Standards bodies and regulators quietly decide what becomes mandatory long before it reaches a press release. This category follows DRM and anti-piracy enforcement, codec licensing and patent pools, AI training-data copyright, and net neutrality and privacy rules shaping the industry.
The Cato Institute has published a critique of the European Union's Digital Markets Act, warning that US policymakers should avoid adopting the DMA's regulatory framework for app stores. The report argues that forcing platforms to allow third-party app stores risks compromising security, privacy, and innovation in the digital ecosystem.
A coalition of European entrepreneurs and investors has sent an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, demanding stricter enforcement of the Digital Markets Act. The letter urges the Commission to initiate interim measures and daily fines against gatekeepers failing to comply with competitive access rules.
Senators Amy Klobuchar and Eric Schmitt have introduced the bipartisan SEARCH Act, which proposes strict regulations on digital search platforms, including bans on paid default placements and mandatory data sharing. The legislation, which draws heavily from the European Union's Digital Markets Act, is intended to curb monopolistic behavior but faces criticism for potentially stifling innovation and impacting the underlying business models of search and AI technology providers.
The U.S. House of Representatives is holding a hearing on the App Store Freedom Act, proposed legislation that would require mobile marketplaces with more than 100 million users to support third-party app stores and sideloading. Opponents argue the policy mirrors elements of the European Digital Markets Act and may negatively impact consumer security and experience, while proponents position it as a mechanism to lower prices for digital goods.
The Canadian government has reversed its Online Streaming Act and eliminated its digital services tax to preempt a proposed 50% tariff on Canadian exports by the United States. These policy reversals fundamentally alter the regulatory and fiscal framework previously imposed on international streaming platforms operating within Canada.
The EU AI Act and emerging C2PA provenance standards create an informal burden for creators who may need to authenticate non-AI content to avoid flagging. This regulatory environment poses risks for independent creators, journalists, and whistleblowers whose processes lack institutional provenance markers.
The trade group IP Europe is urging regulators to scrutinize the Alliance for Open Media (AOM), arguing that its royalty-free licensing model for codecs like AV1 threatens the F/RAND-based standards ecosystem. The group contends that these structures favor large, vertically integrated platforms over smaller technology innovators and research institutions.
Broadcasters are implementing DRM encryption on select ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) signals, requiring users to own certified tuners for content access. This shift is fueling industry debate regarding the accessibility of publicly licensed broadcast signals as encrypted digital rights management enters the over-the-air ecosystem.
The IAB Tech Lab has released Version 2.3 of its Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines for public comment. The update addresses inconsistencies in reporting by refining standards for video podcasts, duplicate downloads, and invalid traffic across the industry.
The NGMN Alliance is advising mobile operators and vendors to focus on cloud-native architectures and network simplification in upcoming 6G deployments to avoid the complexity and ROI issues encountered with 5G. The group is drafting guidance for the 3GPP intended to shape fundamental architectural decisions ahead of the Release 21 standards process.
Chinese marketing agencies are leveraging generative AI to produce large volumes of low-cost, potentially misleading health supplement advertisements for global social media platforms. Following reports of deepfaked medical experts, New York state has implemented disclosure requirements for AI-generated synthetic performers in advertisements, though federal regulation remains limited.
Fox Entertainment has joined the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media (ARIAM) to advocate for AI guardrails and influence international regulatory policies. The coalition, which includes members like Disney and Adobe, seeks to establish standards to protect rightsholders amidst the rapid development of generative AI.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of legal actions and licensing agreements between news publishers and AI companies. It details ongoing litigation involving firms like OpenAI, Perplexity, Brave, and Cohere, alongside numerous commercial deals aimed at governing the use of publisher content in generative AI models.
The French Parliament has approved legislation requiring social media platforms to implement age verification for users under 15 by September 1, 2026. Platforms are mandated to restrict access for minors, with the bill likely setting a precedent for broader EU-wide age-based digital safety regulations.
Michigan lawmakers and state officials are proposing an AI Governing Board and new oversight measures to combat the risks posed by synthetic media in politics and education. The report highlights the increasing necessity for streaming media infrastructure to adopt proven content provenance standards, such as C2PA, to verify media authenticity in an era of hyper-realistic generative AI.
Canada has introduced legislation including the Online Streaming Act, which authorizes the CRTC to mandate algorithmic changes on platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok to prioritize Canadian content. Additional measures establish the Digital Safety Commission with the power to impose significant fines based on global revenue for non-compliance with new digital safety and data retention laws.
