The UK government has been laying out some of the ways it intends to pursue persistent net pirates.
It comes as Lord Mandelson confirmed that he would introduce tough measures against illegal file-sharers.
Initially pirates could have download caps imposed or have their bandwidth restricted.
If that did not prove effective in reducing illegal file-sharing, the government will consider disconnecting them from the network.
The Department for Business, Skills and Innovation said the legislation will come into force in April 2010, with the tougher disconnection policy introduced in the spring of 2011 if necessary.
It has asked Ofcom to monitor levels of file-sharing.
ISP TalkTalk said the plans were "ill-conceived" and said it was prepared to challenge measures "in the courts".
"What is being proposed is wrong in principle and won't work in practice," the firm said.
"In the event we are instructed to impose extra judicial technical measures we will challenge the instruction in the courts."
Lord Mandelson emphasised that cutting off internet connections would be a "last resort".
ILLEGAL FILE-SHARING
File-sharing is not illegal. It only becomes illegal when users are sharing content, such as music, that is protected by copyrights
The crackdown will be aimed at people who regularly use technologies, such as BitTorrent, and websites, such as The Pirate Bay, to find and download files
There are plenty of legitimate services which use file-sharing technology such as some on-demand TV services
Q&A: Disconnecting file-sharers
"I have no expectation of mass suspensions. People will receive two notifications and if it reaches the point [of cutting them off] they will have the opportunity to appeal," Lord Mandelson told the audience at the C&binet Forum, a talking shop set up by government to debate the issues facing the creative industries.
The pay-off for tough penalties against persistent file-sharers would be a more relaxed copyright regime, Lord Mandelson said.
The details of it would need to be hammered out at European level but it would take account of the use of copyright material "at home and between friends", he said.
It would mean that, for example, someone who has bought a CD would be able to copy it to their iPod or share it with family members without acting unlawfully.
Lord Mandelson praised the UK's creative industries, which are worth around £16bn and employs 2 million people.
But it has been eroded in recent years, he said, by new ways of accessing content.
"I was shocked to learn that only one in 20 music tracks in the UK is downloaded legally. We cannot sit back and do nothing," said Lord Mandelson.
The fact that young people now expect to download content for free was "morally as well as economically unsustainable," he added.
Mere conduits
But he emphasised that "legislation and enforcement can only ever be part of the solution".
The long-term answer was for the industry to educate users and to offer new and cheaper ways to download content, he said. In addition, new copyright laws were needed to lift restrictions on how people moved content on to the various different devices that they owned.
CD and binary code, Eyewire
Anger at UK file-sharing policy
In France the government has just approved a so-called three strikes policy.
Under its system, those identified as illegally downloading content would initially be sent warning letters and, if they failed to comply, could be removed from the network for up to a year.
UK internet service providers have argued that it is not their job to police the network, claiming that there are "mere conduits" of content.
They also say that they should not have to bear the brunt of the costs.
In his speech, Lord Mandelson said that the costs of enforcing the policy would be "shared between ISPs and content providers".
The Internet Service Providers' Association thinks rightsholders should shoulder the burden for all costs, including the reimbursement of ISPs.
"This approach is consistent with the principle of beneficiary pays and would serve to incentivise rightsholders to develop new business models and ensure an effective and efficient use of notifications and targeted legal action," read a statement from ISPA.
ISP TalkTalk said that it would "continue to resist any attempts to make it impose technical measures on its customers".
It has set up a campaign called Don't Disconnect Us to lobby against the plans.
it said that it believed the "three-strikes" rule would lead to "wrongful accusations".
"The unintended consequence of Lord Mandelson's plan will be to encourage more wi-fi and PC hi-jacking and expose more innocent people to being penalised."
The firm recently demonstrated how someone could hi-jack unsecured wi-fi connections to download music illegally.
Dark net
The Open Rights Group, a digital rights lobby organisation, has long been opposed to a disconnection policy.
Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, is disappointed that the UK government is determined to introduce such legislation.
TalkTalk security expert Matt Roxburgh demonstrates the problem to Rory Cellan-Jones
"Even MI5 disagree with Mr Mandelson - they are convinced we will see a rise of a 'Dark Net' of infringers. Nobody at C&binet from an online music service, as opposed to an old media company, thought that peer-to-peer [file-sharing] was a threat to their businesses.
