Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Internet Law (445 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Internet Law

Research Paper Claims UK ISP Warning Letters Will Not Cut Internet Piracy

10th September, 2013 (0 Comments)

A new research paper has warned that the UK’s controversial anti-piracy tackling Digital Economy Act (DEAct), which aims to slash Internet piracy by adopting a “three-strikes” style graduated response system of warning letters and punishment for repeat offenders (e.g. suspension of your broadband service), will not succeed in reducing copyright infringement.

Nominet Moot BAN on Swearing and Bad Language in UK Internet Domains

10th September, 2013 (11 Comments)

Nominet, which manages the registry of .uk Internet domain names, has at the behest of the government launched a review of its registration policy for new website domain names that will examine whether or not it should ban certain words and expressions (e.g. swearing).

Open Rights Group UK Pushes for ISP Website Blocking Orders to be Public

15th August, 2013 (8 Comments)

The Open Rights Group has applied to have a procedural judge (a ‘Master’) in the UK High Court investigate their request for the court orders (injunctions), those related to website blocking, to be made public. Rights Holders use these when forcing big ISPs to censor specific websites (e.g. Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents).

Sky and Other UK ISPs Finally Fix Crystal Palace FC and RadioTimes Block

15th August, 2013 (7 Comments)

Customers of Sky Broadband (plus those of many other UK ISPs) should now be able to access the Radio Times, Crystal Palace FC, Taylor Swift and over 100 other legitimate websites after providers resolved a problem in their court-ordered internet censorship system that occurred because Rights Holders failed to check the data.

UPD4 EZTV Cause Website Blocking Fail for UK Sky Broadband ISP Users

10th August, 2013 (11 Comments)

Some Sky Broadband users were this week left frustrated after the ISP began sporadically blocking TorrentFreak, a well-recognised news source for the BitTorrent and P2P community. But the cause appears to have been a deliberate manipulation by one of the websites that Sky is required to block, which has highlighted the danger of overblocking.

BT and Vodafone Helped GHCQ Snoop on Transatlantic Fibre Optic Cables

3rd August, 2013 (24 Comments)

Telecoms giant BT (codename “Remedy“) and Vodafone (codename “Gerontic“) are among several major telecoms operators that have been named by former NSA employee, Edward Snowden, as helping the UK Government’s Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to snoop on more than 200 of the world’s transatlantic fibre optic cable links.

UPDATE Court Forces Big UK ISPs to Block EZTV and Yify-Torrents Websites

23rd July, 2013 (12 Comments)

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and Motion Picture Association (MPA) have won yet another court case that will force all of the country’s largest broadband ISPs to block their customers from accessing EZTV and Yify-Torrents, which were both found to be facilitating internet copyright infringement (piracy).

Leaked EU Laws and Police Raid on ISPs Raise Net Neutrality Concerns

15th July, 2013 (0 Comments)

The European Commission’s recent promise to “guarantee” Net Neutrality by ensuring that broadband ISPs and mobile operators give citizens access to the full and open internet, “without any blocking or throttling of competing services” (here), has been called into question after a draft of the new regulation was leaked.

France Replaces ISP Cut-Off Policy for Internet Piracy with Automatic Fines

10th July, 2013 (2 Comments)

France has scrapped its expensive and highly controversial anti-piracy Hadopi law, which threatened to disconnect internet users that continued to infringe copyright after warnings. But it has been replaced with a series of automatic fines. Could this also be the future of the UK’s much troubled Digital Economy Act (DEAct)?

Heroic UK ISP Boss Forcing Junk Email Spammers to Pay Up

8th July, 2013 (6 Comments)

Junk email, we all hate it! But what if you could do something that would make them pay you for clogging up your inbox? The Director of broadband ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP), Adrian Kennard, has found a way after he successfully won £40 (well.. almost) by taking two email spammers to task.

EU Impose New Personal Data Rules on UK Phone and Internet Providers

25th June, 2013 (0 Comments)

The European Commission (EC) has this week implemented new rules to help telephone and broadband providers (ISP) know what to do when their customers’ personal data is either lost, stolen or otherwise compromised. But companies that encrypt your data won’t have to tell you if it’s been stolen.

Ofcom Fines UK ISP Supatel and TimeTalk GBP60k for Mis-Selling

24th June, 2013 (4 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today fined broadband and phone provider Supatel Limited (TimeTalk) £60,000 for mis-selling (slamming) after they were found guilty of having switched 83 customers from one ISP to another without the individuals knowledge.

GCHQ UK Caught Snooping on Transatlantic Fibre Optic Connections

22nd June, 2013 (68 Comments)

The Government’s Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which aims to provide intelligence, protect information and “keep our society safe and successful“, has been caught tapping into at least some of the world’s transatlantic fibre optic cable links that keep us all connected via the Internet and via phone calls.

New UK Bill Proposes Consumer Refunds for Faulty Internet Downloads

12th June, 2013 (7 Comments)

Anybody in the UK whom has ever purchased and downloaded a piece of digital software or content over their broadband ISP connection, and which later turned out to be faulty (e.g. didn’t work on your computer), could soon be entitled to a refund under the government’s draft Consumer Rights Bill.

Mixed Response to Consultation on UK Broadband Planning Changes

7th June, 2013 (4 Comments)

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has today published some very mixed responses to their recent consultation on proposals to change the siting requirements for broadband street cabinets and overhead lines, which is intended to facilitate the deployment of superfast broadband around the United Kingdom.

UPD Internet Piracy Warning Letters from UK ISPs Delayed to Late 2015

5th June, 2013 (1 Comment)

The UK government’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has confirmed that it now expects broadband ISPs to start issuing their first warning Notification Letters to customers, those whom are suspected of internet piracy, during “the latter half of 2015“. Over a year’s delay from the previous “early” 2014 target.

Whack a Mole Game Continues as UK ISP Clamps Down on Pirate Proxies

3rd June, 2013 (13 Comments)

Sky Broadband (BSkyB) appears to have become the first major UK ISP to extend its court ordered censorship of specific websites that facilitate internet piracy (e.g. The Pirate Bay) to include a wide range of proxy servers, which allows users to bypass such blocks without needing to use a VPN or other solution.