Wednesday, June 30, 2010

OC3 Bandwidth Costs Just A Fraction Of What It Did

If you are a use of high bandwidth fiber optic connections, you know that these line services don’t come cheap. Well, actually, they do come cheaper these days. But you have to know what to look for and where to look.

OC3 prices have dropped dramatically. Check now.Take OC3 bandwidth, for instance. Optical Carrier level 3 is one of a family of fiber optic carrier services using the SONET (Synchronous Optic NETwork) protocol developed for the major telephone carriers and later offered to large business organizations. OC-3 is actually the lowest commonly available SONET service and runs a at a transmission speed of 155.52 Mbps. Of that, 148.608 Mbps is dedicated to payload, with 6.912 Mbps needed to support the overhead of transmission.

Time was, just a few years ago, that OC3 was considered an enormous amount of bandwidth. It was only ordered by major Internet service providers, colocation hosting facilities, television distribution companies and other large corporations. Medium size companies got by with DS3 at 45 Mbps, roughly 1/3 the capacity of OC3. Smaller companies had their needs met by T1 lines running 1.5 Mbps.

Today, OC3 bandwidth is no longer consider as the ultimate business telecom service. Leading edge companies have moved on to Gigabit bandwidth levels and even 10 Gbps is not out of the question. Two factors have been driving that change. One is expansion of the carrier market with many new competitive carriers running their own fiber optic networks. The other is the demand for higher bandwidths by such needs as cloud computing services, HDTV video, CAD/CAM design and manufacturing, scientific supercomputer simulations, and electronic medical records transmission.

While OC3 offers about 155 Mbps, the next level, OC12, offers 622 Mbps, OC48 steps that up to 2.5 Gbps and OC192 provides 10 Gbps performance. These are all SONET switched circuit TDM technologies. Their competitors are IP packet switched networks offering 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet and 10,000 Mbps 10GigE.

With so much competition in the fiber optic arena, prices have come down dramatically over the last decade. In fact, if you haven’t checked competitive pricing in a few years, you may be shocked at how many options you have and at the low lease prices available. But... you may not find these low prices at all unless you check with a bandwidth broker who has access to dozens of competitive service providers. We work with Telarus, Inc., arguably the most innovative and fastest growing telecom services broker today. Their dedication to customer service and extensive automation tools make it easy for you to inquire as to services and pricing and get an answer quickly. Go ahead and simply state your business bandwidth needs now and see how glad you are that you invested the 30 seconds or so that it took to submit that online inquiry.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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Oil Spill Timeline Map

BP Gulf Oil Spill Controlled Burns

Each day, another way to define worst-case for oil spill

Even the most sober analysts are quick to say that this is such an unpredictable well that almost anything is possible. Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, said additional leaks are a possible source of deep-sea plumes of oil detected by research vessels. But this part of the gulf is pocked with natural seeps, he noted. Conceivably the drilling of the well, and/or the subsequent blowout, could have affected the seeps, he said.

"Once you started disturbing the underground geology, you may have made one of those seeps even worse," he said.

Expanding deepwater drilling was BP's top priority

''This is a geological monster,'' the former president told CNN. ''That is one heck of an oil well. There's more oil down there than I ever dreamed.

''The navy could probably stop it, but there are all kinds of consequences that would have to be considered,'' Mr Clinton said. ''You could stop that well, but what else might you do that might upset the ecostructure of the Gulf?''

The navy would not need to use a nuclear weapon, Mr Clinton said, explaining that the navy could simply ''blow up the well and cover the leak with piles and piles and piles of rock and debris''.

EPA's Update on Dispersant Research

Top EPA Scientist to Discuss Data from First Round of Dispersant Testing

Keep any eye on the links for updated information coming out today on Dispersant Research.  It will be interesting to see what they have to say.



Copyright risk management: survey findings

Via a news release from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) comes the result of a just-released, two-phase FreePint survey of information managers and end-users from companies and countries around the world on copyright needs, behaviour and attitudes. According to this survey, 40% of information managers reported in Phase 1 of the survey that copyright risk management is more important in their organizations than it was a year ago, while none felt that copyright was less important. Why should this be so? Reasons given by the respondents included the following:
• The need to train new staff concerning the company’s risk management policies [nb 'risk management' can mean taking more as well as fewer risks, if the odds don't favour detection and liability, eg regarding some species of orphan works];
• Proliferation of new types of content, particularly digital content;
• Increase of contracting work out to third parties, necessitating the creation of copyright policies both for the company’s own works and for use of others [outsourcing has indeed generated a fresh market for copyright consultancy services, judging by the increased amount of space given to copyright and other IP issues in current outsourcing literature];
• Growing cost of content itself, requiring more attention to managing the risks associated with acquiring and using that content;
• Some countries’ introduction of new laws and regulations applicable to copyright.
The Phase 2 response group of content end users reported similar levels of concern regarding copyright, with 36% deeming copyright more important than a year ago, a further 63% as important as a year ago and less than 1% less important than a year ago.

