Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Internet Law (465 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Internet Law

UK ISPs Lose Appeal Against Website Blocks for Trade Mark Abuse

6th July, 2016 (2 Comments)

Several big UK broadband ISPs, including BT, Sky Broadband, EE, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, have lost an appeal against a 2014 ruling by the High Court, which extended court ordered website blocking to include sites that sell counterfeit goods (i.e. abuse of Trade Mark).

Government – 6.7 Million UK Internet Users Downloaded Illegal Content

6th July, 2016 (5 Comments)

The Intellectual Property Office has published its sixth study into the extent of online copyright infringement by broadband ISP and mobile customers, which estimates that 15% of UK Internet users aged 12+ (6.7 million people) had consumed at least one item of “illegal” online content (down from 18% last year) and 5% “exclusively consumed illegal content” (down from 6%).

Research Claims Court Ordered ISP Website Blocking is Open to Abuse

4th July, 2016 (2 Comments)

A new study from researchers working out of the Western Sydney University and King’s College London has claimed that court ordered website blocks by UK broadband ISPs, such as those used against Internet piracy websites, could be open to abuse.

UPDATE BT Force London Wireless ISP BiWiFi into Name Change and Delay

4th July, 2016 (9 Comments)

Recently we reported on a new fixed wireless ISP called BWiFi (here), which was set to launch a superfast broadband (50-75Mbps) service to help poorly served parts of South East London (e.g. Rotherhithe). Sadly a legal spat with BT has forced the provider to change name to Bkonex and delay its launch.

Entanet Warn “not clear or workable” UK Internet Spying Bill Will Pass

22nd June, 2016 (9 Comments)

Shropshire-based broadband and telecoms provider Entanet has warned that the Government’s controversial Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), which will force ISPs to snoop on their customers, is “not clear or workable” but still “looks certain to become law within weeks.”

Scam Alert – UK Broadband ISP Users Targeted by Fake Support Pop-ups

22nd June, 2016 (4 Comments)

Customers of BT, TalkTalk, PlusNet and Sky Broadband in the United Kingdom (others may also be affected) are all being warned to keep an eye out for fake pop-up support messages that claim to come from your ISP (phishing), which due to a simple exploit can appear on even legitimate websites.

UPD CMA Reject TalkTalk and BT Appeals Over UK Fibre Broadband Prices

20th June, 2016 (2 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority has today rejected opposing appeals by BT and TalkTalk against Ofcom’s “margin squeeze” test, which is designed to keep the incumbent operator’s FTTC (VULA) based superfast broadband prices fair. But BT did win a small victory over its compliance period.

Lord Lucas Scalds UK ISP Internet Piracy Threat Letters in Key Debate

16th June, 2016 (5 Comments)

The Conservative peer Lord Lucas has told a House of Lords debate on the new ‘Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Bill‘ that copyright owners who attempt to bully broadband ISP subscribers by demanding money to settle suspected cases of Internet piracy are “villains” that “abuse the system” and must be tackled.

Judge Orders BT Openreach to Pay GBP500k After Engineer Accident

14th June, 2016 (14 Comments)

The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales (Old Bailey) has fined a “disappointed” BT (Openreach) £500,000 and ordered it to pay costs of £98,913.51 after one of their engineers, David Spurgeon, fell 7 metres from a loft, shattering both ankles and suffering back injuries.

UK Court Forces Big Broadband ISPs to Block 8 Internet Video Piracy Sites

27th May, 2016 (10 Comments)

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) has convinced the High Court to force all of the major broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom (BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, EE etc.) to block 8 additional websites that were found to facilitate Internet copyright infringement (piracy).

UK Police Arrest 6th Person in Connection with the TalkTalk ISP Hack

26th April, 2016 (0 Comments)

Last year’s traumatic hack of TalkTalk’s website, which exposed the personal details of 156,959 customers’ (including 15,656 bank account numbers and sort codes), is continuing to have repercussions after Staffordshire Police confirmed that a sixth person had been arrested.

Study Finds UK ISP Blocks of Internet Piracy Website Do Sort of Work

20th April, 2016 (4 Comments)

A new study of nearly 60,000 Internet users in the United Kingdom has examined whether the 2014 block of 53 pirate websites (copyright infringement) by the largest broadband ISPs had a positive outcome for legal content. The results suggest that it did, although there may be diminishing returns for future blocks.

UK Government Publish Guidance for ISP Users Hit by Piracy Threat Letters

7th April, 2016 (2 Comments)

The Government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has today published a very basic piece of new guidance that is designed to help consumers who may have received a letter that accuses them of having shared copyright material online via P2P (BitTorrent) file sharing networks.

UPDATE Labour Party Threatens to Delay UK ISP Internet Spying Bill

4th April, 2016 (9 Comments)

The UK Labour Party has today set out a list of changes that it would like to see being made to the controversial Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, which aims to force broadband ISPs into logging a much bigger slice of your online activity and to then share it with the security services.

Fragmented Internet TV Content Licensing Risks Igniting Piracy Surge

30th March, 2016 (11 Comments)

Competition is a notoriously complicated animal and if done correctly it can foster a more affordable and dynamic market. But equally there are times when it may have the opposite impact, which is something we’re starting to see in the TV content market and if left unchecked there is a risk that it may push consumers into the more accessible arms of Internet piracy.

EU Court Says Public WiFi Networks Not Liable for Internet Piracy by Users

16th March, 2016 (1 Comment)

The European Court of Justice has today offered a preliminary “opinion” on the long-running “McFadden case” in Germany, which effectively concludes that operators of free (no password required) open public WiFi networks cannot be held liable for copyright infringements committed on their networks.

Opposition Grows as UK ISP Internet Spying Bill Hits Parliament

15th March, 2016 (0 Comments)

The Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, which among other things aims to force broadband ISPs into logging a much bigger slice of your online activity and to then share it with the security services, will today receive its second reading and the battle lines have already been firmly drawn.