Legal

The many legal issues raised as media digitises

Legal Action Against Apple Over MacBook Displays
Just after the back-patting of the release of the upgraded Apple MacBooks last week, there news that Apple is the target of a class-action in the US.
The case for false advertising and misrepresentation centers on the claims by Apple that the MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks display supports “millions of colors” and offer views “simply unavailable on other portables.” The plaintiffs say this isn’t the case and that they are only capable of displaying the “illusion of millions of colors through the use of a software technique referred to as ‘dithering.”
To get all medieval on your arse with the numbers – the monitors is only capable of 6 bits per channel (18-bit colour), rather than 8 bits per channel. This enables the displaying of only 262,144 colours without dithering, as opposed to the 16 million colours that 8-bit could do.
More when we hear it.
(via Appleinsider, where you can find a PDF copy of the complaint)
21 May, 2007
British Visa Data Blunder: Why The Government Shouldn’t Have Your Data
The UK Government has been exposed to a very embarrassing technology related problem – revealing the personal details, and travel plans, of people hoping to visit the UK from India.
A schoolboy programming error on the VFS-UK application site, which exposed the application data details, simply by changing the reference number in the URL, was first discovered by Sanjib Mitra.
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18 May, 2007
MySpace Introduces Copyright Protection For Videos
With a chilling wind stirred up by a tornado of law suits blowing their way, MySpace has announced that it will be implementing new technology to stop members’ using copyrighted material without permission.
Based on Audible Magic technology, the new content protection system regales under the name, “Take Down Stay Down,” and MySpace is hoping that it’ll do what it says on the tin.
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14 May, 2007
BBC Condone Torrent Downloads In Trial?
The BBC have been running three, weekly pieces reporting on the impact and progress of a four person UK family when starting to live their Digital- Lifestyles. So much so that they’ve got into Torrents already!
They been given a flat screen, Sky HD, Windows Media, Apple TV, Sono and the inevitable iPods (Apple must be rather chuffed). All of these bits have been linked together using a wireless network which is whizzing the data around for them.
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8 May, 2007
Apple And Record Companies Charged In EU iTunes Row
The European Commission has dished out formal charges to Apple and ‘unnamed major record companies’, accusing them of restricting music sales in Europe.
The EU alleges that agreements between Apple and the record companies are guilty of breaking European Union rules that prohibit restrictive business practices. It’s far from the first time that the EU and other Northern European Countries has got wound up about Apple and iTunes.
“Consumers can only buy music from the iTunes online stores in their country of residence and are therefore restricted in their choice of where to buy music, and consequently what music is available and at what price,” said Jonathan Todd, European Commission spokesman.
“The statement of objections alleges that distribution agreements between Apple and major record companies contain territorial sales restrictions,” he added.
Promptly shifting the blame on to the record companies, Apple insisted that they’d tried to operate a single pan-European iTunes store accessible to peeps from any member state but were foiled by music labels and publishers imposing legal limits on the download rights.
The Commission first got involved back in 2005 after the UK consumer group Which? pointed out that iTunes purchasers in France and Germany were paying far less than us poor chumps in the UK (67 pence against 79 pence).
Apple and the record companies now have two months to defend themselves in writing or take part in an oral hearing which usually happens around a month after a written reply has been received.
This latest development is unrelated to yesterday’s deal between Apple and EMI.
Source
3 April, 2007
Beatles Songs For iTunes?
After years of throwing squadrons of lawyers at each other, the big Apples – Apple Inc and Apple Corps – kissed and made up a few months ago and now it looks like they can’t stop the love.
Yesterday, record company giants EMI Group PLC announced that it planned to unveil “an exciting new digital offering” with Steve Jobs and the gang at Apple, leading pundits to conclude that The Beatles’ music catalogue is finally about to be made available through Apple’s iTunes online music store.
Spinning the expectation-o-meter right up to eleven, EMI revealed that their chief executive, Eric Nicoli, and Apple head honcho Jobs will be holding a news conference today, which will be supplemented by a “special live performance.”
The Beatles have famously refused to sign up to iTunes and other online music services for years, and many expect the download charts to be instantly filled up with the Fab Four’s songs as soon as their catalogue becomes available.
Of course, the fact that the story broke on April Fool’s Day has led some to think it might be a bit of a jolly wind-up wheeze, so I guess we’ll have to wait to see if the scheduled 1pm conference happens or not.
Mind you, if it is an April Fool’s it’s a pretty crummy one compared to Google’s TiSP Toilet wireless network one.
2 April, 2007
Ofcom Announces Premium Rate TV Inquiry
There’s been three weeks of hoo-har in the UK about television stations using Premium Rate Telephone Services (PRS) to extract income from the phone-willing programme viewer. Whole TV channels have been stopped in the process.
Ofcom has just announced that it will be carrying out an inquiry into the whole area.
It sounds like there’s going to be a few feathers ruffled. Viewers and a range of other stakeholders have raised serious concerns with Ofcom regarding apparent systematic compliance failure on the part of a number of broadcasters, whose actions appear to contravene existing consumer protection rules.
