Officials with ADB said that the company’s devices will enable subscribers to enjoy not only high-definition TV, but also video-on-demand, interactivity, and a wide range of value-added features
Archive for 2010/08/11
Upcoming Apple TV trades 1080p for 720p video; to be known as ‘iTV’
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Tech EvolutionAccording to Engadget and a “trusted Engadget source,” the upcoming version of the set-top box will be dumbed down to 720p video playback due to a problem with the A4 processor. That sounds fishy, and it’s bound to stir up some controversy if this becomes official.
Viacom submitted the paperwork to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, making official the intention it stated after Google won a huge victory in June in the dispute between the two companies over copyright materials on YouTube.
Netflix on new streaming deal with studios (podcast)
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, New Business ModelsFacebook differs with Google on Net neutrality
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Net Neutrality“Facebook continues to support principles of Net neutrality for both landline and wireless networks,” the company’s Washington, D.C.-based policy spokesman, Andrew Noyes, said in a statement. “Preserving an open Internet that is accessible to innovators–regardless of their size or wealth–will promote a vibrant and competitive marketplace where consumers have ultimate control over the content and services delivered through their Internet connections.”
Copyright Boss Refuses Debate with Pirate Bay Co-Founder
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / AwarenessWerner Müller, boss of the Austrian film and music industry trade association, has canceled his participation in a panel discussion on “Art in the Digital Age” after he learned that Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde was one of his fellow participants. Müller stated that he refuses to sit at a table with a “convicted criminal” who supports “professional theft”.
http://torrentfreak.com/copyright-boss-refuses-debate-with-pirate-bay-co-founder-100811/
Previously:
Mr Sunde has managed to convince investors that the idea is sound, both ideologically and financially. Flattr has angel backing from Stefan Glaenzer, Last.fm’s first investor and chairman, and Eileen Burbidge, formerly of Skype. The pair run White Bear Yard, a hub for tech-startups in central London.
“When we invested, it was in Linus and Peter,” says Ms Burbidge, who says she’s unconcerned by Mr Sunde’s conviction in the Swedish courts in the Pirate Bay case (he says the appeal process will take so long he is unlikely ever to have to serve his jail sentence).
“These guys were in the team that was involved in carrying 48 per cent of the world’s internet traffic,” says Ms Burbidge. “They know how to scale.”
http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2010/07/pirate-bay-founder-aims-to-make-the-world-flattr/
lawsuits by concert producers pre-suing potential bootleggers claiming trademark infringement
You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies
A paper trail of betrayal: Google’s net neutrality collapse
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Google, Net NeutralityA Tale of Two Googles—we compare Google’s earlier filings on net neutrality with this week’s Google/Verizon manifesto and ask, “What happened?”
The first two “Doe” lawsuits filed in 2010 against alleged P2P movie-swappers have been dismissed this week by the law firm that brought them. This isn’t a surprise, and it doesn’t mean the cases are dead
Update: Belgian ISP’s 25 largest downloaders
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Net Neutrality, New Business ModelsTelenet has recently dropped her data caps and instead adopted a fair use policy, stating that anybody with a certain type of subscription can download as much as they like, although when one exceeds a certain amount of data during the peak hours, the bandwidth is throttled from 30, 50 or 100 Mbps to 512 kbps.
More: http://futureofcopyright.com/index.php?page=news&id=1206
Previously:
Free Downloading: The Top 25 Downloaders at Belgian ISP TELENET
http://contentprotection.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/free-downloading-the-top-25-downloaders-at-belgian-isp-telenet/
Dutch Ministry of Justice advises against digitization of WWII newspapers
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, EnforcementDutch media are reporting that the Ministry of Justice has advised the Dutch Royal Library not to digitize and publish (some) WWII newspapers online as it cannot guarantee that the Public Prosecutor’s Office will NOT prosecute the Royal Library for ‘replication of criminal statements’. Some newspapers were at the time published by pro-Nazi movements and political organizations. The Royal Library is currently setting up a digital newspaper archive. The Royal Library does not want to be put in the position to say whether some content is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
Dutch language article:
European Commission: Public consultation on the future of electronic commerce in the internal market and the implementation of the Directive on Electronic commerce
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Public PolicyThe European Commission wishes to study in detail the various reasons for the limited takeoff of electronic commerce, as stated in the Retail Market Monitoring Report “Towards more efficient and fairer retail services in the internal market for 2020″ and evaluate the implementation of the Directive, in accordance with its Article 21, as announced in the Communication “A Digital Agenda for Europe”.