A coalition of 13 attorneys general and DirecTV have filed a legal motion alleging that Nexstar violated an existing court injunction intended to maintain independent operations between Nexstar and Tegna. The plaintiffs claim that Nexstar's appointment of its own executives to the Tegna board constitutes improper integration that could negatively impact retransmission consent fee negotiations and market competition.
AOMedia finalized the AV2 codec specification in May 2026, promising significant encoding efficiency gains, while ongoing patent litigation by Dolby against Snap highlights persistent legal risks for platforms adopting open-source codecs. Industry experts advise streaming platforms to prioritize proactive prior art research to mitigate licensing and litigation vulnerabilities throughout the AV2 adoption cycle.
LexisNexis reports that DRAM, particularly High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), is shifting toward a standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing ecosystem as AI infrastructure becomes increasingly standardized. This trend mirrors established licensing models in video coding and mobile communications, signaling that memory technology is becoming a critical competitive and legal factor for data center operators.
TikTok US Chief Security Officer Will Farrell is scheduled to testify before a U.S. House committee in September regarding the platform’s restructuring and ByteDance’s ongoing 19.9% ownership stake. The hearing follows congressional mandates requiring data security guarantees from the platform and scrutiny regarding its ties to its Chinese parent company.
The National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine met with UK regulator Ofcom to discuss the implementation of the UK’s 2023 Online Safety Act. The session focused on regulatory frameworks for online platforms, child safety obligations, and the integration of AI governance and oversight tools.
Virgin Media O2 has petitioned UK regulator Ofcom to relax net neutrality rules, citing the need for greater flexibility to support 5G network slicing and the deployment of agentic AI. The operator argues that current regulations hinder infrastructure investment, with a commissioned report estimating a potential revenue gain of up to £871 million annually if restrictions are eased.
The UK and EU are advancing new social media regulations, including age-based access restrictions that require platforms to move beyond current age-inference methods. Regulators such as Ofcom and the European Commission are increasing scrutiny on platform design and are pushing for the implementation of robust, device-level age assurance technologies.
A U.S. federal appeals court has unanimously upheld an FCC order allowing for a designated Band Manager to coordinate 4.9 GHz spectrum sharing with the FirstNet Authority. The ruling clears the path for the FCC to begin the selection process for a manager to oversee the underutilized public-safety band, although the court reserved judgment on the specific oversight role of the NTIA.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has advanced the Accelerating Broadband Permits Act, which mandates that the NTIA publish progress reports on the BEAD program. The bill requires the disclosure of data regarding federal and private funds, construction status, and broadband delivery speeds to improve program oversight.
A GSMA Intelligence report indicates that EU proposals to ban equipment from high-risk vendors could cost telecommunications operators between €30 billion and €40 billion. The report further suggests these regulatory mandates would likely increase mobile equipment costs by 24% while forcing significant infrastructure reconfigurations across network transport and fixed lines.
Midjourney has requested a California court to compel Disney, Warner Bros., and Universal to disclose internal generative AI research, training data, and business plans as part of an ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit. Midjourney argues that the studios are utilizing similar generative AI practices to those they are currently suing the AI company over.
The FCC has approved the 'Space Modernization for the 21st Century' Order, which streamlines satellite and earth station licensing processes for commercial operators. The reform replaces traditional application methods with a modular system while introducing a new requirement for operators to share space situational awareness data.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that ABC's broadcast license renewal review will incorporate the network's decision to stream, rather than broadcast, a speech by President Donald Trump. The move centers on ongoing regulatory scrutiny regarding the public interest obligations of licensed broadcasters.
The FCC has initiated an accelerated license review of eight Disney-owned ABC stations, with Chairman Brendan Carr specifically citing the network's refusal to air a live presidential speech as a factor in evaluating their commitment to public interest. This ongoing review follows previous FCC investigations into the subsidiary concerning DEI practices and programming choices.
This article analyzes the current state of global generative AI copyright litigation, highlighting conflicting US court rulings on fair use and the lack of standardization in machine-readable opt-outs for training data. Notably, it notes that Anthropic has settled a major class-action lawsuit for $1.5 billion, underscoring the significant financial liability facing AI models trained on copyrighted content.
The European Commission has published final guidelines on the EU AI Act, establishing transparency obligations for AI systems effective August 2, 2026. These rules require streaming and media organizations to implement technical solutions for labeling AI-generated content and deepfakes while providing disclosures for interactive AI systems.
