The UK Government has released a consultation into potential legislation aimed at curbing illicit filesharing on the net. Several of the legislative options on the table are worrying, and mirror schemes being discussed in various national and international fora. They include streamlining the legal process to require ISPs to provide personal data relating to an IP address, handing responsibility for taking action against illicit filesharers to a third party body, or requiring ISPs to take action against users themselves or to install filtering equipment to block infringing content.
At the same time a "Memorandum of Understanding", negotiated behind-the-scenes with strong influence from the Government, between the UK's six major ISPs (Virgin Media, Sky, Carphone Warehouse, BT, Orange and Tiscali) and the British Phonographic Industry and the Motion Picture Association. Signatories endorse five principles in the MoU:
That a joint industry solution is the best way forward
That they will work together to educate consumers about why illicit filesharing is wrong
That making content available in a wide range of user-friendly formats is important
That they will engage in a 3 month trial to send letters to 1,000 subscribers per week suspected of downloading or uploading unlicensed, copyrighted material
That they will work with OfCom to identify effective measures to deal with repeat offenders
BBC U-turn: Full iPlayer service may never be available to Mac and Linux Users
Yesterday, the BBC announced that a cross-platform "streamed" version of its on-demand service the iPlayer would be available by the end of the year. According to this report from BBC News Online:
"At the end of the year users of Windows, Mac or Linux machines will be able to watch streamed versions of their favourite TV programmes inside a web browser, as well as share the video with friends and embed programmes on their own websites, sites such as Facebook and blogs."
If the idea sounds vaguely familiar, that's because back in March, when the BBC Trust put the iPlayer out for consultation, the Open Rights Group gently suggested that streaming was a far better short term solution to on-demand services than DRM-restricted market-distorting technologies that would serve to widen the digital divide. We observed that:
"Such an approach is cheaper, lower risk, more inclusive (it works for example in libraries) and more flexible than the current BBC proposal. It may not appeal to consultants looking to make huge profits at public expense however, precisely because it is simple, clean and low-risk.
"It does not, of itself, address the desire for users to obtain content in DRM-free downloadable form for any platform, but it provides a basis until the BBC is able to identify more open solutions for the download of content, preferably ones which do not depend upon DRM... The Open Rights Group considers it is quite possible that, as already is clearly happening in the music world, the use of DRM will soon be abandoned by the market itself."
You can read our full submission to the BBC Trust here. But enough of the I-told-you-so-s. Is yesterday's move good news for licence fee payers who do not use Windows? Well, not really. Although they will now be given online access to content their licence fee has helped pay for, there are still fundamental inequities between users on different platforms, and this still leaves the BBC deforming the market in favour of Microsoft DRM and Windows. People on Macs, Linux, PDAs and other handheld devices are still losing out on all the features that make the downloadable iPlayer different from, say, the kind of streaming that the BBC has done for years with the RadioPlayer.
And that's not all. Ashley Highfield, director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC has now indicated that the full, downloadable iPlayer may never be made available to those who do not use the latest versions of Windows. When the iPlayer launched in June, Highfield was quoted as saying:
"I am fundamentally committed to universality, to getting the BBC iPlayer to everyone in the UK who pays their licence fee."
"We need to look long and hard at whether we build a download service for Mac and Linux. It comes down to cost per person and reach at the end of the day."
The BBC could avoid all this mess if it eschewed DRM and instead employed standard formats. The Open Rights Group believes that the BBC cannot be truly public service in the 21st century until it gives the British public access to the programmes that they have paid for without DRM or restriction. This is not a technology problem, but cuts to the heart of what the BBC is for and how it makes and commissions programming. ORG challenges the BBC and the BBC Trust to re-examine the BBC's commissioning and rights frameworks with th
The Open Rights Group(Think UK EFF) have a wiki page that provideds more information on this an othere issues with the British Biometric Passport
The European version of the biometric passport is planned to have digital imaging and fingerprint scan biometrics placed on the Radio Frequency chip. The government of UK thinks that the public has a negative opinion of RFID chips so instead they call it a contactless chip.
* A recommendation that the Office of Fair
Trading (OFT) bring forward appropriate
labelling regulations so that it will
become crystal clear to consumers what they will
and will not be able to do with digital content that
they purchase.
* A recommendation that OFCOM publish guidance to make
it clear that companies distributing Technical
Protection Measures systems in the UK would, if they
have features such as those in Sony-BMG's MediaMax
and XCP systems, run a significant risk of
being prosecuted for criminal actions.
