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The governmenthas askedthe UK’s media regulator Ofcom to review part of the anti-piracy law from the Digital Economy Act to assess if the measures put in place are actually workable and consider the practicality of blocking websites that infringe copyright. The government introduced new rulings as part of its crackdown on individuals accused of copyright infringement but after a campaign on the Your Freedom website, a site that allows users to nominate laws they would like to see the government get rid of, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has said “the government will look at whether we have the right tools for the job in addressing the problem of online copyright infringement”....

Nick Hurd, Civil Society Minister for the UK Government is to contact Apple with the intention of getting the company to reverse its decision not to allow charity donations via iPhone applications. Hurd, who feels Apple should be “more constructive”, has pledged to write to Apple to understand the company’s refusal to allow donations. Apple recently blocked app charity donations processed via online payment service PayPal – the company offered “one-click” donations in August and was used to raise over $10,000 in donations before it was blocked in October....

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has today made astatementin Parliament, following the riots that have plagued London and many other parts of England this week. It seems that the Government is considering the role social media plays in organizing violence, and its looking at whether it would be ‘right’ to try and put stops in place to hinder communications. Cameron returned early from his holiday in Tuscany this week, after the rioting and looting “demonstrably worsened”....

Back in November 2010, Prime Minister David Cameronannouncedplans to make the UK a major hub for innovation and technology, one to rival Silicon Valley. And to support these plans, a radical overhaul of the UK intellectual property (IP) system was proposed. Professor Ian Hargreaveswas placed in charge of leading the IP review, and his report has just been released. Digital opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growthis the culmination of five months of research by Hargreaves, where he sets out to answer this question:...

YouView, the UK’s next generation TV service,has announcedthat it will delay the launch of its internet TV service until 2012,confirming rumoursthat its launch would be knocked back by more than a year. The service, originally known as ‘Project Canvas‘, was officially announced in September 2010 and was billed as a platform that could sit between existing cable services and new internet-connected platforms like Google TV. Offering a programme guide that went ‘back in time’, YouView says that users would be able to watch catch-up TV services including BBC iPlayer, giving developers the opportunity to build their own apps to provide extra functionality at the same time....