Newspapers warn Apple over sales

8 February 2011 Last updated at 10:03 ET

Apple is being warned against trying to squeeze cash out of the newspaper industry by controlling subscriptions for iPads and iPhones.

The European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA) says it is concerned by the company's plans to direct online sales through iTunes.

If that happens, the ENPA warns, a large cut of their profits would go to Apple.

However, the technology giant insists it wants to give customers choice.

Several European Newspapers claim that Apple has banned them from offering free electronic editions to their print customers.

The move sparked industry speculation that a further clampdown was imminent.

Publishers' main concern is that users will not be allowed to subscribe via newspapers' own websites.

In a statement, the ENPA said: "consumers may only have access to the newspaper of their choice via the iTunes store, where the transaction would be subject to commission."

Apple currently receives a 30% share of revenue from apps and eBooks sold this way.

Official investigation

Publishers are also worried that if Apple takes control of sales, they could lose access to subscribers' personal information.

Details such as age, sex and location are useful when selling advertising.

Apple declined to comment on the ENPA's criticism.

The company has previously denied that it plans to stop users from buying subscriptions through publishers' own websites.

However, it has introduced a rule that newspaper apps must include an option to purchase through iTunes.

Critics argue that the ease of "in app" subscription means most users will opt for Apple's preferred method.

In a related move, Belgium's economy minister has called for an official investigation into Apple's plans to sell e-newspapers.

Vincent Van Quickenborne has suggested that the company may be abusing its dominant position in the market.

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File-sharing case 'must continue'

8 February 2011 Last updated at 12:24 ET

A controversial law firm that sent letters to alleged illegal file sharers has been told it cannot drop its cases to "avoid public scrutiny".

ACS:Law contacted thousands of people accusing them of illegally downloading movies and songs and demanding payments of �500 to avoid court action.

Cases against 26 of them proceeded, before the company attempted to pull out of prosecution at the last minute.

Now a judge had criticised the firm for its methods.

"I cannot imagine a system better designed to create disincentives to test the issues in court," said Judge Ian Birss at the Patents County Court in London.

The case stems from a letter-writing campaign by ACS:Law and its partner company MediaCAT, which sent an undisclosed number of notices to alleged file sharers demanding they pay a fine or face the prospect of costly legal action.

Some of those contacted paid up, but it later emerged that the two companies had been taking 65% of the fines collected, with the minority of the money being passed back to the copyright holders in question, most of whom remain anonymous.

Those tactics - known as "speculative invoicing" - had come in for heavy criticism from those who claimed that the action was unfair.

Consumer group Which? said it had found several instances where plainly innocent people had received the demands.

Campaign of harassment

The concerns stepped up last month when the head of ACS:Law, solicitor Andrew Crossley, suddenly told the court he wanted to withdraw all of the cases.

Mr Crossley blamed a campaign of harassment and threats that had "caused immense hassle to me and my family".

But the court said that the move was confusing and gave the impression that ACS:Law was attempting to avoid scrutiny.

Judge Birss added that the case could not be discontinued, since the copyright holders themselves should be given time to take further action if they wanted, but strongly criticised the tactics used by the two companies.

"Why take cases to court and test the assertions when one can just write more letters and collect payments from a portion of the recipients?"

Mr Crossley, who was not present in court, had said that he fully intended to prosecute the cases before pulling out.

The judgment, however, cast doubt on that - pointing out that one of the reasons given for discontinuing the cases was that crucial documents were in storage.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Why take cases to court and test the assertions when one can just write more letters and collect payments."

End Quote Judge Ian Birss

"If true, it is extraordinary," said the ruling. "A party who keeps key documents which are cited in the particulars of claim in storage is not a party anxious to progress their claim in court."

ACS:Law announced that it was shutting down last week, and MediaCAT has also been wound up.

Mr Crossley is now the subject of an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Lawyers acting for some of the 26 defendants said they were pleased the complex case had been treated properly.

"The judgment highlights a number of legal and technical difficulties with these case, which we had advised our clients of throughout," said Michael Forrester of law firm Ralli, which represented some of the defendants.

"We are dealing with cases where consumers have explained how they cannot possibly have uploaded or downloaded copyright protected material, but they are still pursued."

The court gave MediaCAT and the copyright owners in question 14 days to join the action before it faces being struck out.

A further hearing is set for 16 March, when applications to award costs are also likely to be discussed.

