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Net Neutrality has suddenly become a hot topic again. Partly, that's
thanks to some awful ideas about regulating the Internet coming from
the International Telecommunication Union, notably those proposed by the
ETNO -- the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association
-- discussed recently on Techdirt. New information from WCITLeaks Wikileaks (found via the Net neutrality in Europe site) provides us with the following details (pdf):
On
Techdirt.
We knew it was coming, and here it is: the Communications Data Bill (.pdf.). First the good news:
On
Open Enterprise blog.
As expected, the UK government has published its Draft Communications Bill
(pdf) -- better known as the "snooper's charter," since it requires
ISPs to record key information about every email sent and Web site
visited by UK citizens, and mobile phone companies to log all their
calls (landline information is already recorded).
On
Techdirt.
The Belgian EU Commissioner Karel De Gucht is the driving force
behind ACTA, and is apparently really keen to combat crimes like
counterfeiting and piracy. It also seems he has a slight problem with the tax authorities:
On
Techdirt.
In recent months, Techdirt has reported on an important development in the world of medicine, as both India and Brazil
have allowed local companies to produce cheap generic versions of drugs
covered by patents. In an even bigger blow to Western pharmaceutical
companies, it looks like China is following suit:
On
Techdirt.
Since my last ACTA update, quite a lot of good stuff has happened. For a start, all four European Parliament committees have recommended that ACTA should be rejected
when the plenary vote takes place at the beginning of July. That just
leaves one more committee - that for International Trade, or INTA - to make its recommendation, which should take place next week. I'll be writing more about this vote soon.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Recently, an interesting report entitled "The legacy of the BBC Micro" appeared (freely available online).
For those of you too young to remember this trail-blazing UK computing
project from the dawn of microcomputers, here's some background from the
report:
On
The H Open.
Recently, Techdirt wrote
about the increasing number of Web sites that were dumping Google Maps
and turning to OpenStreetMap (OSM) instead. But that's only one aspect
of the increasingly important digital mapping sector: another is for use
with in-car satnav systems. So an obvious question is: how is
OpenStreetMap doing here?
On
Techdirt.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote
about how the ever-increasing storage capacity of portable hard drives
made it unlikely that the sharing of music could ever be stopped. That
was a somewhat theoretical piece based on general trends in technology;
but here's some supporting data from a rather unusual source: North
Korea (aka the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" - DPRK).
On
Techdirt.
Too often we read that the Internet is making us stupid or fat, or destroying
the "fabric of society." Indeed, judging by the all the digital
jeremiads it's a wonder that anybody dares to use it at all, since it's
clearly irredeemably bad in every way. So it's refreshing to come
across an upbeat piece from Lauren Weinstein with the inspiring title "How the Internet Can Save the World." His basic point is this:
On
Techdirt.
Techflaws
alerts us to an announcement by ZPÜ, the organization responsible for
setting the levy on storage media in Germany, that fees will rise rather
significantly (German original).
For a USB stick with a capacity greater than 4 Gbytes, the tax would
increase from 8 eurocents (about 10 cents) to 1.56 euros (about $1.93), a
rise of 1850%; for a memory card bigger than 4 Gbytes, the fee would go
up from 8 eurocents to 1.95 euros (about $2.42), an increase of 2338%.
On
Techdirt.
Since today is a Bank Holidayin the UK, I hope that a few of you might take the opportunity to make a submission to the UK consultation on open standards. This closes at 11.59pm this evening (BST), so you still have time to answer the online questionnaires for chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3. Alternatively (or additionally), you can also submit something directly to openstandards@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Although the traditional image of a science laboratory typically
consists of a room full of test tubes or microscopes, the reality is
that computers now play a central role there, just as they do for
business and life in general.
On
Techdirt.
Eben Moglen has been battling to defend key digital rights
for the last two decades. A lawyer by training, he helped Phil
Zimmerman fight off the US government's attack on the use of the Pretty
Good Privacy encryption program in the early 1990s, in what became
known as the Crypto Wars. That brought him to the attention of Richard
Stallman, founder of the GNU project, and together they produced version
3 of the GNU GPL, finally released after 12 years' work in 2006.
On
Techdirt.
In a country where the mainstream media is tightly controlled,
Chinese microblogs have provided an invaluable way for millions of
people to find and share unofficial information. That's obviously
problematic for the Chinese authorities, who have been gradually
clamping down on what they term "rumors".
On
Techdirt.
Most people have concentrated on the ITRE, JURI and LIBE committees
(as I did in my previous posts this week). But there's a fourth
committee that is meeting to decide upon its recommendation to INTA: that of Development. Here's how it describes itself on its home page:
On
Open Enterprise blog.
One of the most dishonest aspects of ACTA was its attempt to equate
genuinely dangerous products like fake medicines with totally harmless
ones like unauthorized digital copies. Fortunately, that's such an
absurd equivalence that more and more people have voiced their concerns
over it -- including the Liberals and Democrats in the European
Parliament, who cited it as one reason why they would be voting against ACTA:
On
Techdirt.
Yesterday I posted my submission to the ITRE committee; today I include my email to the JURI (legal affairs) and LIBE (civial
liberties) committees, both of which are voting on what their
recommendations should be on May 31. I have lumped them together since
both are largely concerned with legal issues. Here's how JURI describes itself:
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Last week we reported
that videos were currently being uploaded to YouTube at the rate of 72
hours every minute, and asked how anybody could expect Google to
pre-screen such a deluge. Techdirt Insider xenomancer has gone a little further by working out how much it would cost to screen that material for potential copyright infringement, doubtless something the media industries would love to see imposed.
On
Techdirt.
This is the first of my posts about the various committees that will
be offering their recommendations to the European Parliament through the
main INTA (international trade) committee. It concerns ITRE, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, which will be holding its crucial vote on May 31 - so, no time to lose.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
At the end of last year we wrote
about the case of Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, former Federal Minister
of Defense in Germany, who lost both his post and his doctorate when it
turned out that he had plagiarized portions of his doctoral thesis. Now
the journal Science is reporting another possible case:
On
Techdirt.
I have been writing about ACTA here for what seems several centuries. The good news is that I will stop doing that soon, because the key vote on ACTA will be taking place in the European Parliament at the beginning of July. Contrary to some reports, ACTA is
not dead: although there have been some important shifts in the last
few months - actually, pretty staggering ones when you consider the
situation at the end of last year - votes in the European Parliament are
notoriously hard to predict. This means we must assume that the battle
is still on, and not become complacent.
On
Open Enterprise blog.
Most people will be familiar with Moore's Law,
usually stated in the form that processing power doubles every two
years (or 18 months in some versions.) But just as important are the
equivalent compound gains for storage and connectivity speeds, sometimes
known as Kryder's Law and Nielsen's Law respectively.
On
Techdirt.
As you may have heard, Greece is having a spot of bother at the moment. Its economy shrank by 6.2% in the last three months alone, and the austerity measures imposed in return for international loans to keep the country running have contributed to a 40% jump in the suicide rate.
On
Techdirt.
One of the more controversial approaches to the already controversial
field of climate change is geoengineering, which Wikipedia defines
as "deliberate large-scale engineering and manipulation of the
planetary environment to combat or counteract anthropogenic changes in
atmospheric chemistry."
On
Techdirt.
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