e-beeb squeezed

Forty jobs to go as beeb.com, the BBC's e-commerce portal, undergoes 'restructuring'. The closure is another reflection of dot-com woes - of the struggle to generate revenues from online services and advertising. ...more

iPod owners could be gaoled under new Australian law

Australians could end up in gaol simply for owning an iPod under proposed new copyright laws, a civil liberties group has warned. Electronic Frontiers Australia notes that the Copyright Amendment Bill would create a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $A65,000, to possess a 'device' such as a VCR, an iPod, an MP3 player or a computer 'with intent to use it to make an infringing copy'. The EFA says that this is a blatant attempt to target 'everyday' Australians. ...more

Tiscali ups the anti-BT complaints ante

Tiscali and other communications companies are to drop a complaint against BT made under the Telecommunications Act and relodge it under the more powerful Competition Act. The complaint, from Tiscali, Energis and Your Communications, claims that BT is using its monopolistic weight to unfairly penalise those communications providers that took up its Datastream broadband service by 'multiple tactics', such as cutting the prices of its preferred broadband wholesale offerings. The trio will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Freeserve, who successfully managed to force Oftel to reconsider a complaint of predatory pricing by taking the complaint to the Competition Commission Appeals Tribunal. ...more

Europe opts for an inclusive Internet

While the US fights out the future of the Internet, Europe has made steps today in ensuring the Internet is as inclusive as possible, with the signing of the Riga Ministerial Declaration. Ministers of 34 European countries in Riga, Latvia today, put their names to the document that sets out goals to use technology to 'help people to overcome economic, social, educational, territorial or disability-related disadvantages'. The 'e-inclusion' targets include halving the gap in internet usage by 2010 for groups at risk of exclusion, such as older people; to boost broadband provision to an average of 90 per cent; and to create requirements for improvements to digital literacy and skills, reducing by half the gap between the digital haves and have-nots as well as for accessibility standards. ...more

BT says 100 per cent broadband can be done

Following Stephen Timms' call to arms last week to bring the target for 100 per cent broadband coverage to 2005, BT has said it can be done. Ben Verwaayen, BT Group chief executive, said: 'Working together we can roll out broadband to 100 per cent of communities by 2005.' However, he cautioned: 'In some areas, market stimulation alone will not be sufficient to deliver broadband. ...more