ISPA Awards' Testing and Customer Choice Voting Completed
The technical testing for the ISPA Awards and the voting for the Customer Choice category have now finished. Companies that have entered one of the categories with a technical testing element - consumer and business broadband, VoIP or either of the hosting categories - can now inform their customers that the thinkbroadband software that resided on their PC can be switched off.
The judges will now analyse the results of the testing and the written entry forms and the finalists will be announced in the next few weeks. Information about how to buy tickets will also be announced shortly.
The ISPA Awards is sponsored by Magrathea, O2 Wholesale, CISAS, Geo Networks and Return Path. There are limited sponsorship opportunities still available so please contact awards@ispa.org.uk for more information or go to www.ispaawards.org.uk.
ISPA Legal Forum on Data Protection and Privacy
The Legal Forum took place on the 23rd April and was kindly hosted by ISPA legal forum member DLA Piper. The event discussed the implications for ISPA members of the new Data Protection Regulation that was published by the European Commission in January. Speakers discussed the new rules on data protection from the point of view of industry, regulators, government and the law. Topics addressed included consent, the 'right to be forgotten', data portability, data processing, penalties and notification of data breaches.
Duncan Calow, Partner, Technology, Media & Commercial at DLA Piper London introduced the panel which included representatives from DLA Piper, the ICO, the MOJ, Microsoft and Facebook. Overall, panellists agreed that there needed to be a balance that protected the rights of users but that was also pro-business. It was also agreed that the regulation needed to be practical to implement. The full report can be found here - http://www.ispa.org.uk/data-protection-and-privacy.
The panel session was followed by Q&A and then a drinks reception. ISPA would like to thank all the speakers and DLA Piper for kindly hosting the event. For information about future Legal Forum's please email admin@ispa.org.uk.
ISPA Secretary General on the Today Programme
The ISPA Secretary General Nicholas Lansman spoke on the Today programme this morning alongside Claire Perry MP to discuss the blocking of the Pirate Bay Website and restricting access to online pornography. Mr Lansman spoke of the importance of consumers having an active choice on whether they want a filter to be turned on or off to block unwanted content and the tools at the device level already available to parents. Referring to Pirate Bay he said that deciding which content to block should be the decision of the courts and not ISPs and that blocking was not a silver bullet as it could be easily circumvented. The full interview can be found here.
ISPA Gains Two New Members in April
Central Technology www.ct.co.uk and Memset www.memset.com joined ISPA in April. Central Technology provide broadband, web hosting and telecom services. Memset provide hosting services.
A full list of ISPA members can be found here and you can phone or email ISPA for information about membership benefits at admin@ispa.org.uk or 020 3397 3304.
ISPA Announces Updated CISAS Membership Benefits
ISPA has improved the benefits that its members receive from the CISAS Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. It is a legal requirement under the Communications Act for an ISP to belong to one of two Ofcom-approved schemes, and as part of ISPA membership companies can join the scheme for free. Full details and scheme improvements here.
ISPA Secretary-General Nicholas Lansman said: “ISPA is always looking at ways to improve our benefits for members, and these new additional benefits from CISAS add real value to ISPA membership”.
Discount for Members
In May and June there is discount for members at the following events, Connected Summit, Social TV World Summit, Enforcing & Protecting Trade Marks and Digital Asset Management.
More information on the ISPA Events Calendar www.ispa.org.uk/events/calendar/.
ISPA in the News
ISPA was quoted in the news on issues including; Communications data, blocking content, broadband speeds, the Digital Economy Act and Internet capacity during the Olympics.
You can get regular updates from ISPA by following us on Twitter - twitter.com/ISPAUK.