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• Google, Facebook, Twitter must do more against fake news - EU

  The European Union's executive said signatories to the code of practice had taken steps to remove fake accounts and limit sites promoting fake news but said more was needed

• UK court to review legality of fast-tracked surveillance law

  A surveillance law that was rushed through by the U.K. government will be reviewed by the country's High Court to determine if it violates human rights.

• Doubts linger over ACTA compatibility with European Union law

  European parliamentarians in the legal affairs committee have once again cast doubt on the efficacy of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), but stopped short of declaring it illegal.

• ACTA text hurts startups, goes beyond EU law, says lobby group

  The ACTA treaty has come in for fresh criticism after the European Commission failed to address concerns about the its legality.

• Battle breaks out over open standards in EU rules

  While the European Commission has said the EIF (European Interoperability Framework) will create interoperable standards to empower businesses and citizens and give them better access to information, lobby groups now are loudly arguing about the role of open standards in the framework.

• EU launches antitrust investigations into IBM

  The European Commission announced on Monday that it will begin formal investigations into allegations that IBM has abused its dominant market position in mainframe computers.

• European Parliament blocks bank data transfer deal with US

  The European Parliament on Thursday voted to block an agreement reached by the 27 EU national governments and the US last month to allow European citizens' personal financial data to be analysed by American authorities investigating the financing of terrorism.

• EU issues objections to Oracle's Sun acquisition

  The European Commission on Monday issued its formal "statement of objections" over Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, saying the deal would harm competition in the database market.

• FryUp: Sovereignty ACTA est

  Operation transformation fiction
  Yes you did, Brett. And on Google Wave too. (Language warning)
  http://www.youtube.com/v/xcxF9oz9Cu0&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1">
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcxF9oz9Cu0
  Sovereignty ACTA est

• EU's stance on MySQL raises questions for Oracle

  Pretend you are Oracle CEO Larry Ellison for a minute (forget about the yacht and designer suits, though). You're spending $7.4 billion to buy Sun Microsystems and all of a sudden the EU antitrust posse frets about the fate of MySQL, the popular, open source database. Would you risk the acquisition because you want to remain the proud owner of a product that may or may not have revenue potential, or would you throw it overboard?
  If you are a Wall Street investment analyst, the answer is pretty clear: Give it the heave-ho.
  "MySQL is a baggage, not an asset," says Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research. Given the EU investigation and MySQL's paltry revenue growth, Oracle's only smart option is to spin it off, he says. But spin off to where?
  There's another way forward, however, and it has been championed in a blog by Matthew Aslett, who follows open source for the 451 Group. "Oracle is well aware that it has little to gain from killing off MySQL. We expect MySQL to become the scale-out database for nontransactional web applications and to compete with SQL Server in departmental deployments."
  Perhaps he's right. But it is far from clear that Oracle would do much with MySQL beyond channelling users toward its own larger and more expensive products.

• Google tries to assuage doubters of its US Books deal

  As the European Union examines a US deal between Google and publishers, the company made concessions oyesterday designed to address concerns its book digitisation project has raised in Europe.

• EU fine drops Intel's quarterly net income US$2 billion

  Intel has reported its net income for the second fiscal quarter of 2009 dropped US$2 billion year-over-year because of the hefty fine imposed on the chip maker by the European Commission.

• EC commissioner calls for copyright shakeup

  European laws governing the digitisation of content such as books, movies and music need a major re-working in order to keep Europe relevant in the digital age, said the European Commissioner for the information society and telecoms Viviane Reding on Thursday.

• EU may demand Microsoft bundle rival browsers with Windows

  The European Union (EU)'s antitrust agency may force Microsoft to include rival browsers in Windows, according to a regulatory filing submitted last week by the US software developer.

• Microsoft to appeal $1.6 billion EU fine

  Microsoft is appealing the €899 million (NZ$1.69 billion) fine imposed on it by the European Union for failing to honour a 2004 antitrust agreement.