CyberLaw Blog

Archive for June 14th, 2008

American Exception - Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech - Series - NYTimes.com:

By ADAM LIPTAK, Published: June 12, 2008

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article’s tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United States do not say every day without fear of legal reprisal.

Things are different here. The magazine is on trial.

Two members of the Canadian Islamic Congress say the magazine, Maclean’s, Canada’s leading newsweekly, violated a provincial hate speech law by stirring up hatred against Muslims. They say the magazine should be forbidden from saying similar things, forced to publish a rebuttal and made to compensate Muslims for injuring their ‘dignity, feelings and self-respect.’

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, which held five days of hearings on those questions here last week, will soon rule on whether Maclean’s violated the law.

BPI & Virgin Media Press Release: Virgin Media launches downloading education campaign with BPI: 6:6:2008

Virgin Media and the BPI today announced a new education campaign to help Virgin Media’s broadband customers safely download music from the internet and avoid the risk of legal action.

As part of the campaign, customers whose accounts appear to have been used to distribute music in breach of copyright will receive informative letters, one from Virgin Media and one from the BPI. Accounts will be identified to Virgin Media on the basis of information supplied by the BPI. Both letters will be distributed by Virgin Media, without the need to disclose customer names and addresses to the BPI.

Research suggests that across the UK, over six and a half million consumers’ broadband accounts are used to access music without permission using peer-to-peer services [i]. The BPI and Virgin Media believe that, in many cases, customers may not be aware that their account is being used in this way. The new campaign will provide practical advice on how to prevent account misuse, links to legitimate sources of on-line music and information about the potential dangers of downloading files from unauthorised sources, including increased threats from viruses and spyware.

Virgin Media will also provide information for all its broadband customers on its website.

Commenting on the new campaign, Virgin Media said: “Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband is a great platform for people who want to download lots of music on-line. But we want them to do so without infringing the rights of musicians and music companies. This campaign is about helping our customers understand how they can do this and get the best out of the internet.”

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI added: “Education is absolutely key to reducing the extent of illegal downloading, and we are pleased to be working with Virgin Media on this campaign. We believe that new partnerships with ISPs can help build an internet in which music is properly valued. That will benefit not just musicians, songwriters and labels, but all internet users who love music. This joint campaign with Virgin Media is the first step towards achieving that goal.”

- Ends –

Notes to editors

Virgin Media
Virgin Media is an innovative and pioneering UK entertainment and communications business. For the first time consumers can get everything they need from one company - the UK’s only quad play of TV, broadband, phone and mobile plus the most advanced TV on demand service available, the UK’s first high definition TV service and V+, our high specification personal video recorder. We’re the UK’s largest residential broadband provider, the largest virtual mobile network operator and the second largest provider of pay TV and home phone.

Virgin Media owns two content businesses - Virgin Media Television (VMTV) and sit-up. VMTV owns seven entertainment channels – Virgin1, Living, Living 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Challenge, and Trouble - and is a 50% partner in UKTV which consists of nine channels including Dave, UKTV Gold and UKTV History. sit-up runs retail TV channels bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auctiontv.

Virgin Media is the largest Virgin company in the world and has almost 10 million customers. To find out more visit www.virginmedia.com/presscentre.

The BPI
The BPI (formerly known as British Phonographic Industry) represents the UK recorded music business.

Its membership comprises of hundreds of music companies including all four major record companies, associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies representing thousands of labels.

Further information from the BPI about ISP Partnerships http://www.bpi.co.uk/isp-partnership

[i] Source: Jupiter Research

BBC News: Time to take on the file sharers: By Chris Martin

On 9 June, BBC commentator Bill Thompson wrote a critique of a joint venture between the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and Virgin Media to write to customers whose net connection may have been used to download unlicensed content.

Here, BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor responds to his comments.

Virgin warns illegal downloaders: stop or face prosecution: The Independent, By Amol Rajan, Saturday, 7 June 2008

The age of illegal music downloads could soon be over. The UK’s largest provider of home broadband is to warn internet users building up vast libraries of music that they could be prosecuted.

From next week, Virgin Media will send letters to thousands of households where music is either being downloaded or illegally shared. Many of the recipients are likely to be the unsuspecting parents of teenagers who hoard free downloads offered by file-sharing services. Research shows the majority of them are unaware their children are breaking the law.

The campaign is a joint venture between Virgin Media and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents the major record labels. The BPI ultimately wants internet companies to implement a ‘three strikes and out’ rule to warn and ultimately disconnect the estimated 6.5 million customers whose accounts are used for regular criminal activity.

Geoff Taylor, the chief executive of BPI, said the partnership between ISPs and his industry needed to flower, adding that the deal with Virgin was a ’significant first illustration of this’.

‘Virgin Media is the first ISP to publicly address the problem. It is a socially responsible ISP and I think other ISPs will look at this and see progress. I am very encouraged they have engaged with us. They understand the rights of musicians,’ he said.

‘Education is the absolute key to reducing the amount of illegal downloading … new partnerships with ISPs can help build an internet in which music is properly valued.’

Virgin has stopped short of threatening any of its 3.5 million subscribers with disconnection, saying it first wants to ‘educate’ customers during a 10-week trial campaign. Their letters will, however, be accompanied by a stern written warning from the BPI, which will threaten both disconnection and a court appearance for those who continue to download illegally.

Campaigns in the US and France have increased the pressure on the Government to act. The Business minister, Shriti Vadera, said: ‘This is a very welcome first step … to educate consumers about unlawful file sharing, which damages our vibrant economy.’

There remain major sticking points on the implementation of the law, however. These include uncertainty over precisely who will arbitrate disputes – for example when customers claim to have been victims of ‘wi-fi piggybacking’ in which users link up to a paid-for wireless network that is not their own.

File-sharing and the law

*If you use peer-to-peer applications to copy or distribute copyrighted material such as music, films and software, and do so without paying royalties, you are almost certainly infringing the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Internet service providers bear no liability for illegal file sharing because the content is not hosted on their servers. Although such files may be transmitted across an ISP network, ISPs are ‘mere conduits’ of information, as per the E-Commerce Regulations 2002.”

RIAA: The Perpetual Litigation Machine: The Recording Industry Association of America dropped a copyright infringement case against a New York family and refiled it with another judge. The original judge was to rule soon on a motion to dismiss. The defense lawyer called the move ‘judge shopping.’ The RIAA has sued more than 20,000 for unlawfully sharing music on peer-to-peer networks.

(Via Wired News.)