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http://www.out-law.com/roundup/20111221.html

Hi, here is your weekly round-up of highlights from Out-Law News. As always, there are plenty of other stories from this week. You can also access our archive of weekly emails.

This is the final weekly round-up from Out-Law News for 2011. It has been an exciting year with lots of new developments for us here, thank you for your support, and we hope you have happy holidays. We'll be back in January.

This week's news on Out-Law.com

TMT & Sourcing & IP

Selling user data to advertisers is legitimate, watchdog says in Facebook audit report

It is "legitimate" for Facebook Ireland to use information users provide about themselves on the social networking site to enable advertisers to serve targeted ads, the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has said.
21/12/2011

VOD regulator wrong to deem paper's video content TV-like, Ofcom rules

The UK's video-on-demand (VOD) regulator has reversed its previous rulings that videos on newspaper websites were subject to its regulation after Ofcom said it was wrong to rule that The Sun's video content was subject to VOD rules.
21/12/2011

Council of Ministers backs EU signing of ACTA

EU ministers have given their backing to a controversial international intellectual property (IP) rights treaty paving the way for representatives of the trading bloc to sign the agreement.
20/12/2011

Irish ISP ordered to stop using 'three strikes' system against illegal file-sharers

The Irish data protection watchdog has ordered the country's largest internet service provider (ISP) to stop using its 'three strikes' system for identifying and warning alleged illegal file-sharers, according to media reports.
20/12/2011

Sky follows BT in blocking Newzbin2

Sky has blocked access to a copyright infringing website following a UK court order, the company has said.
19/12/2011

Football fixtures not protected by database copyright, says ECJ advisor

Databases of football fixture lists are not protected by EU database copyright laws because the creation of the fixtures themselves is not part of what the EU law protects, an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said.
16/12/2011

Banking & Restructuring

Consultation reveals 'strong support' for single insolvency practitioner regulator

Insolvency practitioners could be supervised by a single regulator after a consultation on proposed regulatory reforms revealed "strong support" for the idea, Employment Minister Ed Davey has said.
21/12/2011

Draft Financial Services Bill must be "significantly amended" to avoid another crisis, MPs say

The Chancellor of the Exchequer should be given "automatic" control over the Bank of England in the event of another economic crisis, a committee has said. 21/12/2011

Retail & Leisure

UK is right to seek to block '28th regime' plans, says expert

OPINION: The European Union was founded as a trading bloc and it is no surprise that the European Commission is annoyed that online commerce has not led to a massive upsurge in online sales.
21/12/2011

Pensions

'Pension unlocking' loan schemes ruled unlawful

Loans between pension schemes are "unauthorised payments" which cannot be used as a way of unlocking pension capital before a scheme member retires, the High Court has ruled.
21/12/2011

Tax

MPs publish "damning indictment" of alleged HMRC deals with big businesses

There are "specific and systemic" failures in the way in which HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) handles tax disputes with big companies which must be addressed, an influential committee of MPs has said.
20/12/2011

Energy

Government sets out capacity mechanism plans in update to Electricity Market Reform

The Government will pass new laws designed to ensure that consumers will continue to enjoy reliable electricity supplies, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced.
19/12/2011

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