For this purpose the Commission wishes to consult interested parties directly and receive their reaction and experience on a number of subjects:
- The level of development, both national and cross-border, of information society services
- Issues concerning the application of Article 3(4) by the Member States (administrative cooperation)
- Contractual restrictions on cross-border on-line sales.
- Cross-border on-line commercial communications, in particular by the regulated professions.
- The development of on-line press services.
- The interpretation of the provisions concerning the liability of intermediary information society service providers.
- The development of on-line pharmacy services
- The resolution of on-line disputes.
Please reply by 15 October at the latest, completing either the entire questionnaire or just those parts relating to your activities interests. Late responses will be taken into account only as much as possible.
Caught in the Internet neutrality storm – How Verizon and Google may help Israeli firm Allot
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Net Neutrality, Public PolicyAllot specializes in technology which becomes more critical each day for Internet providers, both mobile and wired. The technology is called DPI (deep packet inspection). At a time of an explosion in video content going over broadband, especially wireless – because of smartphones, only platforms that know how to differentiate in real time every spark of information that travels across the Internet – or in the language of the Internet, each “packet” of bits – and can manage that information, can bring the networks to operational and financial optimization.
In recent days there have been articles which say that despite everything, Google and Verizon reached a technological solution which will allow using DPI. If that is the case, and Congress doesn’t prevent it, then maybe the US carriers market will open up soon for Allot. In the meantime it is doing quite well in Europe and Asia, where there are no limitations on DPI.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000580932&fid=4111
How to meet massive demand for mobile data
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Mobile techsoaring demand for data services does present mobile networks with a challenge, but operators can and will adapt. Rather than being seen as a harbinger of doom, the rapidly rising demand for mobile multimedia should be celebrated as the dawn of an exciting new age for the cellular industry
http://connectedplanetonline.com/commentary/meeting-data-demand-081010/
4G Explosion To Raise Copyright Issues
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Mobile techAs everyone waits to see the exciting, full effects of 4G wireless networks – Sprint has been rolling its out for months, and Verizon Wireless and AT&T will follow suit soon – some are expressing concerns about the potential for a flurry of copyright problems
http://www.phoneplusmag.com/news/2010/08/4g-explosion-to-raise-copyright-issues.aspx
The Truth about Cheap Unlimited Broadband
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Net Neutrality- Some ISPs are well known for never acting on their fair usage policy at all, while others are likely to start reducing the speed of their customers very quickly. It can be hugely limiting for people who are expecting unlimited broadband to suddenly be told they need to stop downloading or curb their internet habits
- Traffic management normally occurs during peak times when a lot of people are connected to the internet at once. In order for a provider to keep up a decent level of service to every subscriber, everybody becomes limited to a certain speed for a short period of time. While it can be just as frustrating as Fair Usage policy, traffic management is usually on a temporary measure, although it’s often a regular one. For example, many providers will employ traffic shaping every day between about 5pm-10pm in the evening, which are the busiest times for UK providers
- Don’t think that being a light user means you won’t be affected at all though – some of the biggest ISPs in the UK throttle the net so much that even using YouTube during peak times can be difficult, so you should always be mindful of these tactics when choosing a new provider
http://www.ukcheapbroadband.com/broadband-blog/17804/the-truth-about-cheap-unlimited-broadband/
T-Mobile Sued For Throttling Data Speeds, Having An “Unlimited” Plan
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Litigation, Mobile techLevied against T-Mobile by lead plaintiff Trent Alvarez who states he entered into an agreement with T-Mobile by purchasing smartphones and then received a message regarding a reduction in data speeds due to exceeding the 10 GB limit. The suit brought in Yolo County, California claims that T-Mobile’s advertisements for “Unlimited Web & Email” are misleading/deceiving and that T-Mobile sales representatives falsely represented the data plan as unlimited
http://www.tmonews.com/2010/08/t-mobile-sued-for-throttling-data-speeds-having-an-unlimited-plan/
BPI: UK Music Revenues Up 2.3%, But P2P Still a Problem
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reportsThe China Film Copyright Protection Association (CFCPA) announced at a recent news conference that it will sue the movie portals 365pub.com and Cnnip.com as well as a few Internet cafes for piracy.
