EU sets new digital media rules
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The EU agrees on new rules for TV and on-demand internet video, allowing more advertising.
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Europe's papers look ahead to today's signing of the new EU constitution in Rome
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The EU Council of Ministers has today approved plans for âSafer Internet Plusâ - a programme designed to make the internet safer for children by tackling illegal, unwanted and harmful content â-ncluding spam â - to promote awareness.
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Making many laws one The European Commission will overhaul European contract law to make internet selling easier, more reliable and more efficient.â¦
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A proposed law would require companies to keep detailed data about peopleâs Internet and phone use that goes beyond a European Union directive.
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The European Commission will make  proposals by mid-2008 aimed at creating a single European  market in the burgeoning sector of online music, films and  games, it said on Thursday.
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In a surprise move, the European Commission said Wednesday it is shelving plans to overhaul Europeâs rules on copyright fees, after intense lobbying from France and from groups representing artists and authors.
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A ruling in Belgium that makes an ISP in that country responsible for blocking illegal file-sharing on its network could set a precedent for other countries in the European Union.
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Wireless baby monitors and headphones bought in one European country will work anywhere in the European Union, officials promised Thursday after setting EU-wide frequencies for short-range wireless products.
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An electronic gadget that promises to  unshackle consumers from their TV sets became available in  Europe for the first time on Tuesday, opening up new ways for  users to watch television wherever they go.
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An alliance of technology and media companies releases a set of principles for promoting user-generated content while protecting copyright online.
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Germany's National Library is now fully licensed to duplicate copy protected electronic books and other digital media such as CDs and CD-ROMs. The object and scope of the agreement seems pretty limited, anyway.
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(InfoWorld) - In a surprise move, the European Commission said Wednesday it is shelving plans to overhaul Europeâs rules on copyright fees, after intense lobbying from France and from groups representing artists and authors. The Commission, the executive body of the European Union, was planning to replace the patchwork of national rules with a Europe-wide code designed to better suit the digital age. Presently most countries impose copyright levies on a wide range of products, from photocopiers to mobile phones, and including recordable formats such as CD-Rs, blank cassettes and even paper. The size of levies varies widely from country to country. Only the U.K., Ireland, and Luxembourg do not impose any such levies. Copyright levies are supposed to compensate artists and authors who donât receive any payment when their copyrighted music, documents, or pictures are duplicated by consumers. The Commission wanted to harmonize the rules and scrap levies on most hardware. Its aim was to reduce the fees, which in some cases increase the price of goods dramatically. For example, in Spain consumers have to pay almost â¬300 ($398) in levies when they buy an 80GB MP3 player; in Austria the equivalent charge is just â¬8, according to the Copyright Levies Reform Alliance (CLRA), a coalition of businesses dedicated to harmonizing and lowering copyright fees in Europe. The Commission said it was abandoning the rule change for now. It had planned to publish a proposal before the end of this year. âMore reflection is needed on this complex issue,â spokeswoman Pia AhrenKilde Hansen told journalists. She wouldnât give a new timetable for the legal proposal. She acknowledged that the French prime minister Dominique de Villepin had written to the Commission earlier this month, urging it to drop the plan but she insisted that the Commission will decide for itself when the proposal will be launched. The Commission has been planning to harmonize copyright levies across the E.U. since 2000. Since then the case for scrapping most levies has grown stronger. Digital rights management software, which allows copyright owners to track the copying of their works, has become commonplace. The Commissionâs climb down sparked an angry reaction from the companies and industry groups pushing for a change to the system. âEuropean industry is deeply disturbed by the European Commissionâs apparent about-face on the planned reform of copyright levies,â said Mark McGann, spokesman for the CLRA in a statement issued Wednesday. âWith this decision, it is clear to industry that the Commission has abandoned any serious efforts to establish transparency, efficiency and fairness in the way these levies are set, collected and distributed,â he added, warning that without the revamp of copyright levies, several large European companies now intend to file official complaints with the Commission that will likely result in a wave of infringement procedures against certain member states. âThe reform of copyright levies would then move from the European executive to the European Court of Justice,â CLRA said in its statement.
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Reformers shift battleground to Court of Justice The European Commission has quietly iced plans to reform copyright levies, just days before they were due to go into effect.â¦
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The Federal Communications  Commission has approved new rules giving broadcasters more  flexibility in making the switch to digital television from  traditional analog signals.
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Executives from Nokia and Philips published an open letter today calling for the European Commission to consider scaling back, if not eliminating, imposing levies on digital recording media and playback devices, including DVRs and MP3 players. But the alternative may be a hard sell: increased DRM.
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Web media threatens to move out: take toys Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator, has said that a European Union plan to regulate video risks restricting innovation and even forcing companies to relocate outside the EU to avoid compliance.â¦