Dutch court allows media bugging
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The Dutch secret service can tap reporters' phones - but only under special circumstances, a court rules.
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Lawyers for Belgium's French-speaking newspapers and Internet search engine Google clashed in court, during a hearing into a copyright case against the US giant.
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States are rethinking their policy of publishing all court documents -- divorces, medical histories, arrests -- on the web. On one hand is the citizens' right to know how their government operates. On the other is their right to privacy. By Jacob Ogles.
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A South African court allows prosecutors to use documents for a possible new graft case against the ex-deputy leader.
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A French appeals court was to rule whether three photographers who were part of the press pack that chased Princess Diana on the night of her death in Paris in 1997 took pictures that broke privacy laws.
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By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post Staff Writer  When the government's attempt to relax media ownership rules was defeated in court two years ago, some hailed it as a victory against putting too much power in the hands of too few media lords.
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A media sting operation gone awry revives a debate on media regulation
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(InfoWorld) - A Belgian Internet service provider has appealed a ruling that it must block illegal file-sharing on its network in a case that tests two European Union directives concerning copyright and the extent of responsibility that ISPs have for transmitted content. The appeal contestsÂ a rulingÂ in June by Belgium's Court of First Instance against Scarlet Extended, an ISP formerly owned by Tiscali. Scarlet Extended was ordered to install within six months filtering technology made by software vendor Audible Magic Corp. The company makes software that can identity and block copyright content based on the characteristics of a file, which it calls "digital fingerprints." The ruling has brought into focus two E.U. directives, which E.U. states are required to incorporate into their national laws. While the E.U. E-Commerce Directive says that ISPs are mere conduits and not liable for monitoring content on their networks, the court disagreed, ruling that filtering is not the same as monitoring. "It's a distinction that the judge makes with very little explanation," said Struan Robertson, senior associate with Pinsent Masons and editor of the legal Web site Out-law.com. The judgment "simply says the mere conduit defense is irrelevant in the circumstances." The judgment appears to reinforce the E.U.'s Information Society Directive, also known as the copyright directive, which says a copyright owner should be able to obtain an injunction against an intermediary that's used for piracy. While the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said after the June ruling the case could set a precedent, it's unclear how the case could influence other European piracy-related cases. "Outside Belgium, other courts might be influenced by this ruling, but they are not bound by this ruling," Robertson said. "Other courts with the same facts might come to a different conclusion." The lawsuit against Scarlet Extended was originally filed in 2004 by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers, known as SABAM. The organization requested an injunction against Scarlet Extended, then known as Tiscali, for allowing music files to be traded on peer-to-peer networks. Â
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A Belgian court has ordered US Internet search giant Google to stop reproducing articles, photos and graphics from French- and German-language Belgian newspapers on its news site.
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Belgian court has ruled that an ISP is responsible for blocking illegal file sharing on its network, could set precedent.
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A Belgian court dealt a blow to Google by ruling against the US Internet giant in a copyright case lodged by French-language Belgian newspapers and closely watched by other media.
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Dutch telecommunications regulator OPTA, which is responsible for regulating spam in the Netherlands, imposed three separate fines this week, the first since the Dutch government agreed in May to a ban on unsolicited e-mail to consumers.
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'School for paedophiles' The Dutch prosecutor's office is considering legal actions to test the law against child porn in the popular virtual game Second Life. With no clear litigation, it is difficult to act against perpetrators.â¦
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A Belgian court said on Friday it  would wait until after the new year to decide whether to uphold  an injunction blocking Web search leader Google Inc.   from reproducing snippets of Belgian press reports.
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A European high court fails to see the obvious. Quelle surprise!
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Late last month, the Court of First Instance in Brussels issued a decision ordering Scarlet, one of Belgium&#39;s leading ISPs, to begin blocking copyrighted material that passes through its servers. The court gave the ISP six months to implement one or more technologies recommended by a court-appointed expert, and threatened the company with fines of up to 2,500 euros per day (roughly US$3,400) if it fails to comply.
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The government had tried to block news coverage of a scandal, arguing that it jeopardized the investigation.