EU: possible investigation into discrimination by content providers

The EU's competition commissioner Mario Monti is considering opening an inquiry into the provision of music, film and sports over the Internet.

Broadband providers, Italy's eBiscom and Spain's Terra Networks have complained of discrimination by content providers in giving them access to quality audiovisual content. Articles about this in the Seattle Post- Intelligencer and The Australian, by the same AP reporter, but different enough to read both -- important.

No surprise. Silvio Scaglia said pretty much the same thing when I met him last summer -- the deals he did with content providers were by far the most difficult part of building eBiscom. Hear similar stories from broadband providers everywhere. The Intertainer anti competitive action against major Hollywood studios is the prime example.

And...seems the Motion Picture Association is about to begin and RIAA-like campagin complaining (PDF file about 68Kb), about how the Internet and particualrly broadband is killing their industry.