"Yet Mandelson seems determined to push forward with his plans for 'three strikes' - threatening to punish people extremely harshly, threatening their education, businesses and livelihoods for a relatively minor financial misdemeanour," he said.
There has been increasing pressure from the music industry to get tough on pirates.
Lily Allen has been spearheading a campaign against music piracy, with high-profile stars including Gary Barlow and James Blunt behind her.
Lily Allen
Lily Allen has spearheaded a campaign against music piracy
Music industry group BPI welcomed the move.
"The measures confirmed today by government are a proportionate way of encouraging illegal file-sharers to embrace the new services, and will drive further innovation that will benefit online consumers," said Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive.
But not all content providers agree. Fast-growing music streaming service we7 thinks the government has missed the point.
"Piracy is a reaction to an unsustainable situation, where reasonable, legitimate access to music has struggled to match demand," said chief executive Steve Purdham.
"A variety of reasonable and sustainable models for providing music to consumers is key to ending rampant piracy. This is the approach that should be taken by the government rather than criminalising consumers and driving pirates further into the undergrowth," he added.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Particle beams injected into LHC
Engineers working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have successfully injected beams of particles into two sections of the vast machine.
An LHC spokesperson said this was the first time particle beams had been inside the LHC since it was shut down late in September 2008.
Scientists working on the giant particle accelerator described the success as "a milestone".
They plan to circulate a beam around the 27km-long tunnel in November.
The LHC was closed down shortly after its switch-on last year, when a magnet problem called a "quench" caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into its tunnel.
This is a work of synchronisation
Gianluigi Arduini, Cern
Since then, engineers have been working to repair the damage. Recently, all eight sectors of the LHC were cooled to their operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space.
On 23 and 25 October, beams of protons and of lead ions were injected into the LHC ring, and successfully guided both clockwise and anti-clockwise through two of the eight sectors. Each sector is approximately 3.5km long.
The extreme cold allows the magnets inside the LHC, which align and accelerate the beam, to become "superconducting". This means they channel electric current with zero resistance and very little power loss.
Gianluigi Arduini, deputy head of hardware commissioning for the LHC, told BBC News the beam test showed that the collider's machinery was operating properly.
LHC tunnel (Cern/M.Brice)
The LHC's tunnel runs for 27km under the Franco-Swiss border
"This is a work of synchronisation," he said.
"The fast magnets must be synchronised to accelerate the beam and transfer it from one accelerator to the next and eventually to the LHC, which must be synchronised to accept it.
"This whole process happens within a few hundred picoseconds - one picosecond is a millionth of a millionth of a second."
The beams were injected at 450 billion electron volts, only a fraction of the energy that scientists will aim for when they attempt to collide two particle beams.
Two beams of particles will be fired down pipes running through the magnets - travelling in opposite directions at close to the speed of light.
Mr Arduini said: "The aim once the beam is circulating is to accelerate [it] up to 3.5 [trillion electron volts].
"But that will be in stages. We will first go to one, then 3.5... then from 2011 we're going to try to go to seven."
At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams cross paths, smashing into one another.
Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions that could reveal insights into the "Big Bang" and the nature of the Universe.
An LHC spokesperson said this was the first time particle beams had been inside the LHC since it was shut down late in September 2008.
Scientists working on the giant particle accelerator described the success as "a milestone".
They plan to circulate a beam around the 27km-long tunnel in November.
The LHC was closed down shortly after its switch-on last year, when a magnet problem called a "quench" caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into its tunnel.
This is a work of synchronisation
Gianluigi Arduini, Cern
Since then, engineers have been working to repair the damage. Recently, all eight sectors of the LHC were cooled to their operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space.
On 23 and 25 October, beams of protons and of lead ions were injected into the LHC ring, and successfully guided both clockwise and anti-clockwise through two of the eight sectors. Each sector is approximately 3.5km long.
The extreme cold allows the magnets inside the LHC, which align and accelerate the beam, to become "superconducting". This means they channel electric current with zero resistance and very little power loss.
Gianluigi Arduini, deputy head of hardware commissioning for the LHC, told BBC News the beam test showed that the collider's machinery was operating properly.
