“If piracy is to be reduced, it can’t be through threats and sanctioning. Carrot and stick need to work together”
Archive for 2010/11/09
More legal content services best way to counter piracy, claims research
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business ModelsReport: U.S. On-Demand Revenues to Reach $10 Billion by 2014
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reportsOn-demand viewing of TV programs and movies is expected to generate $10 billion in the U.S. in annual revenue by 2014, according to new data from In-Stat, as revenues from retail video disc sales and rentals continue to decline.
Management Tool Monitors SaaS Traffic
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Bandwidth Management, Filtering, New Business Models, Tech EvolutionStreamcore’s new feature works with SaaS traffic, such as Salesforce, Citrix GoToMeeting, Google Apps or Microsoft Online Services. For security reasons, SaaS HTTP traffic is always encrypted and exchanged over SSL links, rendering traditional traffic classification processes based on TCP/UDP ports or HTTP URLs useless. In response, Streamcore enhanced its Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) engine so it can identify SSL-based SaaS traffic and break it into specific classes. Once classified, Streamcore solutions can prioritize SaaS traffic running over corporate links so companies can attempt to maximize their network performance.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/11/management_tool_2.html
Netherlands Broadband ISP CAI Harderwijk Tops 100Mb Uploads via Cable DOCSIS3
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionWe rarely cover non-UK news but this one deserves a mention. A small Netherlands based cable operator (CAI Harderwijk) has used DOCSIS3 (DOCSIS 3.0) technology, which is similar to the EuroDOCSIS3 standard employed by Virgin Media in the UK, to demonstrate a symmetric 100Mbps broadband (same speed both ways) service.
The test itself is important because cable operators are still, perhaps unfairly, seen by some as inferior to fully fibre optic based Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) broadband services. In realty cable operators are, for the most part, continuing to keep pace. However, until now, upstream performance has been somewhat of a weak spot.
Suffice to say that the ability to push symmetric speeds of 100Mbps over DOCSIS3 is somewhat of a world first and gives us a better idea of where Virgin Media might be able to go in the future.
Google News spammer has new site, same trick
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Google, Organized CrimeLast week, after CNET pointed out that a company called 70 Holdings Inc. was spamming Google News under the moniker of Red Label News, Google pulled that content from its site. However, over the weekend 70 Holdings popped back up using one of the 44 domains it owns to once again flood Google News with the same type of nearly empty stories tied to search-friendly keywords and advertising.
As we pointed out last week, Google has a problem if it can’t figure out better ways to detect spam sites such as the ones run by 70 Holdings or at least rank them at the very bottom of search results. Otherwise, Google News will become much less useful.
Much more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20022154-265.html
The Future Of Kinect: How Microsoft Plans To Put A Video Game Controller In Everything
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Tech EvolutionSee also:
Microsoft Kinect Hacked? Already?!
http://gizmodo.com/5683744/was-microsoft-kinect-hacked-already
The Washington Post Gets an iPad App Souped Up With Social Media
Posted: 2010/11/09 in New Business ModelsHasbro Reinvents the Viewmaster…With An iPhone
Posted: 2010/11/09 in New Business Models, Tech Evolutiona Viewmaster with apps and augmented reality!
http://gizmodo.com/5684904/hasbro-reinvents-the-viewmasterwith-an-iphone-and-augmented-reality
That iPhone Is Burning a Hole In Your Pocket
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Mobile tech, New Business Models, Stats / reports
Consumers to pay $2.4 billion for Comcast/NBCU merger? Really?
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reportsThe wheels of antitrust justice at the FCC and DoJ are still grinding over whether to approve the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. A new study produced for smaller cable providers says the union would cost pay-TV couch potatoes an extra $2.4 billion.
Faster Broadband ISP Connections Fuel UK Online Video Viewing Boom
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Net Neutrality, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionSadly 21% claim to have experienced problems with their ISP because of online video and there is a risk that the added capacity strain could cause further difficulties in the future. ISPs may impose tougher restrictions or raise prices to compensate.
