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Ruling web content
Last year's reform of EU broadcast rules raised some tricky questions over how to regulate web content. The European Commission was accused of extending the scope of the 1989 television without frontiers directive too far, catching a number of ‘television-like' web-based services in their net. The issue sparked widespread debate, with industry arguing that excessive regulation would stifle new media businesses and possibly drive them out of the EU. The scope of the reform, which also included more flexible advertising rules, was eventually relaxed. New rules are set to enter into force across the EU by 2009.
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