LHC tunnel (Cern/M.Brice)
The LHC's tunnel runs for 27km under the Franco-Swiss border
"This is a work of synchronisation," he said.
"The fast magnets must be synchronised to accelerate the beam and transfer it from one accelerator to the next and eventually to the LHC, which must be synchronised to accept it.
"This whole process happens within a few hundred picoseconds - one picosecond is a millionth of a millionth of a second."
The beams were injected at 450 billion electron volts, only a fraction of the energy that scientists will aim for when they attempt to collide two particle beams.
Two beams of particles will be fired down pipes running through the magnets - travelling in opposite directions at close to the speed of light.
Mr Arduini said: "The aim once the beam is circulating is to accelerate [it] up to 3.5 [trillion electron volts].
"But that will be in stages. We will first go to one, then 3.5... then from 2011 we're going to try to go to seven."
At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams cross paths, smashing into one another.
Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions that could reveal insights into the "Big Bang" and the nature of the Universe.
Net set for 'language shake-up'
The internet is on the brink of the "biggest change" to its working "since it was invented 40 years ago", the net regulator Icann has said.
The body said it that it was finalising plans to introduce web addresses using non-Latin characters.
The proposal - initially approved in 2008 - would allow domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts.
The body said if the final plans were approved on 30 October, it would accept the first applications by 16 November.
The first Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) could be up and running by "mid 2010" said the president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
"Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based," said Rod Beckstrom at the opening of Icann's conference in Seoul, South Korea.
"So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread."
Relaxed rules
Plans for IDNs were approved at a meeting in June 2008. However, testing of the system has been going on for much longer, said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the board in charge of reviewing the change.
"You have to appreciate what a fantastically complicated technical feature this is," he said.
"What we have created is a different translation system."
The changes will be applied to the net's Domain Name System. This acts like a phone book, translating easily understood domain names such as bbc.co.uk into strings of computer readable numbers known as IP addresses.
The tweaks will allow this system to recognise and translate the non-Latin characters.
"We are confident that it works because we have been testing it for a couple of years," said Mr Dengate Thrush. "We're really ready to start rolling it out."
Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language. However, these were not internationally approved and do not necessarily work on all computers.
The meeting in South Korea will also discuss its plans to introduce generic Top Level Domains (TLDs), such as .uk or .com.
Last year, the body voted to relax rules on TLDs meaning companies could turn brands into web addresses, while individuals could use their names.
Icann, set up by the US government, was founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.
Last month, after years of criticism, the US government eased its control over the non-profit body.
It signed a new agreement that gave Icann autonomy for the first time. The agreement came into effect on 1 October and puts it under the scrutiny of the global "internet community".
The body said it that it was finalising plans to introduce web addresses using non-Latin characters.
The proposal - initially approved in 2008 - would allow domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts.
The body said if the final plans were approved on 30 October, it would accept the first applications by 16 November.
The first Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) could be up and running by "mid 2010" said the president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
"Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based," said Rod Beckstrom at the opening of Icann's conference in Seoul, South Korea.
"So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread."
Relaxed rules
Plans for IDNs were approved at a meeting in June 2008. However, testing of the system has been going on for much longer, said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the board in charge of reviewing the change.
"You have to appreciate what a fantastically complicated technical feature this is," he said.
"What we have created is a different translation system."
The changes will be applied to the net's Domain Name System. This acts like a phone book, translating easily understood domain names such as bbc.co.uk into strings of computer readable numbers known as IP addresses.
The tweaks will allow this system to recognise and translate the non-Latin characters.
"We are confident that it works because we have been testing it for a couple of years," said Mr Dengate Thrush. "We're really ready to start rolling it out."
Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language. However, these were not internationally approved and do not necessarily work on all computers.
The meeting in South Korea will also discuss its plans to introduce generic Top Level Domains (TLDs), such as .uk or .com.
Last year, the body voted to relax rules on TLDs meaning companies could turn brands into web addresses, while individuals could use their names.
Icann, set up by the US government, was founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.
Last month, after years of criticism, the US government eased its control over the non-profit body.
It signed a new agreement that gave Icann autonomy for the first time. The agreement came into effect on 1 October and puts it under the scrutiny of the global "internet community".
