On 4 June 2012, the European Commission launched a public consultation across the EU called "A clean and open Internet: Public consultation on procedures for notifying and acting on illegal content hosted by online intermediaries".

The Commission are seeking responses from Internet Service Providers ("ISPs"), organisations that notify the authorities of illegal content and civil rights organisations.  

The European Directive on E-Commerce requires the Commission to develop procedures for notifying and removing illegal or infringing content but it does not regulate these procedures in detail.

The consultation is in response to lobbying from ISPs for clearer and more robust rules ...

2012 is set to be a busy year with celebrations for the Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee taking place.  However, the IP and media world's focus will be on the following issues over the coming 12 months:

 

Ambush Marketing - The Olympic year has arrived and a number of businesses will be looking to take advantage of the Olympics in their advertising and marketing campaigns over the upcoming months.  We will be keeping a close eye on how LOCOG deal with businesses that fall foul of the rules governing ambush marketing. For more information on ambush marketing see our blog ...

The furore around the development of the UK's law on privacy is still going strong. In a swift chain of events, a footballer who obtained a privacy injunction filed an action against Twitter Inc and Persons Unknown (read our blog here), tweets attempting to circumnavigate the court's privacy order went sky high and then MP John Hemming released the footballer's identity in Parliament yesterday, protected by Parliamentary privilege. He said that it would be impractical to imprison 75,000 Twitter users who had named the player.  

Alongside this high profile case, another case relating to the use of Twitter ...

Keeping on top of the seemingly endless torrent of privacy injunctions that have been granted of late is keeping us on our toes, for a recap on earlier decisions you can read our previous blogs here.

It has been reported this week that a world renowned chef and even a sitting MP are to be the latest beneficiaries of a super injunction.

According to the Telegraph former colleagues took the chef to the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal, age discrimination and non payment of wages. The order granted means that the chef is only known as L and his ...

LGBlogsIP has kept readers in the loop with regards to the relatively new legal creature the 'super injunction' since we started blogging. However, for those that are new to this phenomenon, in brief, it is a type of injunction which not only gives anonymity to the claimant but also prevents the fact that the injunction even exists being reported. So far, according to reports, it has mainly been celebrities and wealthy individuals that have obtained this type of injunction, our previous blogs on the matter can be found here.

The UK press have also picked up on the newsworthy ...

The implementation of the Digital Economy Act ("DEA") faces further delay following challenges heard in the High Court last week over sections of the Act. Two prominent ISPs in the UK, BT and TalkTalk, have applied for judicial review of the aspects of the Act requiring them to take a more hands on role in policing online copyright infringement.  

The DEA creates new responsibilities for the government's watch body Ofcom to adopt measures aimed at significantly reducing levels of unlawful file sharing via peer to peer online networks. These have been welcomed by the creative industry but warily regarded ...

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, will announce a wholesale review of libel laws in England at 10:30 today. The review is expected to focus on limiting the ability of foreign claimants to bring libel actions in England, particularly in respect of statements made online.

The review comes on the back of attempts in the USA to prevent American citizens from being sued in England for libel.

The review is also expected to increase the freedom of the press, especially in respect of investigative journalism. Another area of focus is scientific reporting, following the high profile case involving Simon Singh. ...