Spotify 向歐盟投訴 Apple Music 的不公平競爭

Spotify 向歐盟提出不公平競爭的投訴,並且發出新聞稿:「Consumers and Innovators Win on a Level Playing Field」。

重點在於 Spotify 服務透過蘋果的平台會有 30% 的抽成,但 Apple Music 因為自家服務而不需要:

To illustrate what I mean, let me share a few examples. Apple requires that Spotify and other digital services pay a 30% tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system, including upgrading from our Free to our Premium service. If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music. And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn’t something we can do.

不過裡面好像沒提到超過一年後的費用會降到 15% (參考「Auto-renewable Subscriptions」),應該會是蘋果向歐盟回應的重點?

歐盟對十四套 Open Source 軟體推出 Bug Bounty Program

歐盟對於 14 套 open source 軟體推出 bug bounty program,協助改善這些軟體的品質 (主要是資安這塊):「EU to fund bug bounty programs for 14 open source projects starting January 2019」、「In January, the EU starts running Bug Bounties on Free and Open Source Software」。

這十四套軟體的選擇應該可以參考「EU aims to increase the security of password manager and web server software: KeePass and Apache chosen for open source audits」這邊...

然後看到「Intigriti/Deloitte」這個才知道原來 Deloitte 也有做這個啊...

歐盟通過終結日光節約時間

看到歐盟通過終結日光節約時間的新聞:「Latest: European Parliament approves proposal to end bi-annual clock change」。

Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly, who has been campaigning for the change, said: "I'm very pleased that after years of discussions at Committee level in the European Parliament, of which I'm the only Irish member, that out proposal was debated and voted on today in Parliament, and that Parliament accepted our proposal to ask the European Commission to come forward with a recommendation that we would end the bi-annual clock change."

其中藍色是目前還有在實施的地區,其他都是已經終止的:

取自「File:DaylightSaving-World-Subdivisions.png

主要是因為日光節約時間對於現代社會的好處愈來愈少的關係吧... 早期在歐美國家很盛行,現在歐洲決定廢止這個制度,應該會讓美國再次討論起來。

AWS 巴黎區開放

AWS 在巴黎的 region 開放了:「Now Open AWS EU (Paris) Region」。

Today we are launching our 18th AWS Region, our fourth in Europe. Located in the Paris area, AWS customers can use this Region to better serve customers in and around France.

這樣歐洲有四區了:

  • Ireland (愛爾蘭)
  • Frankfurt (德國)
  • London (英國)
  • Paris (法國)

香港區什麼時候要開呢... o_o (參考「In the Works – AWS Region in Hong Kong」)

俄羅斯在英國脫歐的議題上,也利用 Social Network 的廣告影響民意

TechCrunch 上看到的,俄羅斯政府不只在美國選舉時這樣做,同時也在英國脫歐公投的議題上進行操作:「Twitter says Russians spent ~$1k on six Brexit-related ads」。

不過金額比美國選舉時小了很多:

In response to the Commission’s request for information concerning Russian-funded campaign activity conducted during the regulated period for the June 2016 EU Referendum (15 April to 23 June 2016), Twitter reviewed referendum-related advertising on our platform during the relevant time period.

Among the accounts that we have previously identified as likely funded from Russian sources, we have thus far identified one account—@RT_com— which promoted referendum-related content during the regulated period. $1,031.99 was spent on six referendum-related ads during the regulated period.

With regard to future activity by Russian-funded accounts, on 26 October 2017, Twitter announced that it would no longer accept advertisements from RT and Sputnik and will donate the $1.9 million that RT had spent globally on advertising on Twitter to academic research into elections and civil engagement. That decision was based on a retrospective review that we initiated in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections and following the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that both RT and Sputnik have attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government. Accordingly, @RT_com will not be eligible to use Twitter’s promoted products in the future.

歐洲議會嘗試撥款支援 Open Source Software 的 Bug Bounty 計畫

Hacker News 上看到歐盟議會試著以 Bug Bounty 計畫支援 Open Source Software 的消息。這次看到的是 VLC:「VLC: Bug Bounty Program - Get Rewards through HackerOne」。

The European Parliament has approved budget to improve the EU’s IT infrastructure by extending the free software security audit programme (FOSSA) and by including a bug bounty approach in the programme.

