IP & IT News
YouTube faces paying billions to music stars after copyright vote
The Guardian – 20 June
YouTube has lost a ‘crucial’ vote in Brussels, and new copyright laws will now lead to the music channel having to pay billions of dollars in licence fees to allow users to watch music videos. In the UK last year, record labels and artists earnt double the royalties from vinyl record sales than they did from YouTube videos.
BT fined for five million spam emails
BBC News – 20 June
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined BT £77,000 for sending nearly five million spam emails to its customers. The emails were sent between December 2015 and November 2016, and promoted charitable fundraising for three charities. According to BT, this was not a deliberate breach of regulations and the five million emails they sent out only led to one complaint.
EU votes for copyright law that would make internet a 'tool for control'
The Guardian – 20 June
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted for a draft law which would ‘overhaul EU copyright rules’. The law would mean that companies, such as Google or Microsoft, would install filters that stopped people from uploading copyrighted material. However, internet pioneers and civil liberties groups are among those who fear this new law will turn the internet into a surveillance and control tool.
BIS Bites Bitcoin: “Could Bring the Internet to a Halt”
CBR – 18 June
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has released a report analysing ‘Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and decentralised models of financing.’ The report examines distributed journal software structure of blockchain, and the effect it may have on the internet. According to BIS, ‘the associated communication volumes could bring the internet to a halt’.
Dixons Carphone hack explained: what happened and should you be worried?
Financial Times – 13 June
In light of the Dixons Carphone data breach, whereby 5.9 million payment cards and 1.2 million personal data records were compromised, security experts are urging companies to encrypt all data they hold. As yet, there is no evidence that any of the compromised data has been used fraudulently.
