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LONDON (AP) The High Court has endorsed Britain's new copyright rules, siding with the music industry over Internet providers in a battle over online filesharing.

The Digital Economy Act similar to rules already in place in France and Ireland forces Internet service providers to send an escalating series of warnings to users suspected of illegally swapping movies and music. Eventually, service providers can suspend repeat offenders' access to the Web.

The controversy over the British rules has mirrored debates over online copyright enforcement in the United States and elsewhere. Film studios, record labels and other creative groups argue that the rules are needed to stanch the flow of illegal content flooding the Internet; while service providers and civil liberties groups fear that the regime will choke off free expression.

Leading Internet companies BT Group PLC and the TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC took their case to court, arguing that the act would be unnecessarily expensive and invade users' privacy. A lower court rebuffed BT and TalkTalk, and on Tuesday a three-judge panel at London's Court of Appeal endorsed the earlier judgment, to the delight of entertainment lobbying groups.

"Once again the court is on the side of the almost two million workers in the creative industries whose livelihoods are put at risk because creative content is stolen on a daily basis," said Christine Payne, who leads actors' union Equity.

David Puttnam, the president of the Film Distributors' Association, said he hoped the judgment would bring an end to "a long chapter of uncertainty," saying he hoped the Digital Economy Act could help alert consumers, particularly young people, to "the damage piracy inflicts on the whole of the creative community."

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UK Internet providers lose copyright court battle

LONDON (Reuters) - British Web users face having their Internet connections throttled or suspended if they are found to have downloaded music or movies illegally after Internet service providers (ISPs) BT and TalkTalk lost a court appeal on Tuesday.

The ruling by Britain's Court of Appeal means that ISPs will have to send warning letters to customers suspected by film studios or record labels of having illegally accessed material to which they own the rights.

If a customer accumulates too many warnings, the ISP may be required to slow down the person's Internet access or suspend the account.

The move echoes measures adopted in recent years in countries including France and New Zealand, which have adopted a so-called three-strikes policy in which subscribers can be disconnected after receiving three warning letters.

But the tide may be turning as the Hollywood-led push for tougher penalties on copyright pirates faces a backlash. Media companies claim that piracy costs them billions of dollars in lost revenues every year.

In January, a massive online protest by consumers, activists and Internet companies including Wikipedia - which staged a 24 hour blackout - stopped U.S. anti-piracy legislation in its tracks.

"Those protests show that governments might find it politically unattractive to protect rights holders in too draconian a way," copyright specialist Adam Rendle of international law firm Taylor Wessing told Reuters.

"There's much greater mobilization of the free Internet movement than there was 18 months ago."

BT and TalkTalk had argued that the British legislation -- which will entail costs, complexity and possible opposition from customers -- was incompatible with European law.

"Now that the court has made its decision, we will look at the judgment carefully to understand its implications and consider our next steps," BT said in a statement.

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UK moves towards "three strikes" Internet policy

LOS ANGELES, March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- While businesses continue to shut their doors, or face bankruptcy due to the recession, ITC is confident that the Internet marketing industry is growing and flourishing like never before. CEO, Ashkan Sobhe, contends that by using proven methods such as inbound marketing and advanced technology, their firm is able to deliver results for clients successful enough to provide a 300% to 1000% return on investment (ROI).

Commercials aired during prime hours, advertisements in magazines, billboards and telemarketing were once the most effective way of reaching a broad audience. Gone are the days that businesses would blast the world with their message and reach out to people in hopes of getting business. Outreach marketing is outdated. Inbound marketing, having people come to you when they need your products and services, is now the only efficient way of advertising. Sobhe compares the two and says: "When humans did not know any better, they would hunt. Then they realized instead, farming is far more profitable and efficient. Inbound marketing is farming and building relationships, not hunting."

This type of market shift is crucial to any business that hopes to thrive or even survive in our current economic state. Sobhe continues: "We are up at the resistance mark and the economy is moving into recovery mode. Even if it might seem slow as a country, we are on the way back up and using Internet marketing, as opposed to traditional marketing methods, is the best way to improve your business' growth and sales." The Internet is proving inbound marketing to be a much more effective means to allow customers to seek out your business or service. Sobhe in one of his seminars mentioned: "You change your car every few years, change your diet, routine, computers, house... it amazes me how businesses don't update their marketing strategies over the years."

Recognized as being in the top 1% of their industry, ITC is a full scale Internet marketing firm offering the latest and most advanced techniques. In business for over a decade, they have become one of the world's most reputable and noteworthy Internet marketing companies. Their impressive list of clients includes UCLA, Toyota, Honda, State Farm Insurance, as well as many other recognized brands and individuals.