The FreePint Report, Copyright Policies and Practices can be purchased here, or you can ask for a free summary of high-level results by completing this form.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Ethernet VPLS Extends Your LAN Network

Typical methodologies for connecting multiple business locations have included Frame Relay, VSAT satellite terminals, Internet-based VPNs and proprietary wireline networks constructed from point to point T1 lines. Now there’s a new technology that has performance and cost advantages that make it extremely attractive for branch offices, retail franchise, medical clinics and other businesses that need connectivity among many locations. It’s called Ethernet VPLS and it’s available now.

Find out how Ethernet VPLS can save on your WAN networking costs. Click for pricing.What is Ethernet VPLS and why is it better? The VPLS acronym stands for Virtual Private LAN service. That sounds a lot like a local area network, but run by a carrier and spread over a city, state or the entire country. That’s exactly what it is. Ethernet VPLS combines the advantages of Ethernet connectivity with the geographic service footprint and security of a MPLS IP-VPN network. The result is a layer 2 WAN service that safely extends your corporate LAN wherever you want it to go.

XO Communications, one of the country’s leading competitive carriers, is offering an Ethernet VPLS service that can transport both your IP and non-IP traffic. XO has an extensive nationwide fiber optic network and is a provider of Ethernet connectivity using both copper and fiber optic options. That gives them a lot of flexibility in hooking your diverse sites together.

For instance, XO can connect each of your business locations with Ethernet over Copper with speeds from 3 to 20 Mbps, Ethernet over Fiber for speeds from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps, and Broadband Wireless access in major metro areas with speeds from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. All of these access options are scalable, so you can start with the bandwidth you need today and easily expand, location by location, as business activity dictates.

The beauty of Ethernet VPLS is that you maintain control of your network just as if you owned the wiring that interconnects all of your bridged LANs. You can maintain separate networking domains as if they were on the same LAN regardless of how far they are separated.

This is a switched layer-2 network service that can be configured as point to point, point to multipoint, or multipoint to multipoint fully meshed for any to any connectivity. If you’ve put a lot of time and effort into converging your voice, video and data networks, your investment is protected by four robust classes of service. These include real time, critical, priority and standard CoS. Enterprise VoIP and video multicasting have the resources they need to deliver high quality performance.

The WAN capability is there to support anything you want to do on your network. But the cost per Mbps beats competing technologies hands down. That’s a winning combination that will likely see Ethernet VPLS become a dominant WAN networking service in the near future. Why not put it to work for you right now, before your competitors catch on? Get more information and customized Ethernet VPLS pricing quotes to support your locations and applications. It’s a complementary service, with results fast.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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Monday, June 28, 2010

Ciena Takes New Bandwidth Technologies On The Road

If you happen to be near Waltham, MA today, June 29, you have an opportunity to see the latest in carrier bandwidth technology right at your doorstep. Simply step into the Ciena Innovation Lab and check out the demos of their optical, Ethernet and software solutions. Next stop is White Marsh, MD on July 15.

What’s the Ciena Innovation Lab? It’s a semi trailer chock full of the newest telecom and networking developments. Here, take a look:



If you are involved with Gigabit and Terabit bandwidth applications, you are familiar with Ciena... or should be. Certainly, fiber optic service providers keep a keen eye on developments from the Ciena labs. But now major corporations, content providers and large medical organizations need to familiarize themselves with packet-optical transport and switching systems. Today, you may be just broaching the idea of installing Gigabit Ethernet service. Tomorrow, you may well be ordering dark fiber for your own private point to point networks.

Ciena now has platforms that make deploying 40G and 100G fiber optic connections as easy as 10G. They are ready to support carrier Ethernet services, including high speed access, backhaul and aggregation. Their software suites make it easier for you to manage optical networks, Ethernet services and other high bandwidth networks services.

