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Articles for Category Tag - Internet Law

Problems Remain – CMA Updates on Ofcom Loyalty Penalty Fixes

21st January, 2020 (0 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued its annual update on Ofcom’s progress toward tackling the “loyalty penalty” in UK broadband ISP and mobile services, which can result in existing customers paying “significantly more” than new ones. Overall the progress has been good, but not all operators are playing ball.

Ruling by EU Court Adviser May Hamper UK Internet Snooping

15th January, 2020 (2 Comments)

The Advocate General for the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Campos Sánchez-Bordona, has today issued a landmark legal “opinion” that could effectively limit the ability of national security agencies (e.g. GCHQ) to force internet providers (e.g. broadband ISPs) into the bulk retention of personal customer data.

Owner of Multi-Million Pound UK Flat Sues Over Poor Broadband

9th December, 2019 (30 Comments)

The owner of a £2.95m 30th floor apartment in The Heron (Barbican, London), 70 year old travel boss Stephen Shalson, is suing the building’s owners – Heron Residences LLP – for £97,300 after he moved in to find that the property didn’t have good broadband, which forced him to get online via external locations instead (cafes etc.).

Mobile Operators Win Key UK Appeal Case Over Building Access

27th November, 2019 (0 Comments)

The Court of Appeal has upheld a key judgement in favour of Cornerstone (umbrella company for O2 and Vodafone’s network sharing), which means that 4G / 5G mobile and broadband operators can force access to land in order to conduct a survey. The case was a key test of the revised Electronic Communications Code (ECC).

Mass Piracy Website Blocks by UK ISPs Fuel Legal Alternatives

17th October, 2019 (13 Comments)

A new study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Chapman University, has examined the impact of forcing UK broadband ISPs to block individual piracy websites (via court order) and discovered that it caused a decrease in overall piracy, as well as a 7 to 12% increase in the use of legal subscription sites.

Court Forces Big UK ISPs to Block Nintendo Switch Piracy Sites

10th September, 2019 (17 Comments)

Nintendo has won an injunction in the UK High Court that forces all of the largest broadband ISPs – Sky Broadband, BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and EE – to block four websites that were found to have facilitated copyright infringement (internet piracy) by helping to distribute video games for the company’s Switch console.

Premier League Hail Success of UK ISP Work to Stop Internet Piracy

9th September, 2019 (4 Comments)

The UK Government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has recently published its annual 2019 intellectual property crime and enforcement report, which among other things reveals that the Premier League (Football) managed to remove or block over 210,000 live streams and over 360,000 clips of its matches.

Liberty Lose High Court Challenge vs UK Internet Snooping Law

29th July, 2019 (8 Comments)

The UK High Court has dismissed Liberty‘s legal challenge against the Government’s bulk data retention policy in its 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (IPAct), which is a mass surveillance approach that also catches innocent peoples communications data (i.e. phone, mobile and internet activity). The group expects to appeal.

Get it Right – Copyright Holders Scrap UK ISP Piracy Letters Scheme

19th July, 2019 (12 Comments)

The Voluntary Copyright Alert Program (VCAP), which has so far seen broadband ISPs in the UK send around 1 million “educational” internet piracy warning emails (“subscriber alerts“) to consumers they suspect of taking part in copyright infringement, has been ceased because it “served [its] purpose.”

Court Refuses Copyright Trolls Access to Virgin Media’s Customer Data

18th July, 2019 (2 Comments)

The UK High Court of Justice has refused notorious copyright trolls – Golden Eye (GEIL) and Mircom International – access to obtain “tens of thousands” of customer records from cable broadband ISP Virgin Media (these would have been used to pursue claims of internet piracy), which occurred because their evidence was ruled inadequate.

Grant Shapps MP Calls for Competition Probe of UK Mobile Giants

24th June, 2019 (4 Comments)

The chair of the cross-party British Infrastructure Group (BIG), Grant Shapps MP, has called on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate claims of “potential collusion between some major operators,” which it’s alleged may have contributed to the sudden collapse of mobile retailer Phones 4U in 2014.

Fears of Unlawful Bulk Internet Surveillance Data Retention by MI5

12th June, 2019 (6 Comments)

A legal challenged brought by Liberty in the UK High Court has pointed to the “undoubtedly unlawful” bulk retention of largely innocent peoples communications data (telecoms and internet) by MI5, which stems from an apparent failure to adhere to the safeguards set out in the Government’s 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (IPAct).

Ofcom Owes UK Mobile Operators £220m in Licence Fee Dispute

20th May, 2019 (2 Comments)

The UK High Court of Justice has ruled that Ofcom must pay back £220m to mobile operators as part of restitution for the regulator’s handling of a licence fee hike to the 900MHz and 1800MHz (3G and 4G) spectrum bands (i.e. £82.4m to EE, £54.4m for Vodafone, £54.4m for O2 and £26.9m for Three UK).

36% of UK People Have Been Called by Scammers Impersonating BT

27th March, 2019 (17 Comments)

A new survey of nearly 4,000 UK residents has found that 36.41% of respondents had at some point received a call on their home phone line from someone they suspected, or knew for certain, was a scammer impersonating a representative of broadband ISP BT. One victim was even conned out of £34,000 from their bank.

Persimmon Sues BT Over Unpaid Bill for New Homes Infrastructure

11th March, 2019 (33 Comments)

House builder Persimmon has launched a lawsuit against BT (Openreach), which accuses the UK telecoms giant of allegedly owing them £7.2m plus interest for unpaid work as part of deploying new broadband ISP and phone infrastructure on 759 of its developments between 2008 and 2016.

London Grid for Learning Blocks Pirate Websites for 3000 Schools

22nd February, 2019 (4 Comments)

The London Grid for Learning (LGfL), which among other things supplies broadband connectivity to around 3,000 schools (c.1 million children) in the UK’s capital city, claims to have become the first educational technology company and ISP to work with City of London Police (CLP) in order to block known piracy websites.

EU Agrees New Copyright Rules – Sends Internet to the Dark Ages UPDATE

14th February, 2019 (27 Comments)

Despite what the politicians say, there’s no getting around the fact that last night’s agreement on a new EU Copyright Directive between the European Parliament and Council – particularly Article 11 (“link tax“) and Article 13 (“upload filters“) – is going to harm the sharing of online news and deliver mass automated censorship.