Following the EC’s ruling, the US Federal Trade Commission took  voted 5-0 to close its inquiry in the proposal, judging that there were no competition issues.

But the EC said the deal “would have increased Universal’s size in a way that would likely have enabled it to impose higher prices and more onerous licensing terms on digital music providers” and “this could have negatively affected the possibilities for innovative providers to expand or launch new music offerings”.

To overcome the concern, Universal has agreed not to include “most-favoured nation” clauses in its contracts with digital services — stipulations under which it could have demanded it strike equally favourable deals with such services as other labels have.

And it has agreed to divest Parlophone, Sanctuary, several national EMI imprints and many others that are home to Blur, Gorillaz, Pink Floyd, Kylie Minogue and other well-known acts. Full list here.

Explaining the commitments imposed on Universal, the EC said that, even though a large music service like Apple’s, which dominates digital sales, might have been able to front up to price hikes from a newly-enlarged Universal, ”there are many other smaller, particularly innovative, music distribution players, such as streaming platforms or mobile operators that offer music together with telephony subscriptions (which) would be particularly vulnerable to a price increase or other types of worsening of licensing terms by Universal“.

Merlin, the so-called “fifth major” group representing indie labels, re-iterated its ongoing opposition to the deal following approval, saying Universal would enhance its market-leading position.

“We now have to face the possibility that the digital market could be dictated and controlled by two super majors (Universal and Sony), which would not be a healthy outcome,” CEO Charles Caldas said (via MusicAlly).

“That said, the concessions Universal has had to make to get this deal through are significant, and must make this a very different deal to the one Universal originally envisioned.”

Some of Merlin’s largest members could be candidates to buy divested Universal imprints.

In contrast to the EC, the FTC said it “did not find sufficient evidence of head-to-head competition to conclude that the combination of Universal and EMI would substantially lessen competition”.

The FTC said Universal’s repertoire was mostly of new artists while EMI’s was older, adding that little competition exists between Universal and EMI in interactive streaming services because such services would require both contracts, and those of all major labels, to be comprehensive.

However, the FTC’s decision noted that the remedies Universal will have to enact to satisfy the EC will also have the effect of mitigation against concentration of ownership in the US.

The EC cleared Sony/Mubadala’s proposed acquisition of EMI’s music publishing business in April.

In January, Kroes, who is also Europe’s information society commissioner, assembled local public agencies and private companies in a €10 million European Cloud Partnership to lay groundwork for moving government agencies’ IT systems to the cloud.

At Cable Congress in Brussels on Thursday, Kroes said boldly: “It’s where the future will be.”

Now, independent EU debate organiser Forum Europe has convened policymakers and executives from companies including Dell, VMWare and Intel (NSDQ: INTC) at The 2012 European Cloud Computing Conference to develop the continent’s cloud strategy on March 21.

I am dreaming that every person will have their own shelf in the cloud one day soon #cloudcomputing #CEBIT

— Neelie Kroes (@NeelieKroesEU) March 6, 2012

Of course, private-sector internet companies are already rolling out services that host data in remote, “cloud”-based data centres. Why is the European Commission intervening, and what does it think is to gain?

For one, the cloud dovetails neatly with a parallel Kroes is pushing – harmonising Europe’s many and varied telecoms and copyright licensing rules to let online services more easily license content to rent and sell across member states’ national borders.

“The cloud is the perfect way to introduce legal content offers online,” said Kroes, who thinks small- and medium-sized enterprises stand to benefit most because cloud services can be cheaper than alternatives: “Our flagging economies need us to make the best of it – we need to act to ensure speedy uptake.

“With many other technologies, we’ve seen problems getting in the way – fragmentation, lock-in, and public sector ineffectiveness. The cloud computing strategy I’m currently preparing will anticipate those problems so we can prevent them. Where these barriers exist, I am determined to overcome them.”

Kroes sought to re-assure private cloud suppliers and Big Government opponents: “The Cloud Partnership, and indeed our overall cloud computing strategy, is not about building a European super-cloud.”

We’ll be addressing some of these themes at GigaOm’s Structure:Europe conference, October 16-17, in Amsterdam. Registration is opening soon.

A study it commissioned from Ecorys, published on Tuesday, says the gain would come to content and telco operators from telecom rules that were revised last year plus new provisions.

“This ‘digital bonus’ for EU growth would result from more competition, increased economies of scale for telecom operators, and the chance for every European to access all online content and services throughout the EU, such as music, movies and video games,” according to the EC.

“For example, new and more efficient economic activity could arise from the ability to subscribe to TV from your home country when living abroad, the possibility of receiving healthcare monitoring from your local physician while on holiday, or a business using a single cloud computing provider for offices in many EU countries.

“The drivers of growth will be online services such as movies and games (which will evolve from High Definition to technologies such as 3D, e-Health or e-Learning). These services require guaranteed quality of service. This requires pan-European standards, since what might work in one member state may not be possible in another.”