Is your company ready to move up to gigabit and higher levels of service? If so, you’ll benefit from a discussion with our Telarus bandwidth brokerage consultants. No charge for this service, of course. Take just a minute or so and describe your bandwidth needs in an easy online inquiry.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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How about an iHype ‘tax’ to save the news?

The pesky problem of paying for the news could be resolved rather fast if publishers and broadcasters just charged Steve Jobs a nickel a word for all the free hype they provide to sell his iParaphernalia. While I admit to being as fascinated as the next guy with Apple’s electronic confections, it is nonetheless staggering to see how much scarce reporting talent and news

Sunday, June 27, 2010

How to Get Lower Merchant Processing Rates

As a small business owner or franchise operator, credit card payments make up a huge percentage of your transactions. They also cost you a bundle in processing fees. To add insult to injury, some service providers aren’t much help when something goes wrong with the equipment or software. Why not do better for yourself and your business?

Better rates on credit card processing and excellent customer service from Elite Processing Systems.A merchant processing company you should look into is Elite Processing Systems. They offer an impressive combination of lower credit card processing rates combined with outstanding 24 hour US based customer service and the PCI compliant systems you need to successfully accept credit cards and more.

The more includes being able to accept personal checks without the risks presented by a traditional 4 day delay in waiting for it to clear the bank so you can breathe easy. Elite Processing Systems works with Telecheck to bring you online and POS authorization electronically.

That more also includes cash advance funding as a quick way to acquire the working capital you need. You’ll be able to get cash advances based on your credit card processing future receivables. You won’t even have to write a check. The funds will be taken back through your credit card sales.

Credit Card Processing by Elite Processing Systems a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Walnut Creek CA.



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Sen and the Art of Licence Termination

Here's something interesting from New York lawyer Shourin Sen: US copyright legislation gives authors and enumerated family members the power to terminate certain grants upon the completion of paperwork. These termination provisions, 17 U.S.C. §§ 203, 304(c) and 304(d), apply to, among other things, both exclusive and non-exclusive licences, assignments, mortgages and conveyances -- but not to terminate a "work made for hire" or grants made by will.

Congress enacted the termination provisions in order to give an “author a second chance to control and benefit from his work" and to "secure to the author's family the opportunity to exploit the work if the author died", according to Stewart v Abend, 495 U.S. 207, 218 (1990).

Shourin has launched an online calculator and website to enable readers to evaluate the rights and risks associated with the termination of copyright grants. While the termination provisions are regrettably intricate, this online calculator seeks to people through the basic issues and maths necessary to figure out when an author may terminate a grant. It does not cover all of the contingencies needed to make an evaluation, but seeks at least to provide a useful starting-point.

I thank Shourin for drawing this to my attention and would be interested to hear from any readers who put the calculator through its paces -- or, better still, who would like to review it.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Privilege, Property ... and perhaps a Xmas present

There's a new copyright book just coming out -- Privilege and Property. Essays on the History of Copyright, edited by Ronan Deazley, Martin Kretschmer and Lionel Bently. It's published by Open Book Publishers and comes in hardback, paperback and digital download formats. If you don't want to buy it, you will have the option of reading it online free of charge. It's not yet published, but will be very, very soon (click here) for contents, author list and other details.

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm intrigued both by the prospect of a good, scholarly read and by the business model on which this title is based. With luck, it should maximise exposure of the contributors to their readers while also capturing a chance to secure some income from reasonable pricing plus a flexible set of options such as only the internet can provide. This could be the ideal Christmas stocking filler for the copyright enthusiast who has everything ...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

What Is Lowering Gigabit Ethernet Bandwidth Pricing?

If you have recently gone out for quotes on Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth, you may have been surprised by how much prices have dropped the last few years. That’s one pleasant surprise for organizations that need higher levels of business bandwidth for cloud computing access, e-commerce, medical image transmission, video distribution and the like. But is this for real and what is driving these prices lower?

Gigabit Ethernet Bandwidth prices have been reduced. Check pricing and availability now.Yes, it’s for real alright. In fact, bandwidth services across the board can be had for a fraction of what you may have paid when you signed your last service contract. That applies to everything from T1 lines to DS3 connections and on up through OCx SONET/SDH fiber optic bandwidth. It also includes competing services like Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gig E. Plus multi-location cloud networks like MPLS. They’ve all dropped in price. But the cost per Mbps is often most dramatic for Ethernet services.