A DataGrail report indicates that 63.6% of AI vendors fail to disclose sub-processing activity, raising compliance concerns under frameworks like the EU AI Act and CCPA. This lack of transparency complicates vendor due diligence for organizations integrating third-party AI technology into their workflows.
UK technology and telecom sector leaders are calling on the incoming government to accelerate national planning and grid reforms to support regional digital infrastructure. The industry highlights that distributed data centers, edge computing, and reliable 5G connectivity are essential prerequisites for sovereign AI capabilities and industrial economic growth.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced a new five-year strategy allocating £4 billion toward digital technologies, including AI, quantum computing, and semiconductors. The plan includes specific support for creative industries for IP maximization, commercialization, and the development of regional innovation clusters.
The IAB Tech Lab has released version 2.3 of its Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines for public comment, extending standardized download and ad delivery rules to include video podcasts distributed via RSS. The update introduces clarified measurement window logic and invalid traffic filters to unify metrics for audio and video media.
The Khronos Group has restructured the OpenXR Adopter Program fees into a tiered model based on company size. This change aims to increase the adoption of conformant OpenXR implementations among smaller vendors while maintaining existing rigorous testing standards.
The Canadian government has implemented several pieces of legislation, including the Online Streaming Act, which mandates that global streaming platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and TikTok manipulate their recommendation algorithms to prioritize Canadian content. Additionally, new laws impose strict surveillance, data retention, and content safety requirements on internet services operating within the country.
The European Commission has fined AliExpress €550 million for violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to adequately address illegal content and counterfeit products. The Chinese government has expressed formal dissatisfaction with the ruling, which is part of a broader European regulatory effort targeting major digital platforms.
The HbbTV Association has opened entry submissions for its 2026 Awards, including a new category dedicated to audience measurement and analytics. The awards ceremony will take place during the 14th HbbTV Symposium in Barcelona on November 18, 2026.
FCC actions under Chairman Brendan Carr are intensifying regulatory pressure on broadcast networks like CBS, ABC, and NBC through investigations into broadcast news distortion and public interest standards. These oversight efforts have influenced corporate outcomes, including Paramount's $16 million settlement and the terms surrounding the Skydance Media acquisition.
Sony Music Entertainment has filed a new lawsuit against AI generator Udio for allegedly using over 30,000 copyrighted tracks for model training without authorization. The legal action seeks $150,000 per infringement and an injunction, highlighting the ongoing tension between copyright holders and AI developers regarding data usage for training.
News Corp has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Brave Software, alleging the browser provider used web crawlers to harvest proprietary content to train and power AI-generated summary tools. The legal dispute centers on whether Brave’s AI search and sidebar features constitute protected fair use or unauthorized commercial exploitation of journalistic work.
The VeritasChain Standards Organization has published an IETF Internet-Draft for the VeritasChain Protocol (VCP). This protocol applies the SCITT architecture to provide verifiable audit trails, regulatory compliance for AI-driven decision-making, and privacy-preserving mechanisms.
The BBC, The Newsroom AI, and Stanford’s Starling Lab have developed a provenance bridge that uses C2PA standards and a semantic claim-matching algorithm to cryptographically link journalistic text to authoritative source documents. The pilot project aims to combat misinformation by alerting readers if the original source material, such as a government press release, has been edited or deleted after a news article is published.
SiliconDust has updated its HDHomeRun tuners to allow live and recorded viewing of unencrypted channels during Internet outages as part of its ongoing engagement with the FCC regarding ATSC 3.0 / NextGen TV standards. The company advocates for temporary DRM-free channel distribution to ensure public access to broadcast television and emergency information during broadband disruptions.
Ofcom has initiated a consultation on the draft Fraudulent Advertising Codes of Practice for Category 1 and 2A services as mandated by the UK Online Safety Act 2023. The proposed rules focus on proactive risk management, advertiser verification, and the establishment of public advertising libraries for streaming and social platforms.
Big Blue Marble has joined the C2PA Conformance List, allowing its Cloud Video Kit platform to generate cryptographically signed Content Credentials during the transcoding process. This integration enables media organizations to establish a verifiable chain of custody for their VOD content, with features expected to be demonstrated at IBC 2026.
A federal judge provided final approval for a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and various authors and publishers regarding the illegal collection of training data. The ruling maintains that training AI models on legally obtained text constitutes fair use, though it establishes that the use of pirated content for training remains subject to legal challenges.
This article from the Cato Institute argues that antitrust regulators should update their assessment frameworks for media mergers like a potential Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery deal. The author suggests regulators must move beyond traditional legacy cable market definitions to account for competition from major technology platforms in the modern attention economy.