ITC Ashkan Sobhe 6404 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 850 Los Angeles, CA 90048 800-590-6953 info@itcfirm.com http://www.itcfirm.com/

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Internet Marketing Continues to Prove It Is Recession Proof

AFP/Hanover

Internet players are set to make a big splash at the worlds biggest IT fair opening in Germany yesterday, likely to widen the events appeal from a traditional tech fair to pure technology. While CeBIT, held in Hanover, tends to focus on the business side of technology, it has been overshadowed recently by the gadget wizardry unveiled at other showcases in Las Vegas, Berlin or Barcelona. Its not the attendance figures that count but the contracts which are signed, Reinhold Umminger, vice-president of CeBITs organising company, stressed, ahead of the March 6-9 fair in the northern German city. But the Internet with all its new possibilities looks set to muscle in on this years event with some big hi-tech names due to attend after having long skipped Hanover on the annual calendar of technology events. South Koreas Samsung, Japans Sharp are due to return. Microsoft, the IT giant which has just launched the test version of a new generation of its Windows operating system, Windows 8, will all also be represented. And the business networking website Xing will attend for the first time. Google chief Eric Schmidt delivered the official opening speech late yesterday, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, whose country is guest of honour. Schmidt cast a science-fiction vision of the future as the worlds top tech fair opened. Think back to Star Trek, or my favourite the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Much of what those writers imagined is now possible, said Schmidt. Translating .. voice recognition, electronic books. The people who predict that intelligent robots, virtual reality or self-driving cars will soon be commonplace are right, he added. Governments will be able to spot the economic makings of a crisis before they happen and doctors will be able to accurately predict the outbreak of disease before anyone feels it, predicted Schmidt. Declaring the fair officially open, Chancellor Angela Merkel returned to this theme of managing trust, saying it was especially important among world leaders as they battled to solve the global economic crisis. Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, this years partner country at the CeBIT, expressed the hope that technology, when put to human interests, can certainly produce a true revolution for the well-being of the people at large. Among other likely highlights is new software that shows in real time what is causing excitement on the Web by reflecting on screen the themes most discussed by 150mn sources including social networks. During the fair, tech giants Samsung, Sharp, Microsoft, Google and Facebook will be showing off the latest ultra-thin tablet computers and the smartphones of the future for work as well as futuristic, weird and wacky gadgets for fun. Among the highlights is a robot that can make your lunch and a car that can change its length to slot into tricky parking spaces. Others include a virtual eraser for wiping out traces of potentially embarrassing mistakes on the Internet, a system for protecting smartphones from eavesdropping and a mobile device for asthmatics to assess the air quality. Cloud computing, which allows social networks and companies to make use of files and applications based on the providers servers via the Internet, rather than on their own servers, is again set to be a hot topic at CeBIT. And against the backdrop of Germanys mighty automobile industry, Audi will be showing off cars that boast an Internet connection. But CeBIT, above all, is about doing business, Umminger said which accounts for why it enjoys stable figures for both visitors and exhibitors. Some 80 percent of the 4,200 exhibitors are technology business representatives. The rest is shared by exhibits devoted to technology for governments and other bodies of public administration, private individuals and a more futuristic area focused on research. Under the banner Managing Trust - Confidence and Security in the Digital World, the fair will address concerns about lost or pirated data at both the private and professional levels. We debated for a long time over whether security was a sexy enough theme, Umminger said. And we concluded that yes (it was), because it concerns everyone.

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Internet giants muscle in on the world’s biggest IT exhibition

Obama's new plan lacks teeth by leaving out a "do not track" requirement

Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during the AIPAC Policy Conference on March 4, 2012 in Washington, DC.

Cohen is the author of Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America

This has been a tough few weeks for privacy rights on the Internet. Google changed its privacy policy so it can combine the information it collects from different sources including gmail, searches, and web browsing to make a more complete dossier on who we are and what we do online. And the Wall Street Journal reported that Google and other online advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of people who use Safari, the popular Apple web browser.

(MORE: New Google Privacy Policy May Violate European Law)

In the middle of these privacy blow-ups, the Obama administration announced a new set of online privacy policies a 62-page document called Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy. The White House has the right intentions, but it is not clear that these policies will have the teeth necessary to effectively protect peoples online privacy.

Its no great secret what the fighting over online privacy is about. Many Internet users want to be able to browse the Internet, use search engines, and view websites without anyone keeping a record of it. People do a lot of things online that they may want to keep secret for example, looking up symptoms of diseases (which health insurance companies may consider in writing coverage) and visiting non-mainstream political sites (which the government might want to know about).

When technology companies keep track of online activity, privacy problems radiate out in all directions. These companies could sell the data to people who will do harmful things with it including employers, who could use it to vet potential hires. This kind of data can easily end up in the hands of the government, which can subpoena it from the tech companies and suddenly, we are living in a Big Brother state.

(MORE: Can You Be Fired For Your Genes?)

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Will We Ever Get Strong Internet Privacy Rules?