* A recommendation that the Department of Trade and
Industry investigate the single-market issues that
were raised during the Inquiry, with a view to
addressing the issue at the European level.
* A recommendation that the government do not
legislate to make DRM systems mandatory.
* A recommendation that the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport review the level of funding for
pilot projects that address access to eBooks by
those with visual disabilities and that action is
taken if they are failing to achieve positive results.
* A recommendation that the Department of Trade and
Industry revisit the results of their review into
their moribund "IP Advisory Committee" and
reconstitute it as several more focused forums.
One of these should be a "UK Stakeholders Group" to be
chaired by the British Library.
* A recommendation that the Government consider
granting a much wider-ranging exemption to the
anti-circumvention measures in the 1988
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act for genuine
academic research.
* A recommendation that having taken advice from the
Legal Deposit Advisory Panel, the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport hold a formal public
consultation, not only on the technical details,
but also on the general principles that have been
established.
The Open Rights Group have more information and they took part in the consultation. If your in the UK I highly recomend you join them as they act like the the EFF does in the USA.
Given that the launch of the All Party Internet Group report on Digital Rights Management only started at 10 pm and that the BBC printed this the day before it was out they must have got their hands on a advanced copy some how.
The All Party Internet Group will launch its report on Digital Rights Management at the British Library on Monday June 5th. A press release with the key aspects of the report's findings will be available on the day and will also be posted on the APIG website at that time, along with the report itself and all of the written and oral evidence received by the inquiry.
Keynote speech: Derek Wyatt, Launch of the All Party Internet Group report on Digital Rights Management
10.00 - 12.00pm, 5th June 2006 British Library, Euston Road
Speakers Include:
Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, British Library
Laurie Kaye, Laurence Kaye Solicitors
Other speakers to be confirmed
As well as launching the All Party Internet Group report on Digital Rights Management, this seminar will look at the different opportunities, and threats, digitisation and new media provide for content creators and information providers, both public and private.
The great promise of the internet is to provide us with all the information and learning materials we might need. Free internet access is now within walking distance of close to 100% of the UK. In many senses, digital inclusion is no longer about access to technology but access to content.
Libraries and archives across the world are currently involved in a number of digitisation initiatives, enabling wider access to the works of cultural and historical importance they stores. At the same time, commercial content and information providers are seeing threats to their existing business models emerge. On the one hand, they wish their content to reach as wide an audience as possible, on the other the commercial model for providing such information is potentially undermined by both content aggregators and consumer demand for 'free' information.
Publishers and libraries both fulfil an important function in our democracy,widening access and inclusion to democratic debate and adding greatly to the public sphere. But all have commercial imperatives to consider, and intellectual property rights to enforce or comply with.
Nokia seems absolutely pro-swpat in europe. Their patent department has done lots of lobbying in conferences and in the European Parliament. We encountered the head of their IP department, Tim Frain, in Bournemouth in summer 2002. Participants at the conference easily demonstrated that his arguments are economic nonsense.
The internet software for the Nokia phones is developped by Opera and not Nokia itself. Opera is supporting our directive counter proposal.
We have seen Tim Frain at the 7th november and 26th november hearings in Brussels, he seems to be a European Parliament "resident".
The biggest obstacle to you walking out and forming a company with your colleges would be the terms of your contract. Every employee contract I have ever seen contains a clause that states you are not allowed to temp other employs to leave and join you at a new job. Mass resignation is legal, its just a problem if you all want to set up a new firm doing what ever it was you where doing before. Normally you need to wait about six months before you could form the company, you could not directly target customers you where introduced to while at your previous company and you would be best advised to seek legal conceal about the best way to do it.
Also depends a lot on where you are in the world. Be aware of the risks of starting a company in your spare time
This is a nice way to run a benchmark on a new chip. In a straight port of code highly optimized for x86-32, Counter-Strike dedicated server tests with both 32- and 64-bit versions revealed a 30% clock-for-clock gain, and is expected to show further performance gains in future upgrades. Its also nice to see Valve putting in the effort to keep it customers happy and running at high speeds. www.valvesoftware.comOperon web page at AMD
If you objection is with content being pushed to you that a reasonable person (legal term) would find offensive, then this is already illegal in law in many countries, pursue it as if you had received it through your mail through the front door.
