Category Regional Policy

Verizon Executive Discusses Telecom’s Move To Open Access

By Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch
NEW YORK - Verizon Wireless, in a surprise move for a company known to fiercely protect its network from outside use, announced on 27 November that it would adopt an "open-access" policy for the use of its wireless services. This means that third-party devices, including Google's still in-development mobile-phone operating system Android, will be able to use the Verizon network, and opens the way for a global expansion for the telecommunications company.

Speaking at investment bank UBS's Annual Global Media Conference in New York on 5 December, Verizon President and Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl explained the choice.

France’s Online Anti-Piracy Plan Comes Under Scrutiny

By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
Legal experts and consumer rights groups are questioning the feasibility of measures described in an anti-piracy pact that French media groups, government officials, and Internet service providers (ISPs) announced on 23 November.

ISPs also dispute the veracity of media reports that have since claimed that access providers will begin to actively monitor and block peer-to-peer file exchanges in France.

The anti-piracy agreement describes a number of possible measures that could prevent illegal distribution of copyright-protected digital media in France.

Film Industry Touts ISP Partners In Filtering Online Content

By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
NEW YORK - Internet service providers are going to lead the monitoring of networks to ensure they are not being used for infringing purposes in the entertainment industry's seemingly endless battle to maintain control over where their content is distributed, and to whom, Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman said Tuesday.

Glickman, speaking at the 35th Annual UBS Global Media & Communications Conference on 5 December, said his organisation - which represents the motion picture, home video and television industries - is working with telephone, cable and Internet companies, most notably AT&T, to ensure their networks are not being used to illegally share or download content. The relationship is somewhat ironic given the entertainment industry's rocky history with the ISP community and its previous efforts to force telecommunications companies like Verizon to reveal the identities of customers who infringe copyrights on peer-to-peer filing systems.

EU Acceptance Of TRIPS Health Amendment Adds 28 Members

By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch The European Union has taken steps to ratify a 2005 decision by the World Trade Organization designed to ensure that intellectual property does not limit access to medicines in developing countries. Peter Mandelson,…