What’s behind the lowered prices? Two factors can be credited. First is the move from traditional switched circuit transport technologies to packet switched IP networks and services. Second is new levels of competition.

Both legacy service providers, the telephone companies, and new competitive carriers have built-out extensive networks based on IP or a networking technology that embraces IP, such as MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching. You can thank the Internet for that. The enormous volume of equipment and services to support near-universal demand access to the Internet has decreased the price of Ethernet and IP networking to a fraction of what it costs for competing technologies. The entire world is going to packet switched networks based on Internet Protocol.

When every LAN is running Ethernet, it just makes sense that the most efficient way to connect all those local area networks is with an Ethernet connection. Ethernet over Copper lets you do this from typically 3 Mbps on up to around 50 Mbps. Ethernet over Fiber is good for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and even 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet is becoming a requirement for medium and large companies depending heavily on high productivity enterprise software or distributing media content, such as video. At the very highest levels, even 10 GigE is no longer out of the question.

The move from legacy telco technologies to IP based fiber optic networks has brought new players into the marketplace for WAN networking services. These competitive carriers have built their own regional or national fiber optic networks and established colocation facilities and points of presence in most major cities, even some mid-size cities. They can often bring their own fiber into business locations and bypass the telephone companies completely. Now instead of one option for service, you may have several or more even at the Gigabit Ethernet level. That spells competition and competition leads to lowered prices.

Could your organization benefit from the recent cost reductions in high bandwidth networks services? Don’t shake your head no until you check current prices and availability for Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth services and other bandwidth offerings. At the very least, your next service lease could cost you less than the one you have now.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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YouTube wins Viacom copyright suit

As widely reported this morning, yesterday US District Judge Louis L Stanton granted summary judgement to YouTube in the long-running copyright dispute brought by Viacom.

The outcome (if not overturned on appeal) is that YouTube will only be obliged to take down clearly defined individual infringing items, rather than undertake any consistent action to remove "clones" of the deleted material as they re-appear.

The judgment is available here courtesy of Scribd and our friend the IPKat has a detailed analysis of the decision here. The IPKat says that an appeal is expected.

This of course comes in the wake of the recent ECJ decision in favour of Google in the "AdWords" case, which also impacts on copyright infringement, given that in that case, as discussed by Hugo on this blog at the time, the Court considered the application of the hosting defence in the E-Commerce Directive, which is the closest equivalent to the DMCA language at issue in Viacom v YouTube.

Infringement stats in Azerbaijan: bad news, or good?

"Majority of Azerbaijan Press Violate Copyrights" is the title of a news item in the latest issue of PETOSEVIC News. For those who relish real evidence, here is some solid fact: some 30 percent of Azerbaijani news portals write their own news stories, while the remaining 70 percent just copy them. This information comes from Azerbaijani Copyright Agency Chairman Kamran Imanov, at the “Copyright in the Mass Media: Problems and Ways of Solution” roundtable held on 14 May.

One might think, from UNESCO's World Anti Piracy Observatory report on Azerbaijan, that the country has a nearly complete set of teeth with which to bite copyright infringement. After all, has there not been lots of capacity-building and plenty of training sessions for enforcement officials? But capacity-training and public sector perks are no use so far as most ordinary copyright owners, left to enforce their own rights privately, are concerned. Given that the lack of copyright enforcement in Azerbaijan has been strongly criticised by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), the remarkable thing is not that 70 percent of Azerbaijani pressmen do infringe copyright but that 30 percent -- that's nearly one in three -- don't.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

USA Digital Offers Comprehensive Call Center Services

Call centers and company contact centers have special requirements for the high volume telephony services they use. USA Digital serves this market with a suite of high performance cost effective telecom services.

Find cost savings on call center telecom services. Click to find.USA Digital Communications Inc., often called USA Digital for short, is a licensed, certified carrier in all 50 states. Since founding in 1991, their business has been known for rapid growth and customer retention. Wouldn’t a lot of companies like to claim that? The secret to USA Digital’s success may be summed up as excellent customer service combined with an extensive range of services to support both voice and data needs.

Call center operations are a special focus for USA Digital. It starts with digital line services from T1 through OC12. T1 is a popular service and provided by many carriers. However, not all of those T1 services are optimized for cost on high volume calling. For instance, USA Digital offers initial six second billing minimum. That’s typical in the industry. But then USA Digital billing switches to one second increments. That alone can save you 30% in the cost of the minutes you use.

