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Showing posts with label European. Show all posts

EU in antitrust probe of Apple, e-book publishers

Posted by ProAds Tuesday, 6 December 2011 0 comments

The European Union's antitrust watchdog is probing whether Apple and five major publishing houses have colluded to restrict competition in the market for e-books.
The European Commission probe announced Tuesday focuses on potentially anticompetitive practices by publishers Hachette Livre, a unit of France's Lagardere Publishing; Harper Collins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corp.; CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster; Penguin, which is owned by U.K. publishing house Pearson Group; and Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.
"The Commission will in particular investigate whether these publishing groups and Apple have engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would have the object or the effect of restricting competition" in Europe, it said in a statement.
It is also looking into "agency agreements" between the publishers and the e-book retailers. In those agreements, publishers set a price for their e-books, with retailers taking a cut of the profits.
Apple Inc. runs the iBook online store, in which consumers can buy and download e-books onto the company's devices, including the popular iPad tablet and the iPhone. It is a competitor ofAmazon.com Inc.
The announcement from the Commission follows raids in the offices of several publishers in March and a related probe launched by the U.K. Office of Fair Trading. The Commission said Tuesday that the British agency OFT had suspended its investigation since the Commission had taken over the case, but the two regulators were working closely together.
Pearson said the fact that the Commission has opened an investigation does not prejudge the outcome of the probe.
"Pearson does not believe it has breached any laws, and will continue to fully and openly cooperate with the Commission," the company said in a statement.
Robert Barr in London contributed to this report.

Copyright isn't working, says European Commission

Posted by ProAds Sunday, 20 November 2011 0 comments

People have come to see copyright as a tool of punishment, Europe's technology chief has said in her strongest-yet attack on the current copyright system.

Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Saturday that the creative industries had to embrace rather than resist new technological ways of distributing artistic works. She added that the existing copyright system was not rewarding the vast majority of artists. 

"Is the current copyright system the right and only tool to achieve our objectives? Not really," Kroes said in a speech to the Forum D'Avignon thinktank. "Citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it."

"Sadly, many see the current system as a tool to punish and withhold, not a tool to recognise and reward," Kroes added.

The commissioner said online distribution and cloud computing offered a "totally new way of purchasing, delivering and consuming cultural works", and suggested that the existing legal framework around copyright was not flexible enough to take advantage of this evolution.

Rights-holders have long complained about the damage done to their industry by online copyright infringement. Governments and courts in countries including the UK have responded by blocking access to websites that help people unlawfully share music, videos, games and software.

Some countries, such as New Zealand and France, also threaten repeat infringers with suspension or disconnection of their broadband services.

Kroes's speech was not the first time the creative industries have been taken to task for not sufficiently adapting to the digital age. The commissioner herself has said she intends to overcome the content industry's failure to agree pan-EU licensing deals, and the fact that countries such as the UK tax e-books more highly than they do physical books.

According to Kroes, in one large EU country 97.5 percent of artists earn less than €1,000 (£856) a month from the copyright system. "This is a devastatingly hard way to earn a living," she said.

The commissioner did not provide any definitive answers as to what should replace the current copyright system, apart from saying it those advocating new business models should get a fairer hearing than they do at present.

"In times of change, we need creativity, out-of-the-box thinking: creative art to overcome this difficult period and creative business models to monetise the art," Kroes said. "New ideas which could benefit artists are killed before they can show their merit, dead on arrival. This needs to change."

Samsung: We'll hook Europeans on our TVs by giving them a 3D channel

Posted by ProAds Monday, 18 April 2011 1 comment

ALICANTE, Spain -- 3D TVs aren't ready for prime time, so to speak. They'll let you watch Avatar at home in all its epic Cameron-esque glory. But you gotta wear glasses, and there isn't much programming. As a result, TV makers have found themselves ahead -- way ahead -- of market demand. It's that old chicken and egg conundrum: Which comes first, the applications or devices/platform?
The 3D device/platform is there, from the likes of Samsung or Sony but where's the content where you really need it -- in the living room during prime time? Then there are those godawful glasses. Thankfully, no one needs see them in the comfort of your cozy chair, unlike the crowded theater.
So it's not surprising that television set manufacturers are doing everything they can to whet our appetites for 3D TV. Latest example: During a briefing as part of a preview press conference here for Berlin's IFA international consumer products trade show in September, Samsung announced it will launch its own 3D-on-demand channel in Europe soon -- and some of what it's going to offer will be free.
Samsung's try-it-you'll-like-it move is part and parcel of a huge marketing push that all the big TV makers are mounting, and in some ways it mimics what rival Sony has been doing in the United States by sponsoring 3D broadcasts of major sporting events. At the same time, Samsung also said it was drastically reducing its prices on glasses in Europe. It will sell two pairs for €79, or about $112 U.S. dollars.
Michael Zoeller
During the briefing Samsung also put a finer point on the pitch it's going to make to consumers as they head into the holiday shopping season. And TV is only part of the story. Samsung European marketing director Michael Zoeller rendered in real terms what Samsung has been describing as its "Nth-screen" strategy. Samsung's product line sweeps the spectrum -- smartphones, printers, displays, PCs, tablets, cameras and TVs. Any single consumer and household seems to have ever more of these display screen devices, on and on to a metaphorical infinity. Hence the "nth."

Samsung believes the holy grail isn't just selling these gadgets to you and me solely and simply unto themselves but connecting them to each other in any configuration and not necessarily with a TV as the hub. While Samsung sported its new D8000 SmartTV, Zoeller used his Samsung smartphone to remotely zoom and snap a photo of himself from 20 feet away with a Samsung SH 100 WiFi camera.
Better together isn't a new pitch -- Sony is talking similar product synergies. But creating them around a 3D-capable TV like the D8000 is another way to solve the chicken-and-egg problem, by giving consumers other reasons to buy into the platform.

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