On the other hand having content that some one has to go out and look for that you wish to prevent kids from seeing, this is a parental monitoring issue. Parents do not lobby for train stations to be closed because kids may go and play their, and even if they did lobby they should not be allowed to have their will enforced.
If a parent wants to prevent their child from doing or seeing certain things on the internet they have at least three options, there is no restriction on not applying several of these at the same time.
Be in the room when the child uses the internet.
Client side filtering can easily be install on a computer this may block some content that should not be blocked but this may be acceptable as it is the parent choice to install the software.
Client Side logging, if you can not be in the room but are worried about the child having looking at things that the child knows she/he should not look at install loggin software and tell the child it is there. This way the child may look at some thing thatâ(TM)s inappropriate but they know you will catch them and apply an appropriate punishment.
Related to point one, the FBI has a list of things you can do to minimize the likelihood that a stranger will victimize your child online. Communicating with your children is the No. 1 thing you can do to help; talking to your children about sexual victimization and the potential dangers online is paramount. The FBI recommends taking time to sit down with your child and having her show you what she likes to do online. It also suggests that you not let your child have the computer in her room; set up the computer in an open area with a lot of traffic. This makes it difficult for her to carry on inappropriate interactions. http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm
For more information and debate on this see.
http://www.teekosoccertips.com/safelinks.htm
Slashdot Mirror
The UK Government has released a consultation into potential legislation aimed at curbing illicit filesharing on the net. Several of the legislative options on the table are worrying, and mirror schemes being discussed in various national and international fora. They include streamlining the legal process to require ISPs to provide personal data relating to an IP address, handing responsibility for taking action against illicit filesharers to a third party body, or requiring ISPs to take action against users themselves or to install filtering equipment to block infringing content.
At the same time a "Memorandum of Understanding", negotiated behind-the-scenes with strong influence from the Government, between the UK's six major ISPs (Virgin Media, Sky, Carphone Warehouse, BT, Orange and Tiscali) and the British Phonographic Industry and the Motion Picture Association. Signatories endorse five principles in the MoU:
The Open Rights Group has more details
As the Open Rights Group reported yesterday
BBC U-turn: Full iPlayer service may never be available to Mac and Linux Users
Yesterday, the BBC announced that a cross-platform "streamed" version of its on-demand service the iPlayer would be available by the end of the year. According to this report from BBC News Online:
If the idea sounds vaguely familiar, that's because back in March, when the BBC Trust put the iPlayer out for consultation, the Open Rights Group gently suggested that streaming was a far better short term solution to on-demand services than DRM-restricted market-distorting technologies that would serve to widen the digital divide. We observed that:
You can read our full submission to the BBC Trust here. But enough of the I-told-you-so-s. Is yesterday's move good news for licence fee payers who do not use Windows? Well, not really. Although they will now be given online access to content their licence fee has helped pay for, there are still fundamental inequities between users on different platforms, and this still leaves the BBC deforming the market in favour of Microsoft DRM and Windows. People on Macs, Linux, PDAs and other handheld devices are still losing out on all the features that make the downloadable iPlayer different from, say, the kind of streaming that the BBC has done for years with the RadioPlayer.
And that's not all. Ashley Highfield, director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC has now indicated that the full, downloadable iPlayer may never be made available to those who do not use the latest versions of Windows. When the iPlayer launched in June, Highfield was quoted as saying:
But yesterday, he admitted:
The BBC could avoid all this mess if it eschewed DRM and instead employed standard formats. The Open Rights Group believes that the BBC cannot be truly public service in the 21st century until it gives the British public access to the programmes that they have paid for without DRM or restriction. This is not a technology problem, but cuts to the heart of what the BBC is for and how it makes and commissions programming. ORG challenges the BBC and the BBC Trust to re-examine the BBC's commissioning and rights frameworks with th
The Open Rights Group(Think UK EFF) have a wiki page that provideds more information on this an othere issues with the British Biometric Passport The European version of the biometric passport is planned to have digital imaging and fingerprint scan biometrics placed on the Radio Frequency chip. The government of UK thinks that the public has a negative opinion of RFID chips so instead they call it a contactless chip.
It is well worth reading the actual report. The key points of the report:
The Open Rights Group have more information and they took part in the consultation. If your in the UK I highly recomend you join them as they act like the the EFF does in the USA.
The All Party Internet Group will launch its report on Digital Rights Management at the British Library on Monday June 5th. A press release with the key aspects of the report's findings will be available on the day and will also be posted on the APIG website at that time, along with the report itself and all of the written and oral evidence received by the inquiry.