Another big saver is 4 digit versus 2 digit rounding. Those decimal points might seem arcane, but in high volume calling minor fractions of a second add up to big money. That’s especially true if 4 digital rounding is combined with low dedicated interstate rates on T1 service.

USA Digital has a service team experienced in provisioning voice lines, PRI’s, CO meet-point circuits, cross connects and SS7 links. That same experience is applied as you move up the circuit class to DS3 (T3) trunks and into the fiber optic services from OC3 to OC12. These OCx connections are truly business carrier class services needed by the largest call center operations and requiring the highest levels of expertise for support. An OC3 gives you the capacity of about 3 DS3’s and OC12 is the bandwidth of 4 OC3’s or 12 DS3’s. USA Digital can deliver OC3s in the form of 3 DS3’s that may be separated into individual T1 services.

In addition to bandwidth, dedicated outbound services are a specialty of USA Digital. They offer FTC telemarketing sale rule and do not call services to make sure you are in compliance with government regulations for outbound call centers. Their do not call services are capable of blocking 100% of calls registered to both state and national do-not-call lists. In addition, USA Digital provides customized Caller ID Service so that you can communicate appropriate caller information over your service lines.

USA Digital’s services are appropriate for in-house customer service contact centers up through major independent call centers and carriers, including ILEC, CLEC and wireless. Beyond traditional switched circuit voice trunks, they also support VoIP (SIP, H3223), point to point dedicated lines, and MPLS networks for linking multiple business locations.

Can you benefit from business telecom services like these? If so, you’ll want to get customized telecom service pricing and consultation for USA Digital and other competitive service providers as soon as possible. You could be looking a major cost savings.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

MPLS VPN Advantages

MPLS VPN networks are more and more in demand by companies needing to link multiple geographically diverse business locations. These may be across town, across the country or around the world... or any combination. Let’s take a look at why MPLS networks are becoming so popular.

Get MPLS VPN competitive quotes now.Branch offices, retail franchise operations, warehouses, factories and medical centers are no longer isolated entities. Once, the public telephone system was enough to tie related locations together. That phone system was also pressed into service to transmit information rapidly using FAX and then dial-up Internet access. Broadband Internet using a dedicated high bandwidth wireline service followed for direct digital transmission. Other dedicated lines were used as secure point to point connections for sharing sensitive business documents.

Some companies desired more complex networking arrangements, linking every location to every other location in a fully meshed wide area network. One way to do that is to roll your own star network with point to point dedicated lines to the main office. Frame Relay networks came about as a way to outsource all that networking and the high cost of so many dedicated lines. But Frame Relay was never planned to run at the bandwidths we need today.

What MPLS VPN networks do is provide a private networking solution that outsources the problem of connecting many diverse locations. The cost of operating the network is shared among the user base, which makes it very cost effective for each user compared to running their own completely private network.

Unlike the Internet, a MPLS VPN has security built-in and performance characteristics of the network are carefully controlled. This is especially important for companies that want to converge their voice, data and video networks into a single network that can carry all traffic. There are big cost advantages in network convergence. But it’s all for naught unless you can guarantee quality of service for all your traffic. MPLS networks have Class of Service mechanisms to ensure that bandwidth, latency, jitter and packet loss are carefully controlled.

MPLS VPN security is based on using a proprietary tag or label switching protocol in place of standard IP routing. As soon as IP packets are received by the provider edge router, they are inspected and a MPLS label is attached. It’s that label that is used to route the packets while they are on the network. It’s removed as they exit the network. It’s like the MPLS network is speaking a foreign language within its service footprint.

MPLS networks are also easily scalable. If you build your own network from T1 lines or DS3 services, it can be a nightmare to upgrade bandwidth across the network. With an MPLS solution, you simply request additional resources from the service provider. You can also add or delete service locations much easier than you may be able to with long haul point to point line services. You only need an access connection to the MPLS “cloud” which is at the service provider’s nearest point of presence.

