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The controversial Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA), passed at the end of the last Government’s life, contained a key provision that would compel Internet service providers (ISPs) to block copyright infringing...
OFT fines supermarkets and dairy processors £50m for exchanging sensitive price data
The Office of Fair Trading has imposed fines totalling £50m on Asda, Safeway, Sainsbury’s and Tesco together with five dairy processors after the supermarkets had indirectly exchanged retail pricing...
ECJ playing catchup on copyright – ITV Broadcasting and others v TV Catchup, High Court
TV Catchup (TVC) operates a website on which users can watch live television on computers, smartphones or games consoles. TVC streams programmes to users by means of a number of servers, which each creates...
Star Wars in the Supreme Court, the result – Lucasfilm v Ainsworth, Supreme Court
Background
Andrew Ainsworth (AA) was hired in 1976 by Lucasfilm (L) to make ‘Stormtrooper’ helmets and armour for the film ‘Star Wars’ which was released in 1977 (later renamed ‘Star Wars:...
Court of Appeal rules end-users need licence to access online news service – Newspaper Licensing Agency v Meltwater Holding, Court of Appeal
The Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) manages the intellectual property rights of its members (generally publishers of national newspapers) by licensing newspaper content and collecting licence fees. Meltwater...
Nearly 1,000 police officers disciplined for unlawful use of personal data in last three years
Staggering figures have emerged that show that hundreds of police officers have been snooping on people’s personal information without permission. Nearly 1,000 police officers have been disciplined for...
Refills allowed in ECJ trade mark ruling – Viking Gas v Kosan Gas, European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has had to rule on a trade mark infringement case relating to bottles in which gas was supplied and refilled, following a referral from the Danish courts. The bottles...
ICO warns of £500,000 fine for single incident of spam or automated calls
The Information Commissioner’s Office – the regulator in charge of enforcing UK data protection laws. – has warned businesses that they could face fines of up to £500,000 for a single incident of...
Music body wants green light to clear online legitimacy traffic signals
The Performing Rights Society for Music has called on search engines to offer a traffic light service under which Internet users could see whether a music site they were going to was supporting legitimately...
Court orders BT to impose filter to stop its users having access to unauthorised film-sharing site – Twentieth Century Fox v BT, High Court
The High Court has for the first time ordered an Internet service provider to block its users from accessing a website that contained copyright-infringing material. In a previous legal action, several...