(via OUT-LAW)

The UK music industry has rejected the Government’s proposal to legalise the transfer of music from CDs to MP3 players without a levy. It has asked for a tax on devices like Apple iPods which it says should compensate artists for the transfer.

The Government has proposed legalising the format shifting of music to computers or MP3 players as long as the CD was paid for, the transfer happens just once and is for personal use only. Currently the practice, which is near ubiquitous amongst MP3 player owners, infringes copyright.

The Music Business Group (MBG) is an umbrella group of trade bodies representing music managers, songwriters, publishers and performers. It comprises organisations like BPI, AIM and MCPS-PRS. It has rejected plans contained in a consultation document issued by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) to allow the transfer without any extra charge being levied.

(Via Ars Technica.)

The FTC has identified its highest priorities for the next ‘Tech-Ade’: international action to combat spam and spyware, scrutiny of online advertising, and the monitoring of DRM.

JK Rowling tells a US court that plans to publish an unofficial Harry Potter guide amount to ‘wholesale theft’.”

(Via BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition.)

From Builder AU:

People should not be criminalised for the file-sharing of copyrighted material if they are not profiting from doing so, the European Parliament has recommended.

From The Register:

BT’s covert trial of Phorm’s ISP adware technology in
summer 2007 involved tracking many thousands more
customers without their knowledge than previously
reported, it’s emerged.
…
Today Phorm said the 2007 trial was actually performed
on “tens of thousands” of lines. It refused to provide
a specific figure, but at the absolute least there are
38,000 BT Retail customers unaware their
communications have been allegedly criminally
intercepted in the last two years. The number could be
as high as 108,000.

We asked a Phorm spokesman why it doesn’t believe
people have the right to know how likely it is they
were part of a secret test. “We’re just not going to
disclose that,” he said. “They were BT customers and
you have to ask BT about that.” A BT spokesman refused
to provide a figure….

From digital spy:

Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett has attacked the principle of net neutrality, whereby internet service providers do not interfere with or degrade the speed at which content is delivered from websites to consumers, branding it as “b****cks”.

From the BBC:

The bill for last year’s Scottish elections is more than double the previous one, with the cost reaching almost £40m. SNP MSP Keith Brown said that in total the 2007 Holyrood and local government elections had cost £39.26m.

Mr Brown said almost £9m of the money spent on the 2007 polls had gone to DRS, the company which provided the electronic counting machines. He said the cost of elections in 2003 had been £17.15m.

Aussie corporations to spy on employee emails

USING THE COMMON bogey man of ‘anti terror legislation’, the Australian
government says its pondering letting corporate bosses intercept their
employees’ emails without their consent, effectively spying on them. Deputy
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the proposed legislation on Monday,
saying that it would help the government protect the country…

(Via the INQUIRER.)

Does anyone know what the law in the UK says about privacy of employee e-mails?

File sharing lawsuits brought by the RIAA are usually based on evidence gathered by MediaSentry.

Ars Technica writes:

Is MediaSentry violating a cease-and-desist order prohibiting it from conducting private investigations in the state of Massachusetts? That’s what it looks like at first glance. On January 2, 2008, the Massachusetts State Police Certification Unit sent a letter to MediaSentry’s corporate parent SafeNet informing the company that an investigation revealed that it is “advertising and operating a Private Detective company” and that review of state records indicates that the company is “not licensed to conduct investigations” in the state.

Read more at arstechnica.com

The latest edition of the Banking Code, the voluntary consumer-protection standard for UK banks, was released last week. The new code claims to “give customers the most up to date information on how to protect their accounts from fraud.” This sounds like a worthy cause, but closer inspection shows customers could be worse off than they were before.

…

Clauses 12.5 and 12.9 include some debatable advice about anti-virus software and clicking on links in email (more on this in a later post). While malware and phishing emails are a serious fraud threat, it is unrealistic to suggest that home users’ computers can be adequately secured to defeat attacks.

Read more at LightBlueTouchpaper.org