Can an MPLS VPN network be advantageous to your business? Get recommendations and competitive price quotes for MPLS VPN services now.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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Parody: a new title

The web page says this book isn't published yet (it isn't officially out till August), but I spotted a copy on the table in the reception area of Oxford University Press's palatial headquarters in Jericho. The Oxford Book of Parodies, edited by John Gross, is sadly short of detailed analysis of the legislative and case law provisions governing parody as a defence to copyright infringement, private rights versus freedom of speech, transformative use and so forth, but it is rich in enjoyable examples of parody and great fun. Says the web-blurb:
"Parodies come in all shapes and sizes. There are broad parodies and subtle parodies, ingenious imitations and knockabout spoofs, scornful lampoons and affectionate pastiches. All these varieties, and many others, appear in this delightful new anthology compiled by master anthologist John Gross.
The classics of the genre are all here, but so are scores of lesser known but scarcely less brilliant works. At every stage there are surprises. Proust visits Chelsea, Yeats re-writes "Old King Cole," Harry Potter encounters Mick Jagger, a modernized Sermon on the Mount rubs shoulders with an obituary of Sherlock Holmes. The collection provides a hilarious running commentary on literary history, but it also looks beyond literature to include such things as ad parodies, political parodies, and even a scientific hoax.
The collection includes work by such accomplished parodists as Max Beerbohm, Robert Benchley, Bret Harte, H. L. Mencken, George Orwell, James Thurber, Peter Ustinov, and Evelyn Waugh. And the "victims" include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Poe, Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Conan Doyle, A. A. Milne, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Allen Ginsberg, Martin Amis, and many others. The first and longer of the book's two parts is devoted to English-language authors, arranged in chronological order, along with parodies that they have inspired. The second part includes sections on more general literary topics, on aspects of individual authors which transcend the format of the first part, and on a handful of foreign writers".
Sadly I wasn't kept waiting more than a few minutes, so had little opportunity to sample this book's contents -- but it did seem fun.

The Emperor’s New Copyright

Emperor_Clothes_01 For a court decision to cause a hullabaloo and set off doomsday reports of the end of life as we know it isn’t all that unusual.  But for a court decision that leaves the existing law in place to set off that much ruckus, that is unusual.  Yesterday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in the US handed down just one of these cases.

The case is called Golan and it deals with the effect of the TRIPs agreement on foreign works under US Copyright law.  (full pdf decision.) 

The decision, which leaves in tact the restoration of copyright to certain foreign works has been hailed as “Terrible News” and accused of destroying the public domain.  In reality, neither of these lamentations are correct.

What Happened

After the United States signed the TRIPs agreement, it amended its copyright law to be compliant with both the new TRIPs agreement and the old Berne Convention. (“Compliant” as defined by the US.)  The amended copyright act provided new copyright protection to two types of old foreign works: those that had lost their copyright due to non-compliance with a formality (such as failure to renew after the initial term under the US’s 1909 Copyright Act) and those who had not previously received copyright protection in the US because their country had not then been a member of any of the international copyright treaties to which the US was a party. 

This new protection for old works was called “restored copyright,” and authors who wanted their copyrights restored had to provide notice to known users of the works or the US Copyright Office.

That was the law before Golan, and it is still the law after Golan.

Golan’s Challenge

The plaintiffs in Golan were users of those restored-copyright works who had used the works relying on their status as public domain works.  And they had quite a strong group of copyright experts on their team, including the Stanford Center for Internet and Society and Harvard (of Stanford at the time this case began) Professor Lawrence Lessig.  But the arguments in this case were not about copyright law; they were about constitutional law.  And the defendants, the United States government and the United States Copyright Office, they had the Department of Justice on their team.

The Constitutional Claim

This is the second time Golan has been to the 10th Circuit.  The first time it heard the case, the 10th Circuit affirmed the lower court’s holding with respect to two of the plaintiff’s claims, dismissing claims attempting to argue the violation of the “for a limited time” part of the copyright clause in the Constitution. [full pdf decision.]  But the 10th Circuit also remanded the case to the district court to address whether the law violated the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights.

The district court held that the plaintiffs’ First Amendment freedom of expression rights were violated.  The 10th Circuit disagreed.  And here’s where we need to get a bit into United States Constitutional Law.

First Amendment Law in the US
Details for non-Americans and non-attorneys

The freedom of speech granted by the First Amendment to the US Constitution includes the freedom of expression.  The government is allowed to impinge on this freedom within certain parameters and what they are allowed to do depends on the type of speech they are regulating, how they are regulating it and their interest in regulating it.

There are three options for the court in terms of how the court compares these different pieces to decide if the government’s actions are ok or in violation of the Constitution.  These three options are commonly called levels of scrutiny.  Both parties, the district court and the circuit court agreed that the proper level of scrutiny in this case was intermediate scrutiny.  Agreement all around, always nice.

