WASHINGTON, October 28, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau hit Verizon Wireless with a record $25 million payment to the government for mystery fees the company charged its customers during the last several years.
WASHINGTON, October 28, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Managing Director is seeking donations for the agency’s new FCC Technology Experience Center, although was quick to note that any donations from device manufacturers are voluntary and “does not imply any expected benefit to the donor.”
WASHINGTON, October 28, 2010 – Many content makers have called upon the Federal Communications Commission to protect their ability to distribute content via the internet, yet these same content makers are reluctant to play by the same rules. Recent decisions by content makers to block some Google TV and an ESPN service show the murkiness of the debates surrounding network neutrality.
Mainland Chinese authorities will begin a new round of crackdowns on digital piracy and against the traffickers of counterfeit goods at the end of October, according to a recent report in the Xinhua News Agency, China’s official newswire.
The new campaign was announced early last week at a state council meeting presided over by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
French authorities have started to send out warning letters to individuals suspected of copyright infringement online, and a whole cottage industry of lawyers and technologists has mushroomed up to both give tips on evading the law enforcers and to aid recipients of the notices, according to a Wednesday report in the Wall Street Journal.
Five of Russia’s largest internet companies have called for an update of its copyright laws, according to the wire news service Agence France Press.
“We believe that when the procedures are being observed (to prevent copyright violations) internet services cannot be held responsible for content uploaded by users,” said the five companies in a recent statement published on their websites. “In Europe, the United States and other countries the legal question about restricting the responsibility of the Internet media in these situations was decided more than 10 years ago.”
Google has partnered with three digital music providers to launch a new online music service to increase broadband usage and stave off internet piracy, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
China’s official newspaper recently criticized Apple’s iPAD because users must pay for music and movies, according to a recent report in The Christian Science Monitor.
Viacom has hired former Solicitor General Theodore Olson to appeal an unfavorable outcome in a billion dollar copyright infringement lawsuit that came down this June, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Copyright holders in the French music industry are reporting a staggering 25,000 “music-related” infringements to the country’s top enforcement authority on a daily basis, according to a a music industry trade group director quoted in the trade magazine Billboard.