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Europe's virus victims revealed

8 February 2011 Last updated at 07:00 ET

Almost one third of internet users in the European Union caught a PC virus despite the majority having security software installed, statistics show.

Viruses were most prevalent in Bulgaria and Hungary, the survey of 30 countries reveals.

The 2010 figures, released by the EU's statistics office to mark Internet Safety Day, show the safest countries were Austria and Ireland.

The figures also detail financial losses online.

They show that 3% of net users in the 27 EU states lost money due to phishing attacks or fraudulent payments.

Phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing details such as bank accounts or login names.

Latvia recorded the highest rate of this kind of fraud with 8% of its internet users affected, followed by the United Kingdom (7%), Malta and Austria (both 5%).

The survey covered more than 200,000 computer users across the 27 countries in the European Union and was conducted during the second quarter of 2010.

The EU statistics office said the survey results were probably lower than actual infection rates as the numbers only included users who realised they had an infection. Although the EU figures focus on viruses that infect PCs, security firms have warned that other devices now face similar threats.

In its fourth-quarter threat report for 2010, security firm Mcafee said that it has seen a 46% increase in malware that targets smartphones, compared to the same period in 2009.

Numbers suggest that smartphones are becoming more widespread than PCs, meaning they are becoming an increasingly lucrative target for scammers and hi-tech thieves.

Manufacturers shipped 100.9 million smartphones globally in the fourth quarter, compared to 92 million PCs, according to research firm IDC.

Much of the malware targeting smartphones was spread via PDFs and Flash software, Mcafee said.

However, the number of infections targeting mobile devices is still relatively small, with just 967 threats recorded by Mcafee in the fourth quarter of 2010.

In early January, according to some estimates, the number of viruses targeting PCs hit 50 million.

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Last.fm ends free mobile service

7 February 2011 Last updated at 13:28 ET

Users of online music site Last.fm will have to pay for its mobile phone service starting from next week.

Until now, the site has provided its personalised radio for free for mobiles, making money by placing adverts between songs instead.

However, it now says this is "not practical" and is instead asking users to pay for an ad-free service.

Listening via the web will remain free but charging is a "rational" move, the site's Matthew Hawn told BBC News.

"We think that the best experience is ad-free," said Mr Hawn, Last.fm's head of product.

"It's not that we're losing buckets of money on our service... but we're trying to make rational decisions about our business model."

From next Tuesday the new mobile service will cost �3 a month, a price which will allow users to listen to personalised radio stations - but not to pick out individual songs.

The move puts the site directly into competition with rivals such as Spotify, which charges �10 a month for ad-free, on-demand access across the web and mobile phones.

Users who listen on the Last.fm website will not have to pay for any services, and Microsoft has agreed to subsidise the costs so that users who listen using their Xbox or Windows Phone 7 handset will still be able to do so for free.

User complaints

The announcement was met with some concern from users, who complained on the company's blog that they that they felt it was not a positive development.

"May as well just get Spotify to listen to music on mobile then," said one user.

"Makes sense," admitted another, "But I'd rather have adverts and keep it free".

It is the latest in a series of moves to scale back services by Last.fm, which is based in London but was bought by American media conglomerate CBS in 2007.

Last year the site scaled back on-demand streaming for many users around the world, and turned off some specific radio station features shortly before Christmas.

However Mr Hawn said that the introduction of mobile subscription marks the end of major changes in the way the service works.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I feel very positive about the rest of our services and I would never consider turning those off."

End Quote Matthew Hawn Head of Product, Last.fm

"It's the last thing we're going to do," he said. "I feel very positive about the rest of our services and I would never consider turning those off."

Instead, he said, the company plans to launch a new mobile application next week to address concerns that some users have had over quality of service.

The music site was seen as a major British success story during the so-called "Web 2.0" boom, building a large user base before being sold in May 2007 for $280m - �140m at the time.

Since the takeover, however, progress seems to have slowed down. The site's founders have all left the company and the true costs of music licensing mean the site has yet to make a profit.

James Cridland, managing director of the Media UK website and a radio futurologist, said financial concerns were spreading across the online industry - despite the fact that there was a clear public appetite for online radio.

"There is a real market there," he said. "According to figures from Rajar [the radio industry measurement group] there are 2.6 million people a week [in the UK] who use personalised radio services like Last.fm or Spotify."

"But over the last six months we've seen a lot of people start charging for all kinds of things. Maybe this is another part of the commercialisation of the web."

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