It is reportedly the first civil case filed by the CFCPA since it was transformed from a trade association to a copyright management organization in 2008.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/7100425.html
Philippine Federal Police and the MPA Reach Agreement to Combat Piracy
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public PolicyThe Philippine Federal Police (PNP) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) have reached an agreement to work more closely together to combat movie piracy. The agreement includes influence from the Motion Picture Anti-Film Piracy Council (MPAFPC) and the National Cinema Association
Regulators from the European Union are getting involved in the Federal Trade Commission investigation of Apple’s business strategies that was opened up in June, according to a New York Post report on Tuesday.
The inclusion of the EU regulators means the investigation could now stretch “another four to six months” before the FTC reaches any official conclusions, according to the Post’s sources.
The focus of the probe, which remains unconfirmed by the FTC, centers on Apple’s App Store developer agreement. In early April, Apple adjusted its wording in a way that outright barred developers from using third-party development tools such as Adobe’s Flash Compiler, or in-game engines like Unity 3D.
Security experts warned on Tuesday about what is believed to be the first Trojan targeting Android-based mobile devices that racks up charges by sending text messages to premium-rate numbers
ISP Owner Finally Able To Admit That He Stood Up To The FBI Over Questionable Data Request
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, LitigationNicholas Merrill, the head of Calyx Internet Access is finally able to admit that he’s the guy who’s been fighting this legal battle. Prior to this, he’d even kept it secret from his fiancee, family and friends — even when they happened to bring up the case in casual conversation.
Tesco is getting into the movie business, producing a series of movies that are designed on purpose to go straight to the DVD shelves in Tesco. The company is working with some well known authors (the first movie is an adaptation of a Jackie Collins novel) and a small studio set up specifically for this kind of thing
New antipiracy countermeasures await returning students
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File SharingThe wireless sensors, compulsory in new automobiles in the US since 2008, can be used to track vehicles or feed bad data to the electronic control units (ECU), causing them to malfunction
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/08/cars-hacked-through-wireless-tyre-sensors.ars
Suspect walks because Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office uses Google Translate
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Education / Awareness, Google, LitigationDutch media are reporting how a Russian truck driver suspected of having been engaged in a bar fight was not attending the relevant court session in The Netherlands.
The Russian interpreter who did attend the meeting was unable to properly translate the subpoena and was confronted with the fact that the Public Prosecutor’s Office had been using Google Translate to translate the subpoena from Dutch into Russian.
The interpreter explained that a Russian reader would conclude that the Dutch court would be unavailable on the day of the court proceeding.
More importantly, the words “court documents” in Dutch somehow got translated to “pieces of cheese” in Russian.
Dutch language article: http://www.spitsnieuws.nl/archives/provinciaal/2010/08/om_blundert_met_google_transla.html
Blogger causing Twitter ‘riot’, pretends to represent CarGlass
Posted: 2010/08/11 in Cybercrime, Education / AwarenessDutch Media are reporting how a blogger created a Twitter account that seemed to belong to the company CarGlass.
He then made it seem as if CarGlass would sue anybody who would be making use of the hashtag #carglasssucks.
That message was retweeted by hundreds of people, causing quite a stir.
The real company is now contemplating real legal actions against the blogger.
Dutch language article: http://www.nu.nl/internet/2309562/blogger-veroorzaakt-twitterrel-rond-carglass.html