In addition to last year’s wide-ranging new telecoms rules, the primary pillar of the commission’s Digital Agenda is creating a “single digital market” to boost entertainment download and streaming services across borders, including by simplifying content licensing and harmonising online payments access.

Online content services are only too keen for the EC to simplify the process by which they can gain licenses to sell or rent digital content. The EC is due to propose legislation this Q1 to simplify cross-border licensing.

Read the full post on GigaOm…

This article originally appeared in GigaOm.

The price tag of the Motorola deal raised eyebrows when Google announced it last August, but the search giant likely felt it had no choice after a consortium of rivals snapped up the patent portfolio of the bankrupt telecom company Nortel.

With the Motorola acquisition, Google gained 17,000 patents and 7,500 pending applications. It has been using some of them to harass Apple in Germany.

Although the deal had been expected to receive European regulatory approval, there have been doubts in recent weeks amidst allegations that Google was using so-called FRAND patents in an anti-competitive manner (FRAND patents involve industry-wide technical standards and are supposed to be licensed on “fair and reasonable” terms.)

In its ruling, announced early this afternoon, the EC stated it would monitor the smartphone industry to ensure participants complied with anti-trust rules.

The Justice Department followed with a separate approval ruling late in the afternoon. The ruling also said it would it monitor Google and its competitors to ensure they didn’t abuse standard-related patents.

The plants will remain operational now for “smartphone product customization.” The news comes amidst unconfirmed reports that the company is planning to curtail its Symbian lineup after the release of the next model.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) says that the transfer will result in the loss of 4,000 jobs in total, and the reductions will take place through the end of 2012.

Nokia does not outline how much the move to Asia will mean in terms of money saved, but this is a decision that has been some time in the making: these were plants that were spared in the last round of cuts under CEO Stephen Elop.

Since then, Nokia has reported yet more declines in its smartphone shipments, mainly around its legacy Symbian platform. The company is now gradually moving to making more of its smartphone portfolio based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

Now, Nokia says that the move is being made to put the manufacturing bases closer to where the different components are being made for those smartphones. That is a move we have seen from many other companies — and was the subject of a series of stories recently concerning Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in China and the role of Foxconn in that business.

The move to make these plants focused on customization, meanwhile, points to some focus that Nokia does seem to maintain on its software and services for its devices — a crucial part of the company’s differentiation as it moves more and more to a platform being used by its competitors as well. Others that make Windows Phone devices include Samsung and HTC.

The news comes amidst other reports about Nokia that claim the company is planning to curtail its Symbian lineup after the next model comes out.

Symbian is gradually being phased out for Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, but Nokia had originally said it would support the OS until 2016, and that could still be the case even if it stopped making devices based on it. Nokia transferred the operation of Symbian to Accenture last year.

A spokesperson from Nokia told paidContent that the article was “speculative at best” and would not comment on device rumor or speculation:

“As we have previously said Symbian continues to be an important part of our portfolio and going forward it will play a more focused role as we accelerate our transition to Windows Phone,” he said. “We remain fully committed to the platform through 2016, which means on-going software support as we go forward.”

The company is currently rolling out an update to Symbian, Belle, and the devices remain popular in the Middle East, Russia and India, even as they have lost out to Android-based devices, Apple’s iPhone and even RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) in other markets.

“Given the wide range of services you offer, and popularity of these services, changes in your privacy policy may affect many citizens in most or all of the EU member states.

“We wish to check the possible consequences for the protection of the personal data of these citizens in a coordinated procedure. We have therefore asked the French data protection authority, the CNIL, to take the lead. The CNIL has kindly accepted this task and will be your point of contact for the data protection authorities in the EU.

“In light of the above, we call for a pause in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google’s commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens, until we have completed our analysis.”

Good that Europe’s data protection authorities are ensuring @Google ‘s new privacy policy complies with EU law bit.ly/xiz8U6 #EUDataP

— Viviane Reding (@VivianeRedingEU) February 3, 2012

The Article 29 group advises the executive European Commission on data protection and privacy matters and comprises representatives of member states’ national data protection bodies.

In January, Google said it would unify privacy policies from over 70 of its products, a move which mirrors its unification of user services with Google+ and its personalised search launch. It explained: “Regulators globally have been calling for shorter, simpler privacy policies.”

The Article 29 group has previously forced Google to reduce its data retention time, unsuccessfully asked Google to warn the public before it starts photographing for Street View, issued tough new location sharing guidelines and adjudged a Facebook privacy policy revision “unacceptable“

The European Commision’s justice department sought to raise public awareness of use of their data by designating January 28 European Data Protection Day.

Separately, the EC’s antitrust department is currently assessing competition complaints against Google.

Today’s ruling in a Mannheim court granted Motorola a permanent injunction on Apple products that use its iCloud technology, specifically around push email services, and, like many patent cases, is not based on a recent patent but an older one — in this case, one that Motorola holds around paging devices (one of the company’s earliest wireless products).

