Commission seeks views on spectrum use for wireless broadband

The European Commission is launching a public consultation on how to use the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum (the 700 Megahertz (MHz) band) most effectively in the coming decades. The Commission is seeking views on the options proposed by Pascal Lamy, in September 2014

At the moment, the 700 MHz band is mostly used for broadcasting and wireless microphones. The broadband and telecoms sectors are both keen to secure the future use of this highly sought-after band for deploying new wireless and digital services The consultation will run until 12 April 2015 and will help the Commission define a long-term strategy for the UHF band.

read full article at Europa

mHealth in Europe: Preparing the ground – consultation results published

Privacy and security, patient safety, a clear legal framework and better evidence on cost-effectiveness are all required to help mobile Health care (“mHealth”) flourish in Europe, according to the responses to a European Commission public consultation.

211 separate responses from public authorities, healthcare providers, patients' organisations and web entrepreneurs, inside and outside the EU, gave feedback on eleven issues related to the uptake of mHealth in the EU. While recent statistics confirm that national and EU funding initiatives are bearing fruit and that Europe is set to become the largest market by 2018, responses indicated that more remains to be done so that EU entrepreneurs can effectively access this booming market.

read full article at Europa

T58/13 OPAP state aid case

The EU General Court ruled on appeals by six Greek casinos against a Commission decision of October 2012 finding that the Greek gambling operator OPAP's exclusive rights and exclusive Video Lottery Terminal license contain no state aid. The GC dismissed the appeals and entirely upheld the Commission's findings.

read full article at Europa

Commission opens in-depth investigation into joint venture for online music licensing between collecting societies PRSfM, STIM and GEMA

The Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether the proposed creation of a joint venture between three collective rights management organisations (CMOs) in the online licensing of musical works is in line with the EU Merger Regulation. The CMOs contributing to the joint venture are PRSfM of the UK, STIM of Sweden and GEMA of Germany. CMOs manage the copyrights of authors, performers and writers of musical works. 

They also grant licences on their behalf and redistribute the royalties collected from the exploitation of their copyrights. The Commission’s preliminary investigation indicated that the combination of the music repertoires currently controlled by each of PRSfM, STIM and GEMA could result in higher prices and worsened commercial conditions for digital service providers (DSPs) in the EEA. This could lead, ultimately, to higher prices and less choice for European consumers of digital music. DSPs provide online services to final customers, such as music downloading or streaming and to operate on the market they need licences delivered by CMOs. 

 Moreover, the Commission has concerns that the transaction may reduce competition in the EEA for certain copyright administration services since it would reduce the number of meaningful market players from four to two. 

read full article at Europa 

Commission's competition services publish policy brief on antitrust damages actions

The new Directive 2014/104/EU on antitrust damages actions makes it a lot easier for victims of antitrust violations to claim compensation. Among other things, it will give victims easier access to evidence they need to prove the damage suffered and more time to make their claims.

read full article at Europa

Obama speaks on promoting Community Broadband

President Obama travels to Cedar Falls, Iowa to talk about the importance of expanding access to high-speed broadband Internet

see video at Broadband4Europe

You could be prosecuted if your broadband interferes with radio signals

Thousands of homeowners could face prosecution if their broadband persistently interferes with radio signals, under Ofcom proposals published after lobbying by intelligence agency GCHQ.

The Government agency has become increasingly concerned in recent years about "power line" networking equipment. This allows people to use the mains wiring in their homes to transmit data, as an alternative to a Wi-Fi network, and has been distributed to BT and TalkTalk customers to connect their television set-top boxes to broadband.

Ofcom, the communications watchdog, published a consultation on Monday on new regulations that would allow its officials to issue enforcement notices to shut down such networks when the electromagnetic radiation they can emit interferes with radio signals. Those who fail to comply will face criminal prosecution.

read full article at The Telegraph

EU Telecoms Bosses, Oettinger Meet on Broadband Investment

On Tuesday, the European Commission published its proposals for a hefty  investment package for the continent. Now comes the tricky bit of getting sufficient private and public money to turn the fund’s €21 billion capital base into the promised €315 billion in new investments – and deciding what to spend it on.

High up on the European Union’s wishlist is new broadband infrastructure and Commissioner for the Digital Economy Günther Oettinger isn’t wasting any time. On Friday morning he will host, at short notice, a roundtable* meeting on how to get Europe building (more) super-fast Internet. Various senior executives from telecommunications companies will attend, along with representatives from trade associations, the cable industry, banks and potential investors.

An EU official confirmed that the meeting is taking place, following talks Tuesday with representatives of public authorities.

read full article at WSJ

BT's £12.5bn mobile ambitions hit by new broadband price controls

BT’s mobile ambitions suffered a blow on Thursday, as regulators indicated they are likely to factor in its £12.5bn takeover of EE in new price controls designed to curb its dominance of the superfast broadband market.

The warning came as part of a new Ofcom test of whether BT abuses its ownership of the national telecoms infrastructure to undermine competition on superfast broadband from Sky and TalkTalk.

Both companies buy wholesale access to BT’s fibre-optic network to provide superfast broadband to their own retail subscribers. Currently nearly three quarters of superfast broadband connections on the BT network are retailed by BT itself.

read full article at  The Telegraph

Top 5 Tech – All you need to know for the Latvian EU Presidency

In this special briefing, leading journalist Jennifer Baker picks out the top 5 tech issues that will be discussed by the European institutions under the Latvian EU Presidency.