If you can not wait till 12:00pm UK time the Open Rights Group (Think UK EFF) have a lot of information about the APIG DRM Public Inquiry here.
More information on the press conference:
Balancing Opportunities in a Digital Age
Keynote speech: Derek Wyatt, Launch of the All Party Internet Group report on Digital Rights Management
10.00 - 12.00pm, 5th June 2006
British Library, Euston Road
Speakers Include:
As well as launching the All Party Internet Group report on Digital Rights Management, this seminar will look at the different opportunities, and threats, digitisation and new media provide for content creators and information providers, both public and private.
The great promise of the internet is to provide us with all the information and learning materials we might need. Free internet access is now within walking distance of close to 100% of the UK. In many senses, digital inclusion is no longer about access to technology but access to content.
Libraries and archives across the world are currently involved in a number of digitisation initiatives, enabling wider access to the works of cultural and historical importance they stores. At the same time, commercial content and information providers are seeing threats to their existing business models emerge. On the one hand, they wish their content to reach as wide an audience as possible, on the other the commercial model for providing such information is potentially undermined by both content aggregators and consumer demand for 'free' information.
Publishers and libraries both fulfil an important function in our democracy,widening access and inclusion to democratic debate and adding greatly to the public sphere. But all have commercial imperatives to consider, and intellectual property rights to enforce or comply with.
I expect there is a mrket out there for all sorts of wooden covers. Just think of a phone with a wooden cover.
Nokia seems absolutely pro-swpat in europe. Their patent department has done lots of lobbying in conferences and in the European Parliament. We encountered the head of their IP department, Tim Frain, in Bournemouth in summer 2002. Participants at the conference easily demonstrated that his arguments are economic nonsense.
The internet software for the Nokia phones is developped by Opera and not Nokia itself. Opera is supporting our directive counter proposal.
We have seen Tim Frain at the 7th november and 26th november hearings in Brussels, he seems to be a European Parliament "resident".
FFii nokia info
Betting Exchange
The biggest obstacle to you walking out and forming a company with your colleges would be the terms of your contract. Every employee contract I have ever seen contains a clause that states you are not allowed to temp other employs to leave and join you at a new job. Mass resignation is legal, its just a problem if you all want to set up a new firm doing what ever it was you where doing before. Normally you need to wait about six months before you could form the company, you could not directly target customers you where introduced to while at your previous company and you would be best advised to seek legal conceal about the best way to do it.
Also depends a lot on where you are in the world.
Be aware of the risks of starting a company in your spare time
This is a nice way to run a benchmark on a new chip. In a straight port of code highly optimized for x86-32, Counter-Strike dedicated server tests with both 32- and 64-bit versions revealed a 30% clock-for-clock gain, and is expected to show further performance gains in future upgrades. Its also nice to see Valve putting in the effort to keep it customers happy and running at high speeds. www.valvesoftware.com Operon web page at AMD
If you objection is with content being pushed to you that a reasonable person (legal term) would find offensive, then this is already illegal in law in many countries, pursue it as if you had received it through your mail through the front door.
On the other hand having content that some one has to go out and look for that you wish to prevent kids from seeing, this is a parental monitoring issue. Parents do not lobby for train stations to be closed because kids may go and play their, and even if they did lobby they should not be allowed to have their will enforced.
If a parent wants to prevent their child from doing or seeing certain things on the internet they have at least three options, there is no restriction on not applying several of these at the same time.
- Be in the room when the child uses the internet.
- Client side filtering can easily be install on a computer this may block some content that should not be blocked but this may be acceptable as it is the parent choice to install the software.
- Client Side logging, if you can not be in the room but are worried about the child having looking at things that the child knows she/he should not look at install loggin software and tell the child it is there. This way the child may look at some thing thatâ(TM)s inappropriate but they know you will catch them and apply an appropriate punishment.
Related to point one, the FBI has a list of things you can do to minimize the likelihood that a stranger will victimize your child online. Communicating with your children is the No. 1 thing you can do to help; talking to your children about sexual victimization and the potential dangers online is paramount. The FBI recommends taking time to sit down with your child and having her show you what she likes to do online. It also suggests that you not let your child have the computer in her room; set up the computer in an open area with a lot of traffic. This makes it difficult for her to carry on inappropriate interactions.http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm For more information and debate on this see. http://www.teekosoccertips.com/safelinks.htm