be
included in spam that contains sexually oriented material. The purpose
of the notice is to inform recipients that a spam message contains
sexually oriented material and to make it easier to filter out
messages they do not wish to receive.
http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=sexuallyexplicits1082040550&area=news

Study: File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales
Internet music piracy has no negative effect on legitimate music
sales, according to a study by two university researchers, Felix
Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard Business School and Koleman Strumpf of
University of North Carolina, which contradicts the music industry's
assertion that the illegal downloading of music online is taking a big
bite out of its bottom line. Songs that were heavily downloaded showed
no measurable drop in sales, the researchers found after tracking
sales of 680 albums over the course of 17 weeks in the second half of
2002. Matching that data with activity on the OpenNap file-sharing
network, they concluded that file sharing actually increases CD sales
for hot albums that sell more than 600,000 copies. For every 150
downloads of a song from those albums, sales increase by a copy, the
researchers found.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34300-2004Mar29.html
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf

Researchers Join Forces to Expose Net Censorship
An international team of academics from the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the University of
Cambridge, and the University of Toronto has begun monitoring
worldwide Internet censorship and surveillance. The Open Net
Initiative (ONI) was formed in 2004 with support from the Soros
Foundation's Open Society Institute.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/newsroom/release2004-01

US - Music industry sues 477 more computer users
The recording industry sued 477 more computer users, including dozens
of college students at schools in 11 states, accusing them of
illegally sharing music across the Internet. The Recording Industry
Association of America, the trade group for the largest labels,
praised efforts by colleges and universities to use technology and
school policies to crack down on music piracy on their own computer
networks. But it said the most egregious offenders on campus deserved
to be sued.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/04/28/downloading.music.ap/index.html

US - The Patent Busting Project
Every year numerous illegitimate patent applications make their way
through the United States patent examination process without adequate
review. The problem is particularly acute in the software and Internet
fields where the history of prior inventions (often called "prior
art") is widely distributed and poorly documented. As a result, we
have seen patents asserted on such simple technologies as: one-click
online shopping, the hyperlink and paying with a credit card online.
EFF is launching a Patent Busting Project to take on illegitimate
patents that suppress non-commercial and small business innovation or
limit free expression online. The Project has two components: A.
Documenting the Damage and B. Challenging The Patents. Once it has
identified some of the worst offenders, EFF will begin filing
challenges to each in the form of a "re-examination request" to the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
http://www.eff.org/Patent/

EU - European anti-spam laws lack bite
European laws on spam are 'meaningless' finds a study by Dutch
academics. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam said the laws
will provide no safeguard against spam because most of it originates
outside the EU's borders. Only a co-ordinated international effort
will make a difference to the amount of spam being sent they warn. The
authors of the study say the European laws also lack key clauses that
would make them more useful to end users.
 http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3666585.stm

March  2004

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