• On the top of the agenda is the Data Protection Regulation: Latvian presidency will be pushing for a Council position
• Copyright reform: Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda is reviewing the current Infosoc Directive; digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger is due to present his copyright reform
• Google case: possible Android case and more interest expected in legislating apps in general, not least in-app purchases
• Latvian Presidency says it wants a compromise on the Telecoms Package, however some concerns are raised around the high quality services, which can mean differentiated services provoking fears over Net Neutrality
• Under the Latvian Presidency of the Council we can expect to see an ongoing debate on surveillance and security, particularly in light of the Snowden allegations

read full article at viEUs

Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: "Je suis Charlie" should not affect protection of privacy

Today more than ever, European citizens need to show that our societies will stand strong on their common values. These values are fundamental democratic assets, which have developed and matured over centuries and must not be surrendered, whatever the circumstances.
 

The protection of private life and of personal data is a key part of this democratic heritage, including because it conditions the respect of other fundamental freedoms such as freedom of speech or freedom of movement. It is a principle that is neither absolute, nor self-centered as it must be combined with the respect of other such freedoms, public
security requirements and the need to foster innovation.
 

The current situation obviously makes it more necessary than ever to ensure that an appropriate balance is struck between these different, but not contradictory objectives.

read full article at Europa

Police Drones Over Berkeley Trigger Backlash

A move by police agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area to deploy drones for the first time is provoking a backlash from leaders and activists who fear the surveillance will allow authorities to peer into private lives.

“Berkeley and the Bay Area have a long history of political discussion, protests and debate, and there’s a real concern around the use of these drones under those circumstances, and the broader privacy issues,” said Jesse Arreguin, a Berkeley city council member who represents the downtown area near the University of California’s flagship campus.

UC Berkeley, the birthplace of the free speech movement of the 1960s and a hotbed of political activism, would be among places subject to the police use of drones as local law-enforcement agencies pursue the new technology to monitor crime in progress.

read full article at Bloomberg

Obama calls for data breach notification law, privacy bill of rights

U.S. President Barack Obama will push Congress to pass a law requiring companies that are victims of data breaches to notify affected consumers within 30 days and a second law that gives consumers more control over their digital data, he said.

Obama will call for a national data breach notification law and a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights in ID theft and privacy initiatives in his State of the Union speech Jan. 20, he said Monday at the Federal Trade Commission.

Neither of those proposals is a new one—the White House first called for a consumer privacy bill of rights in February 2012 and has backed a national breach notification law for years—but Congress has failed to pass those proposals. With a growing number of data breaches coming to light, it’s important for Congress to protect Internet users from a “direct threat” by hackers, Obama said.


read full article at PC World

David Cameron seeks cooperation of US president over encryption crackdown

David Cameron is to urge Barack Obama to pressure internet firms such as Twitter and Facebook to do more to cooperate with Britain’s intelligence agencies as they seek to track the online activities of Islamist extremists.

As he becomes the first European leader to meet the president after the multiple shootings in Paris last week, the prime minister will seek to win Obama’s support for his plans to secure a new legal framework to deny terrorists a “safe space”.

The prime minister arrives after he proposed earlier this week that British intelligence agencies have the power to break the encrypted communications of suspected terrorists and insisting that the likes of Twitter and Facebook do more to cooperate with Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping centre.


read full article at The Guardian

Google launches challenge to Max Mosley's privacy bid

Google has asked the High Court to throw out legal action being taken by ex-Formula 1 boss Max Mosley.

Mr Mosley wants Google to block photos of him at a sex party first printed in the now-defunct News of the World, which he successfully sued in 2008.

He is suing the internet firm for breaches of the Data Protection Act and misusing private information.

read full article at BBC

Privacy Is the New Antitrust: Launching the FTC Casebook

On Monday, presaging his sixth State of the Union Address, U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) bearing a message of sweeping privacy reform. Coincidentally, it was almost exactly 101 years ago that President Woodrow Wilson, in his January 20, 1914, State of the Union Address, announced his antitrust initiative to Congress, declaring, “We are all agreed that ‘private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable.’” The result of that speech was the passage of the FTC and Clayton Acts of 1914, which led to the establishment of a new agency dedicated to protecting consumers and competition from deceptive or unfair trade practices.

Now, 80 years after the last visit by a president to the FTC—Obama quipped, “you would think one of the presidents would come into the building by accident”—Obama’s visit and announcement heralds the arrival of privacy on the central stage of the national policy agenda.

read full article at IAPP

New counterterrorism bill to override certain privacy limits

The federal government believes Canada is vulnerable to a significant terrorist attack because of legislative gaps that hinder and, in some cases prevent, federal agencies from sharing information about potential threats.

Government sources tell CBC News that legislation to be tabled when Parliament resumes later this month will provide national security agencies with explicit authority to obtain and share information that is now subject to privacy limits.

The legislation is the centrepiece of a package of wide-ranging security measures to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

read full article at CBC News

EU countries that set data retention rules must ensure they comply with e-Privacy Directive, says new legal opinion

The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled last April that specific EU rules on data retention by telecoms providers, set out under the EU Data Retention Directive, disproportionately infringed on privacy rights enjoyed by EU citizens.

In its opinion, the European Parliament's Legal Services unit said EU countries, since the CJEU's judgment, have had the option of either repealing their own laws on data retention or maintaining them. However, it said that should countries choose to maintain the rules then those rules must adhere to the e-Privacy Directive.

"It is … clear that, as a result of the invalidity of the Data Retention Directive, Article 15(1) of the e-Privacy Directive is … applicable to the national measures dealing with data retention in the electronic communications sector," the Legal Services unit said, according to the leaked document published by civil liberties group Access (27-page / 3.85MB PDF).


read full article at Out Law