這還蠻特別的... 由官方經費贊助 open source 的計畫,除了 VLC 外,重點會在成效以及後續還有哪些被贊助。

歐盟對於盜版是否帶來傷害的研究

歐盟在 2014 年做了關於盜版與銷量的研究,結果一直被壓到最近才發表出來 (於是就大概可以猜到結論了...):「EU Piracy Report Suppression Raises Questions Over Transparency」。

“In general, the results do not show robust statistical evidence of displacement of sales by online copyright infringements,” the study notes.

甚至:

The study found that piracy had a slightly positive effect on the videogames industry, suggesting that those who play pirate games eventually become buyers of official content.

另外也描述了現有電影與 TV-series 定價策略偏高:

“Overall, the analysis indicates that for films and TV-series current prices are higher than 80 per cent of the illegal downloaders and streamers are willing to pay,” the study notes.

難怪被壓著...

AWS EU (Stockholm) Region

由老大 Werner Vogels 出來講一些細節...

AWS EU (Stockholm) Region 預定在 2018 年開張營業:「Välkommen till Stockholm – An AWS Region is coming to the Nordics」。

The new AWS EU (Stockholm) Region will have three Availability Zones and will be ready for customers to use in 2018.

這會是歐洲第五個 Region (還有一個法國預定在今年開):

The new AWS EU (Stockholm) Region, coupled with the existing AWS Regions in Dublin, Frankfurt, and London, and a future one in France, will provide customers with quick, low-latency access to websites, mobile applications, games, SaaS applications, big data analysis, Internet of Things (IoT) applications, and more.

歐盟法院認為公開無線網路的營運者不需要對使用者的侵權行為負責

歐盟法院 (The Court of Justice of the European Union) 認為公開無線網路的營運者不需要對使用者的侵權行為負責:「EU Court: Open WiFi Operator Not Liable For Pirate Users」。

不過這是有一些前提的,法院認為應該要符合這幾個要件,營運方才不要負責。基本上完全沒有 filter 限制的無線網路會符合這些條件:

The Court further notes that in order for such ‘mere conduit’ services to be exempt from third party liability, three cumulative conditions must be met:

– The provider must not have initiated the transmission
– It must not have selected the recipient of the transmission
– It must neither have selected nor modified the information contained in the transmission.

帶這並不代表丟著不管,而是在發生後要求改善:

In an effort to strike a balance between protecting a service provider from third party liability and the rights of IP owners, the Court ruled that providers can be required to end infringement.

“[T]he directive does not preclude the copyright holder from seeking before a national authority or court to have such a service provider ordered to end, or prevent, any infringement of copyright committed by its customers,” the Court found.

One such measure could include the obtaining of an injunction which would force an operator to password-protect his open WiFi network in order to deter infringement.

但法院並不同意直接監控:

On a more positive note, the Court rejected the notion of monitoring networks for infringement or taking more aggressive actions where unnecessary.

“[T]he directive expressly rules out the adoption of a measure to monitor information transmitted via a given network. Similarly, a measure consisting in terminating the internet connection completely without considering the adoption of measures less restrictive of the connection provider’s freedom to conduct a business would not be capable of reconciling the abovementioned conflicting rights,” the Court concludes.

網路對現在的言論自由非常重要,所以只有在確認侵犯他人權益的情況下才採取必要措施,歐盟法院這樣判大概是覺得這樣吧...

歐盟廢止境內漫遊的費用

歐盟廢止了在歐盟境內漫遊的費用:「Europe finally abolishes mobile phone roaming charges」:

Members of the European parliament have voted through new rules that will scrap mobile roaming charges and stop holidaymakers returning home to the nightmare of a massive phone bill racked up on their travels.

不過接下來還有要戰:

The abolishment of roaming charges was not met with universal approval. In the days before the vote Roger Helmer MEP tabled an amendment to reject the agreement on behalf of Ukip.

搭板凳看吧...