In addition some ISPs are already contemplating how they could off-set the capacity costs by doing deals for preferential treatment with major content providers (e.g. YouTube, iPlayer, Skype, Facebook etc.). Consumers need to remain mindful of an ISPs small print and make sure that any ‘Fair Usage Policies‘ clearly spell out the limits before signing-up.
New UK Government Website Hints at Universal Broadband Subsidy Plan
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Bandwidth Management, Public PolicyLimeWire Resurrected By Secret Dev Team
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, Tech EvolutionLast month, the Gnutella-based file-sharing client LimeWire was effectively outlawed after a U.S. federal judge granted a request from the RIAA to shut the software down. Now, not even a month later, LimeWire is back as good as new. Not only has a secret dev team reanimated the hugely popular client, but they have also made a few significant changes which make it better and more streamlined than before.
http://torrentfreak.com/limewire-resurrected-by-secret-dev-team-101108/
Bank insiders charged in ZeuS cybercrime smackdown
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Organized CrimeSix corrupt bank insiders turned ZeuS money mule suspects have been arrested in Moldova.
All half dozen of the suspects worked in local banks in the east European country. Investigators reckon the suspects specialised in laundering Western Union and MoneyGram payments received from co-conspirators in the West that can ultimately be traced back to compromised corporate and personal bank accounts.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/zeus_moldova_bank_worker_arrests/
Facebook serves ’23% of all US display ads’
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Online advertising, Stats / reportsLords over Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/facebook_display_ads/
The Royal Navy’s main website has been taken offline following claims by a Romanian hacker that he broke into the site, swiping the login credentials of administrators in the process.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/royal_navy_website_hack/
UK.gov plans net surveillance by 2015
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reportsIn its departmental business plan, published today, the Home Office said it aims that “key proposals [will be] implemented for the storage and acquisition of internet and e-mail records” by June 2015.
Shhh… Opera holds the web’s most valuable secret
Posted: 2010/11/09 in New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionIt is the Opera mobile web cache. Google currently handles 85 billion transactions a month. From 2008 to 2009 Opera grew from 21 billion to 36.9 billion. It is growing faster than Google, and at some point in the not-too-distant future, on current trends, Opera will overtake it. Users also spend more time in the Opera engine than the Google engine, which spits most people out to other destinations.
So what does Opera plan to do with this trove? First, let’s have a look how it came about.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/opera_transaction_cache/
Cameron promises a ‘right to data’
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Public PolicyThe government, while ensuring national security, “information propriety” and “personal privacy” are protected, will work to release datasets the public wants access to.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/government_data_free/
Neelie Kroes European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda: Today our fragmented copyright system is ill-adapted to the real essence of art
Posted: 2010/11/09 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Future Developments?, Legislation, Public Policy, Tech EvolutionToday our fragmented copyright system is ill-adapted to the real essence of art, which has no frontiers. Instead, that system has ended up giving a more prominent role to intermediaries than to artists. It irritates the public who often cannot access what artists want to offer and leaves a vacuum which is served by illegal content, depriving the artists of their well deserved remuneration. And copyright enforcement is often entangled in sensitive questions about privacy, data protection or even net neutrality.
It may suit some vested interests to avoid a debate, or to frame the debate on copyright in moralistic terms that merely demonise millions of citizens. But that is not a sustainable approach. We need this debate because we need action to promote a legal digital Single Market in Europe.
My position is that we must look beyond national and corporatist self-interest to establish a new approach to copyright. We want “une Europe des cultures” and for this we need a debate at European level.
The Commission will soon make legislative proposals on orphan works and on the transparency and governance of the collective management societies. We will examine again the problem of divergent national private copy levies. We will also look into multi-territorial and pan-European licensing. And we will not stop exploring ideas for as long as the system is not working.
Instead of a dysfunctional system based on a series of cultural Berlin walls, I want a return to sense. A system where there is scope to create new opportunities for artists and creators, and new business models that better fit the digital age. We want to help you seize the opportunities of this age.
In conclusion, let the debate continue. It will be fierce, there are indeed hurdles. But our job is to look past them in order to clear them.
Speaking for myself, I will remember artists and citizens with each step forward. My sight will remain firmly on ‘une Europe des cultures’.
Artists cast light on our world; our job is to let the light shine in.
