Author: Kelly Fiveash

Google has yet another enemy in Europe, after Getty Images formally complained to Brussels' antitrust officials about the multinational's alleged anti-competitive behaviour.

Getty has flagged up concerns about Google's use of "scraped third party imagery" on its search engine.

A spokesperson at competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager's office told Ars: "The commission has received a complaint, which it will assess."

Doctor Who fans may be fretting about the sci-fi show's break from our screens this year, but the BBC has already began its PR blitz for the next series by unveiling the Time Lord's new companion.

Step forward (or should that be run away from the Daleks?) Pearl Mackie, who is expected to make her debut as the Doctor's sidekick on this year's Christmas special.

Mackie's character name is Bill, and—based on a short introductory clip—appears to be a straight-talking ("wouldn't it be quicker just to say 'kill'?"), and cheeky ("it's got a sucker on it") Londoner for the tenth season of the rebooted show.

Microsoft has withdrawn its regulatory complaints against Google across the globe—a matter of months after Redmond retreated from its fight over the ad giant's alleged abuse of dominance in the search market in Europe.

A spokesperson for the European Commission's competition chief Margrethe Vestager confirmed to Ars that her office was aware of Microsoft's decision to back out of the case.

“The Commission takes note of the announcement. We continue to investigate the conduct of Google as part of our ongoing formal probes, based on the facts, the evidence and EU law. The substantive analysis in an antitrust case is not affected by the number of complainants nor their identity,” Brussels' spokesperson Ricardo Cardoso told Ars.

Google faces more competition charges in the European Union, after the 28-member-state bloc's antitrust commissioner concluded in a preliminary decision that the company had abused its dominant position by imposing restriction on Android device makers.

A Statement of Objections—which outlines Brussels' charges—has been sent to Google this morning, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Google will now be given the opportunity to respond to the commission's concerns. Vestager said that Google had pursued a "strategy to protect and expand its position in search," by imposing what the commissioner described as "unjustified restrictions on manufacturers and mobile network operators."

Google has hit out at News Corp after Rupert Murdoch's company lodged a formal complaint against the search and ad giant to the competition wing of the European Commission.

News Corp's newspaper the Wall Street Journal—citing an insider—reported that Murdoch's media empire was "concerned Google reinforces its dominance in general search by 'scraping' or copying content from publishers to display the results of news article."

Google has been accused by News Corp of altogether stripping its search results of articles that publishers prevent from being copied, according to the WSJ.

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against the US government over the number of secrecy orders it has received to allow g-men and cops access to customers' e-mails and other records.

The software giant's chief legal officer Brad Smith said that gagging orders had been applied to 2,576 such demands over the course of an 18-month period. Microsoft's top counsel added that 1,752 (68 percent) of those secrecy orders had no end date—"This means we effectively are prohibited forever [Smith's emphasis] from telling our customers that the government has obtained their data," he said.

Smith added in a blog post:

Adobe has rushed out a Flash update to plug a security hole spotted by infosec researchers, who warned that Windows 10 users of the software may have been exposed to the flaw for more than a week.

Ne'er-do-wells could exploit the flaw by sending ransomware to Windows 10 machines. Adobe said its updates addressed critical vulnerabilities in Flash, and advised users to install the latest version of the software. It said in a security bulletin:

Adobe has released security updates for Adobe Flash Player for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and ChromeOS. These updates address critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Adobe is aware of reports that CVE-2016-1019 is being actively exploited on systems running Windows 10 and earlier with Flash Player version 20.0.0.306 and earlier.

Researchers at Proofpoint—which has a good explainer of the flaw here—worked with other infosec folk to track down the latest security hole in Flash that could be exploited by attackers with a type of ransomware dubbed "Cerber." The ransomware is understood to have been in the wild since at least March 31.

An unknown number of Oculus VR customers have been forced to wait a little longer for the Rift virtual reality headset, after Facebook said it had been hit by "an unexpected component shortage"—thereby delaying some of its shipments.

Oculus—in an update—promised to, er, update customers who have been affected by the hold-up within the next week.

Facebook—which last week began delivering the virtual reality units trumpeted by boss Mark Zuckerberg as "the most social technology ever"—hasn't revealed how many orders were hit by the shipments delay. Oculus said in an e-mail to customers on Saturday:

Spotify AB has raised £695 million (~$1 billion) in convertible debt, and reportedly promised its investors that they would get a tasty equity return if the Sweden-based music streaming service goes public in the next year.

Private equity outfit TPG, and hedge fund Dragoneer Investment Group, along with an unknown number of Goldman Sachs' clients, agreed to sink cash into Spotify, according to the Wall Street Journal. The deal was later confirmed by Spotify, with an agreement expected to close by the end of this week, Reuters reported.

Financial terms were kept secret. The WSJ earlier reported, however—citing sources familiar with the deal—that Spotify's new investors would be able to convert the debt into equity at a 20 percent discount if the company holds an IPO (initial public offering) within the next 12 months.

Spotify has agreed to do a better job at allowing music publishers and songwriters to claim and receive royalties from the streaming service. However there's a caveat: to strike the settlement deal with Spotify, copyright holders cannot make an infringement claim against the company.

In recent months, Spotify has faced a number of lawsuits from musicians who have challenged the Sweden-based firm's alleged failure to licence artists' works before making them available for streaming.

On Thursday, US trade body the National Music Publishers' Association said that the settlement deal it had struck with Spotify represented a "landmark industry agreement."