Update: Motorola has issued a formal response to the decision:

“We are pleased that the Mannheim court has recognized the importance of our intellectual property and granted an enforceable injunction in Germany against Apple Sales International,” it said in an emailed statement.

[original article continues below]

Apple, meanwhile, said that it is already appealing in this case:

“Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we’re appealing the court’s decision,” Apple told paidContent in an emailed statement.

But before you start thinking that this might mean that various new, iCloud-enabled Apple products will be disappearing from German retailers, think again. PaidContent understands that the injunction applies only to a specific function: the instant, push email service that Apple offers via MobileMe/iCloud, and there are only a limited number of users in Germany actually taking that service. Plus, there are already at least two workarounds available: for customers to either download the email manually; or to set up a script to check email regularly anyway.

The case is still developing so it remains to be seen how the injunction will play out.

More pressing, it seems, is the outcome of another Motorola court case that dates back from December, and which has been in the works for even longer, which has resulted in Apple pulling some older models of the iPad and iPhone from its online store in Germany.

These products were pulled overnight and are indeed absent when paidContent visited the online store this morning. They are, however, still being sold offline through Apple stores and other retailers.

Update: The temporary injunction has now been lifted, but Motorola says the case continues:

“We are pleased that the Mannheim court has recognized the importance of our intellectual property and granted an enforceable injunction in Germany against Apple Sales International. Although the enforcement of the injunction has been temporarily suspended, Motorola Mobility will continue to pursue its claims against Apple.”

Earlier, Apple said it would appeal the decision:

“While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apple’s online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorised reseller. Apple is appealing this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.”

This case, essentially, is another chapter in Apple’s European battle over FRAND patents, which fall under rules that require equipment makers to license IP on “Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory” terms, in order to make sure that IP that has been declared industry standard is not intentionally made more expensive for competitors than non-competitors in a field like smartphones.

Apple has been facing other issues over FRAND terms in Europe, specifically with Samsung. That case looks like it may have taken a turn in Apple’s favor: this week the European Commission said that it would start an antitrust investigation into Samsung and whether it has violated FRAND rules in its dealings with Apple. The EC cautions that it has not yet declared a judgement in this investigation so it could still go either way.

In this Motorola FRAND case, Motorola Mobility says that it approached Apple in 2007 with its FRAND licensing terms and attempted to negotiate a license with Apple for over three years.

“Apple’s refusal to negotiate in good faith, as well as their aggressive litigation campaign against Android, left Motorola Mobility with no option other than to seek to enforce the Company’s rights and patent portfolio. Motorola Mobility remains committed to licensing rather than litigation as the proper vehicle for resolving intellectual property disputes,” Motorola told paidContent in an emailed statement.

You might recall that disputes over FRAND licensing was the issue in the FRAND dispute with Samsung — the case that spurred the EC investigation

Whether this will result in a FRAND investigation of Motorola by the EC remains to be seen, but if it does that could have wider implications since the Commission is already investigating antitrust issues regarding the proposed merger between Motorola and Google.

Given that this is all really about stabbing at your competition on a legal level, one possible outcome might be particularly ironic: if what people want are Apple products, by not being able to buy the less expensive, older models, they may end up opting for the 4S in the end and boost sales of the company’s highest margin, priciest device. A Win-Win in that case?

Leading the second round of investment were Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) Ventures and Innovacom, along with participation from prior investors Creandum and Northzone; and takes the total amount of funding in the company to almost $18 million.

Videoplaza says that it will be using the investment to help fund its international growth and product development. Those two areas appear to be running fast at the moment anyway: the company says that its client base already spreads across 17 markets, and in the past year its ad serving volumes grew five-fold. Some of its clients include the publisher Dennis, French commercial broadcaster M6 and Spanish newspaper group La Vanguardia and the France-Telecom-owned interactive ad network Unanimis, and it partners with other established names in the business, like Brightcove, to help monetize their video ad traffic.

Videoplaza’s target is to tap into some of the $160 billion that is estimated to be spent on TV advertising annually at the moment, and following those ad budgets as media buyers try to chase down viewers as they start watch more and more of that TV content on an ever-growing variety of screens, from IP-enabled TVs to smartphones, tablets, cars and desktop computers — and who knows what else. Videoplaza projects that by 2020 there will be more than 10 billion connected devices in consumers’ hands that could be used for consuming streamed video.

It is not the only one: companies like YuMe, spotXchange, BrightRoll (a Videoplaza partner), Hulu, CBS (NYSE: CBS) and many, many others are also scrambling for substantial market share in this space. It’s still a fast-growing area, with the amount of ad-funded, streamed video content still very much on the rise — both in terms of volumes and consumption — but there is bound to be some consolidation on the cards among these ad players, too.

A stake from a company like Qualcomm — which plays a central role in making processors and other parts and software for mobile devices — could potentially give Videoplaza a leg up in that respect. At the moment the vast majority of video ad consumption for Videoplaza is still coming from PCs: only eight percent came from other devices. But the company believes that by 2013 (that is, in a year) that will shift to a 50-50 balance.