Conroy confirms expert broadband panel - Telecommunications - iTnews Australia
The six industry and corporate experts making up the Panel include; John Wylie, Lazard Carnegie Wylie CEO; Tony Mitchell, Allphones Chairman; Laureate Professor Rod Tucker, University of Melbourne; Professor Emeritus of Communications Reg Coutts, University of Adelaide; Tony Shaw, former Australian Communications Authority Chairman; and Dr Ken Henry AC, Treasury Secretary.
Although Conroy failed to mention a tender timeline for private companies to submit proposals for the proposed network, it is expected that a call to tender will be issued by the end of this month after the Panel settles in.
BBC NEWS | Americas | Pentagon bans Google map-makers
The US defence department has banned the giant internet search engine Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of US military bases.
Close-up, ground-level imagery of US military sites posed a "potential threat" to security, it said.
The move follows the discovery of images of the Fort Sam Houston army base in Texas on Google Maps.
Booty call: Music has-beens line up to sue The Pirate Bay
Prince wants his day in court, but as recently as November, Prince's gameplan was to go after The Pirate Bay's revenue source. The copyright crusader formerly known as an artist has inspired others to consider battling the Bay, as it looks like The Village People, ABBA, and other has-beens are considering using The Pirate Bay's recent indictment in Sweden as a chance to grab headlines and some cash. The news was first reported by Swedish news site E24.
Google argues against calling IP addresses "personal data"
In a new public policy posting, Google software engineer Alma Whitten made the case that IP addresses aren't so much personal information as potentially personal information. Many IP addresses assigned to consumers don't reliably map to a single machine (due to the wonders of DHCP), and even when they do, it's only the machine and not the person who is identified. Google clearly hopes to avoid a "black-and-white declaration that all IP addresses are always personal data."
The possibility was raised last month at a hearing of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee. At the hearing, European data protection authorities put forward the idea of adding IP addresses to the list of personal information, but Google's Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer objected in words that might sound familiar.
Flash DRM could put Dramatic Prairie Dog on endangered list
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has expressed concerns that Adobe's efforts to develop a DRM system for Flash video content will be bad news for users looking to remix and repurpose digital media content. Adobe's DRM will principally be used in its new streaming desktop media player application, but will also be supported in the Flash browser plug-in.
"This ISP has been rated 'G' by the state of Utah"
As a politically and socially conservative state, Utah has been at the forefront of many attempts to keep objectionable material away from the eyes of children. The latest attempt comes in the form of a bill introduced into the state House of Representatives that would give ISPs who block access to objectionable material the equivalent of a "G" movie rating.
HB 407, introduced by Rep. Michael Morley (R), would designate some ISPs as "Community Conscious Internet Providers" if they meet certain criteria. In order to be certified as a CCIP by the Attorney General's office, an ISP would prohibit its customers by contract from posting pornography or other material that's harmful to minors. Customers of the G-rated ISP would also be prevented from reaching what the bill refers to as "prohibited material."
eBay a veritable software pirates' bay, says industry group
a new report by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) suggests that most aren't getting a very good deal at all. That's because at least 90 percent of the software sold on eBay is reportedly pirated.
EFF to take RIAA on in court over "making available" claim
EFF staff attorney Fred von Lohmann is going to appear at a hearing tomorrow to argue that the mere presence of music in a KaZaA share is not enough to constitute copyright infringement. The Howells were originally sued in 2006. In their original response to
the RIAA's complaint, they argued that KaZaA was "not set up to share"
and that the files flagged by MediaSentry were "for private use" and
"for transfer to portable devices, that is legal for 'fair use.'".
Chinese official on SMS voting: "txtng votes ripe 4 abuse"
Believe it or not, some officials in China are "elected" this way, largely due to the popularity of similar shows in China. So many people voted for shows like Super Girl and other Chinese clones of American Idol that officials apparently thought, "why not?"
Patents on video game mechanics to strangle innovation, fun
While it seems every few months video games are released that feature some novel idea, the overwhelming majority of titles are building off of what has been released before. This isn't a shocking thing for any art form, and lazy critics know the first thing you do when discussing a game, movie, or television show is to look at what has influenced the work and see how the property in question has moved things forward. But video games are now facing a new challenge when trying to build on past concepts: gameplay ideas are being patented.
Antitrust monitors turn their attention to Windows 7
A recent filing on the DoJ's United States v. Microsoft site reveals that the Technical Committee responsible for overseeing compliance with the 2002 consent decree has received an early build of Windows 7 for review.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly recently extended the duration of the sanctions imposed on the software giant, which will now run until November 2009. The extension brings the successor to Windows Vista, which has not been given a ship date by Microsoft, under the aegis of the Technical Committee. It's unlikely that Windows 7 will hit store shelves before the decree expires, so the Technical Committee is understandably anxious to get its hands on early builds.
"Year of filters" turning into year of lawsuits against ISPs
The Big Four record labels have taken an Irish ISP to court, seeking to keep P2P activity off of its network. Eircom, the largest broadband ISP in Ireland, was sued by the labels in the High Court of Ireland yesterday; the case has been assigned to Ireland's Commercial Court, which handles commercial litigation.
The lawsuit accuses Eircom of abetting illegal downloading by allowing copyrighted material to traverse its network unimpeded. The IFPI, which plays a role similar to that of the RIAA in European litigation, wants the ISP to start filtering traffic to scrub all illicitly uploaded and downloaded copyrighted material on its network.
Christian Coalition, NARAL odd bedfellows at net neutrality hearing
the Christian Coalition siding with NARAL (pro-choice), Pearl Jam (anti-Bush), and BitTorrent (file-swapping). Strange bedfellows, indeed.
Judge to Viacom: No punitive damages in YouTube case
Viacom suffered a (slight) setback today in $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube. The two media titans are going toe-to-toe in a New York courtroom, but the judge recently ruled that Viacom cannot seek punitive damages against YouTube. Massive statutory damages, however, remain on the table.
What Viacom wanted to do was reserve two options for damages: 1) actual damages and 2) statutory damages. Both of these are outlined in US copyright law, but Viacom also wanted the right to seek 3) punitive damages should it choose to pursue option one.
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