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Microsoft bets on Windows success
Microsoft is hoping that its newly-launched operating system will be one that "doesn't let you down".
Speaking at the official launch of Windows 7 in London, Microsoft executives said they had listened to consumers and delivered a more streamlined, feature-packed system.
It follows widespread criticism of predecessor Vista.
Windows 7 faces stiff competition from rival operating systems and new ways of storing applications.
Microsoft is hoping Windows 7 will reinvigorate its plans to be at the centre of the home with features that make it easy to connect to other machines in the house and stream movies and music to them.
The BBC's Jason Palmer investigates Windows 7's pros and cons
In the UK, the software giant will tie up with Sky to offer its on-demand Sky Player service.
It will allow consumers to watch a range of live and on-demand TV programmes via the Windows Media Center, which is included in most editions of Windows 7.
New dawn
Microsoft's UK managing director Ashley Highfield said Windows 7 marked a "new dawn in Microsoft's relationship with the consumer".
"Windows 7 is much more than a collection of new features. We have listened to what consumers want and they want something that makes their lives easier," said Mr Highfield.
The operating system has already been in beta testing among eight million official users, and a farther seven million unofficial testers have also used it.
 |   |
The software giant used one billion data sessions to find out how people navigate with Windows; information such as how many times people visit the start menu - around 12 times per session - and how many windows they have open at any one time - between two and seven is the average.
So far Windows 7 seems to have had a good reception.
According to electrical retailer DSGi, which includes UK high street brands PC World and Currys, there have been more people buying pre-ordered copies of Windows 7 in the last three weeks than for the whole first year of Vista sales.
"It hasn't taken Microsoft to hype it up, the blogosphere is saying it is a good product," said Jeremy Fennel, a director at DSGi.
Some 60% of consumers surveyed by DSGi said they were holding off buying a new PC or laptop until Windows 7 was launched.
Microsoft has introduced a range of new features, some of which will already be familiar to users of the Mac operating system.
|  It hasn't taken Microsoft to hype it up, the blogosphere is saying it is a good product  Jeremy Fennel, DSGi |
Often-used applications can be dragged into the taskbar and users can view a thumbnail shot of all the windows they have open.
Microsoft has acknowledged that the Windows pop-ups that interrupt users are "rude". With Windows 7 users can customise how and when they view such pop-ups.
There is also a feature that allows users to "snap" two windows together to make reading and comparing easier and a facility that allows all open windows to be minimised at the shake of a mouse.
The software giant has decreased the amount of time the system takes to boot up and has improved battery life and reduced memory - an acknowledgment that many people will want to use Windows on laptops rather than desktops.
For Internet Explorer 8, which is installed in the new operating system, there are improved security features including Smart Screen Filtering, which intercepts suspicious downloads and warns users that they are unsafe.
There are also offered improved services in add-ons such as Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker.
Cloud computing
 Has cloud computing made operating systems irrelevant? |
Windows still runs on 90% of the world's computers but it is a internet-dominated landscape that Windows 7 enters.
It has led commentators to suggest that Windows is becoming an irrelevance.
More and more applications are being written for so-called cloud computing - which supports popular apps such as web-based email and social networks in data centres rather than on individual computers.
It is an area Microsoft is keen to exploit and last year it unveiled its own cloud computing service called Azure, dubbed "Windows for the cloud".
Windows also faces stiff competition from free operating systems, such as the Linux-based Ubuntu system which launches its newest version next week and arch-rival Google's Chrome OS.
Windows 7's planning is 'better than Vista' says Microsoft executive
Many though remain loyal to the Microsoft universe and for those wishing to upgrade from Vista, the software giant has promised a "seamless" experience.
It acknowledged that upgrades from older operating systems might be "more difficult."
"XP has been on the market for ten years so we recommend that people wait until they are ready to purchase a new PC or do a clean install," said Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft's vice president of user experience.
Some experts cautioned against rushing out and buying it.
John Bogue, from Which? Computing, said: "Software bugs are par the course for newly released programs, and operating systems are no exception. Unless you like downloading patches and updates, we recommend waiting a year."
The home edition of Windows 7 is available in the UK for £79.99 until 1 January. After that it will cost £99.99.
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