Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Internet Law (451 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Internet Law

High Court Orders Big UK ISPs to Block 19 More Piracy Websites

23rd July, 2021 (20 Comments)

The High Court in London has, following a case raised by the Motion Picture Association of Europe (MPA), issued a new injunction that forces most of the major UK broadband ISPs (e.g. BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Plusnet etc.) to block 19 websites that were found to be facilitating internet copyright infringement (piracy).

Court Hearing Begins in BT UK Landline Overcharging Case

24th June, 2021 (3 Comments)

Broadband ISP BT has today said it will “vigorously defend itself” – at the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) – against the claim of having allegedly overcharged c.2.3 million landline-only customers, which has been brought by law firm Mishcon de Reya on behalf of a former Ofcom telecoms consultant, Justin Le Patourel.

DNS Providers May Be Forced to Block Internet Piracy Websites

21st June, 2021 (29 Comments)

In a possible sign of things to come, Sony has won a key court case in Germany that could force Domain Name Service (DNS) providers, such as Quad9 and eventually others too (Google Public DNS, OpenDNS, Cloudflare etc.), to block access to a website due to internet copyright infringement (piracy).

BT Sues Tii for GBP72m Over Allegedly Faulty Kit and ADSL Outages

11th June, 2021 (3 Comments)

Telecoms giant BT is suing Tii Technologies (formerly Porta Systems) for £72m in the UK High Court (Technology and Construction Court) after they allegedly supplied 95,256 faulty jack test (JT) blocks between 2006-2016, which reportedly caused a spate of copper line ADSL broadband outages (mainly impacting ISP Sky Broadband).

Two UK Broadband ISPs Trial New Internet Snooping System

11th March, 2021 (72 Comments)

Two unnamed broadband or mobile ISPs are reportedly helping the UK Home Office and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to trial a new internet snooping system on their customers, which is being conducted as part of the controversial 2016 UK Investigatory Powers Act (aka – snoopers charter).

Fibre Engineering Firm Lite Access Updates on its Cityfibre Dispute UPDATE

3rd March, 2021 (8 Comments)

Lite Access, which specialises in deploying UK fibre optic (e.g. FTTP) broadband infrastructure, has officially appointed FRP Advisory Trading Limited as administrators and confirmed that they intend to “vigorously defend” themselves against Cityfibre’s position that they were in repudiatory breach of contract(s).

Court Order Forces UK ISP TalkTalk to Block Sci-Hub Website

18th February, 2021 (17 Comments)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk has this week updated their list of blocked websites (i.e. those where they’ve been ordered by the UK high court to do so) to include the controversial Sci-Hub, which describes itself as being “the first pirate website in the world to provide [free] mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers.”

Rights Holders Seek to Extend UK ISP Site Blocks to Stream Rippers UPDATE

5th February, 2021 (23 Comments)

Major record labels, including the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) and Phonographic Performance (PPL), have gone to the UK High Court in an attempt to force six of the country’s largest broadband ISPs to extend their website blocks for copyright infringement to include sites that facilitate stream ripping and cyberlocker Nitroflare.

Mobile Operators Reject Call to Stop 5G Rollout Over Health Fears UPDATE

19th January, 2021 (0 Comments)

The trade association for UK mobile operators, Mobile UK, has warned that calls for the 5G rollout to be delayed on health grounds are “without merit“. The commentary comes after Professor John William Frank (University of Edinburgh) alleged that the transmitter density required for 5G may be “potentially harmful to health.”

BT Accused of Overcharging UK Landline Only Customers £500m+ UPDATE

17th January, 2021 (49 Comments)

BT has said they “strongly disagree” with a new court case being brought by Justin Le Patourel, a telecoms consultant who worked at Ofcom for 13 years. Justin claims that the broadband ISP overcharged c.2.3 million landline-only customers. If successful, the case could force the provider to pay out over £500m in compensation.

Swish Fibre Find Wayleave Solution for FTTP Rollout with Trenches Law

15th December, 2020 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP Swish Fibre, which is building a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network for 250,000 premises across the Home Counties of England, has today agreed a new partnership with telecoms specialist Trenches Law to help tackle the pile of wayleave agreements that such work tends to attract.

Openreach Takes UK ISP TalkTalk to Court Over Unpaid Fees

2nd December, 2020 (21 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has confirmed that they’ve “reluctantly” begun a high court case against budget broadband ISP TalkTalk, which reportedly centres on a dispute over unpaid fees (said to be worth c.£16m) for wholesale access to its high-speed fibre optic based Ethernet products.

Questions for UK Gov as EU Court Rules on Internet Data Snooping

6th October, 2020 (12 Comments)

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has this morning issued a ruling that appears to impose restrictions on the general and indiscriminate retention of phone and internet data, which raises some new questions for the UK Government’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPAct) – also known as the “snoopers charter.”

EU Court Ruling Challenges Mobile Operators Zero Rating Plans UPDATE

15th September, 2020 (18 Comments)

A new ruling by Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has today, for the first time, interpreted the EU regulation enshrining “internet neutrality” (this was also adopted in the UK), which appears to restrict mobile and broadband operators when offering zero rating plans (i.e. unlimited data on certain services).

Gigaclear Settles Broadband Lawsuit with Scottish Government UPDATE

25th August, 2020 (17 Comments)

We’ve just been informed that UK ISP Gigaclear has today reached a settlement in their R100 (Reaching 100%) legal dispute with the Scottish Government. The case had been preventing the LOT 1 part of the deployment contract from being award to BT and thus delaying the roll-out of “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+).

UEFA Wrongfully Hit Virgin Media UK with Piracy Takedown Notice

24th August, 2020 (1 Comment)

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has somewhat comically included broadband ISP Virgin Media UK in their latest list of DMCA takedown notices, which as part of a crackdown against illegal IPTV services ordered Google to remove the provider’s online bundles shop from their search results.

5G Conspiracy Theorists Hire Lawyer to Sue UK Gov Over Health Fears

15th August, 2020 (0 Comments)

The Action Against 5G mobile group, which holds to a widely debunked conspiracy theory that “radio-frequency radiation from masts and wireless devices puts health and life at risk“, has crowd-funded £105K to hire barrister Michael Mansfield QC in order to take legal action against the UK Government to stop the roll-out.