For the record 3 May
03-05-2007
by Charlie Taylor

EU warns Germany over telecoms law | Icahn-Motorola row continues

The European Commission has issued a final warning to Germany in the ongoing dispute over the country's new telecom law. The disagreement centres on Germany's failure to remove new provisions in legislation that would effectively grant Deutsche Telekom a 'regulatory holiday' despite its dominant position in the local broadband market. The Commission said it is preparing to refer the case to the European Court of Justice in June, unless Germany amends the legislation to accommodate the EU's concerns.

Digital music sales will overtake physical sales by 2011, according to a new forecast from Berg Insight. The firm predicts digital sales will account for approximately 10 percent of all music retail revenues this year. Moreover, Berg estimates total European music retail value is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 6.5 percent from EUR8.5 billion in 2007, to EUR11.6 billion by 2012.

E-Net, the company which runs Ireland's 27 Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), has welcomed the new National Broadband Scheme, as it believes that its networks can play an important role in the initiative. "E-Net is encouraged by the Department's continuing commitment to resolve the broadband issue in Ireland. E-Net is proud to be in a position to support its customers in responding to the Government tender," said the firm's chief executive Conal Henry. "The MANs network is a critical element in delivering this initiative both in terms of the quality of infrastructure and [its] proven impact on competition within the market," he added.

In its proxy fight with billionaire financier Carl C Icahn, Motorola is giving as good as it's getting, according to the New York Times. One day after Icahn used a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal to compare comments by Motorola chief executive Ed Zander to "something straight out of Alice in Wonderland," Motorola published a press release highlighting Icahn's membership of several company boards -- the insinuation being Icahn has his eye off the ball.

News ranking website Digg.com found itself in the centre of what some are calling a test case for the power of user-generated content on social networking sites, according to PC World. The brouhaha erupted when executives at Digg began removing posts containing software keys needed to crack the encryption used to limit copying of HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs, after they received a cease-and-desist letter from another company asserting that the posts violated its intellectual property rights. That move outraged many Digg users, who repeatedly posted the key until founder Kevin Rose relented last night and stopped the deletions. The revolt marks a test case for social networking sites that accept user-generated content, said Dianne Lynch, dean of the communications school at Ithaca College.