Hearing how serious this is, does give clues as to why the TV stations acted so swiftly in suspending the availability of their PRS.
Many have criticised some UK broadcasters for creating programs whose sole driver appears to be collecting as much money as possible from the viewers.
The inquiry will be led by Richard Ayre, a former Deputy Chief Executive of BBC News. He is expected to receive extensive input from the premium rate services regulator, ICSTIS, who are already investigating a number of individual cases.
The fragile relationship between TV viewer and the TV stations appears to have been damaged further by the PRS announcements over the recent weeks.
Ofcom Chief Executive, Ed Richards said: “Widespread concern about the use of premium rate telephone lines by broadcasters and editorial standards in those programmes has raised serious questions about trust between broadcasters and viewers.”
The scope of the inquiry includes
- Consumer protection issues and audiences’ attitudes to the use of PRS in television programmes;
- The benefits and risks to broadcasters in the use of PRS in programmes;
- The respective compliance and editorial responsibilities of broadcasters, producers and telecoms network operators and others involved in those programmes;
- The effectiveness of broadcasters’ and telecoms operators’ internal compliance procedures, guidelines and arrangements to ensure compliance with Ofcom and ICSTIS codes;
- The inquiry will also propose recommendations on actions necessary to restore confidence and trust.
Ayre expects to report his findings to the Ofcom Board and the Content Board by early summer.
22 March, 2007
EU Comments Add Pressure To Apple iTunes
The heat on Apple to open up their iTunes/iPod combination went up another notch following an interview with Meglena Kuneva, the European Union’s Consumer Protection Commissioner.
In the interview with German weekly magazine Focus, published today, she poses the following question, “”Do you think it’s fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod?” It’s followed by a couple of words that are going to make uncomfortable reading for Apple, “I don’t. Something has to change.”
Music bought on the Apple iTunes online shop cannot be played on any other music player, apart from Apple’s iPod.
Kuneva is carrying out a review of the eight basic laws which govern cross-border consumer rights.
Pressure has been building for quite a while against Apple, with the latest, most significant one being in January as the Norwegian Consumer Watchdog, declaring iTunes to be illegal.
Previous actions have been, the approval of France’s ‘iTunes Law,’ after Apple narrowly avoided the French courts over their FairPlay DRM back in 2004.
Apple leader, Steve Jobs, wrote an open letter at the start of last month, entitled “Thoughts on Music,” where he said he’d drop DRM “in a heartbeat,” but was hamstrung by the content owners not allowing him to do so.
Meglena Kuneva – EU site
12 March, 2007
Who Owns YouTube/BBCWorld?
When an important deal like the YouTube/BBC one comes around, we feel we want to find out that little bit extra about it. Sadly neither of the press departments have been given the go ahead to provide journalists any further clues as to how the deal went down.
Given that frustration, we thought we’d apply a little lateral thinking to the situation and have a sniff around in a few places online to see if we can dig up some more.
Lots of investigation drew a blank, but realising that the address of the BBCWorld YouTube Channel hadn’t been given when the press information had been distributed at the announcement, we made a couple of guesses what it might be and it ended up being the obvious one.
One of the questions that we had was how long the deal had taken to negotiate. As mentioned there was no official word on it, but YouTube.com/BBCWorld reveals that a channel has been previously setup. The question is, is this an official BBC channel – setup over 9 months ago, or is there a 24 year old Australian squatting the BBC’s channel name.
If it is a BBC channel, it shows that there’s been a very long period of negotiation – 9 months – between the BBC and YouTube to get to the point of them announcing the deal.
If it isn’t, it will be interesting to see what YouTube’s approach will be to an individual registering a name that their largest content partner owns.
Keep your eyes on YouTube.com/BBCWorld to find out the answer.
7 March, 2007
Mobile Use In UK Cars: Penalty Points And Fines Await
As of today, drivers using their mobile phone while driving in the UK will be hit with increased fines.
The previous fixed-penalty fine of £30 is increased to £60 with the courts having a possible maximum fine of £1,000.
The real disincentive to drivers will, however, be the three penalty points that will be added to their driving license. If UK license holders have over 12 points on their license they are banned from driving for three years.
If those caught are driving anything bigger than a car, say a bus, coach or goods vehicle, the maximum fine is considerably higher, rising to £2,500.
Peter Rodger, the Institute of Advanced Motorists’ chief examiner, said: ‘Inevitably some drivers will think that they should buy a hands-free kit and the problem will go away.
“That would certainly suit the manufacturers. But drivers should be aware that they are potentially buying trouble – even when you are hands-free, research has shown that you are four times more likely to crash because your concentration is split.
“The best advice is to switch off before you drive off – and if you really can’t do that, be prepared to stop and find somewhere legal and convenient to return that missed call or check your messages.”
Some of the rules that do confuse are that the rules still apply, even when people are sitting in traffic jams.
27 February, 2007