In order for a law to be upheld as constitutional under this medium level of inspection, intermediate scrutiny, the government must show that it has an important governmental interest in regulating the speech and that the burden placed on speech is not substantially more than necessary.

The Government’s Important Reason

The US Government said it had three important reasons.  The court looked at one, said it was important enough and ignored the other two. 

We might expect that the important interest would be that of the government to uphold US obligations under international treaties.  But then again, we might not be surprised to learn that was one of the reasons the court ignored.

The reason the court found important enough to justify the limit on speech caused by restoring copyright to foreign works was the protection of US works abroad.  Congress passed the amendment to the Copyright Act in part because it believed the world would operate on a you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours basis.  Other countries were refusing to restore copyright to US works in their public domains, - the decision mentions specifically Russia – and the US was told its citizens would get copyright in their works when those countries’ citizens got US copyright in theirs.

The court acknowledged the plaintiffs’ rights and the restrictions restored copyright placed on their speech rights, but it summed up the governments’ interest quite eloquently:

“Although plaintiffs have First Amendment interests, so too do American authors.” (p. 14, internal citation omitted.)

The Not-So-Burdensome Burden

The court found that the restored copyright did not burden the plaintiffs’ speech too much because of a special provision put in the law specifically for people in the plaintiffs’ position. 

In addition to restoring copyright protection to the foreign works mentioned above, the law also created some protections for those people who had used the work relying on its public domain status.  The law gave users a twelve month grace period in which to finish selling or using works with restored copyrights and then provided a mechanism for determining licensing fees if the user wanted to continue using the restored work after the grace period ended.

[British readers may be interested in pages 30 – 33 of the decision where the court spends some time comparing the US system of dealing with the burden on these users to the systems enacted in the UK.]

Separation of Powers

Although this part isn’t really necessary for this blog post and is covered well in-depth by the court decision for those who are really interested, I feel it is necessary to address it at least a bit here because of the mis-information out there in some other posts about this case.

The American government has three branches, the judicial, legislative and executive.  It is structured this way to effectuate a separation of powers, where each branch has its own duties.  Legislative decision making, making laws, belongs to the legislative branch – the US Congress.  Interpreting laws belongs to the judicial branch – the courts.

How to structure laws to effectively enact international treaties is the duty of the legislative branch.  It is Congress that holds hearings with all sorts of interested parties, that listens to the RIAA and the MPAA and those who disagree with the RIAA and the MPAA.  It is Congress that decides which interests are most important for the country to protect and decides how those interests should be protected.  And yes, Congress must stay within the confines of the Constitution when making these laws.  Hence the development of the levels of scrutiny as mentioned above.

When the Golan court discusses how and why Congress made its decision to restore copyright, the court is not looking at whether or not Congress made a good decision.  The court is looking at whether Congress’s decision was reasonable in light of the information it had.  When the Golan decision cites some of the testimony from Congress’s hearings, the court is not “actually rel[ying] on testimony about "losses" from an RIAA official.”  The court is simply giving examples of information upon which Congress relied.

The American people might not agree with Congress’s decision, the judges might not agree with Congress’s decision, but that does not mean the decision is unconstitutional.  It is the people who are supposed to have the power to change the law, not the courts.  The people elect their Congressional representatives to represent their positions.  Whether or not that happens is a whole ‘nother issue not related to this case and addressed very well by Lessig at his site Fix Congress First.

Image credit: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Vihelm Pendersen, public domain

BPI warns Google over search links


BPI, the UK recording industry’s trade association has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, asking the search engine to take down links to nine "one-click hosting" sites, each of which hosts thousands of illegal songs. The BPI cite 38 links "that are available via Google's search engine, and [requests these] links be removed as soon a possible as they directly link to sound recordings owned by [BPI] members". Simple Google search queries such as keying in artist and song names and then a word like 'MP3', 'download', 'upload' or the name of a file-transfer service lead users to illegal downloads on pages of sites that includes MegaUpload, SendSpace and UserShare. Last October, Google removed links to the Pirate Bay – the infamous illegal BitTorrent tracker – from their search index. The BPI takedown request promoted much chatter online yesterday after it was leaked by the Chilling Effects website with some journalists and bloggers claiming this is a new more aggressive initiative on behalf of the BPI.

CMU Daily says that some commentators also note that the document includes not only a list of specific links to infringing content, but also a list of home page links to the services that have aided the infringement, such as MegaUpload, leading to additional speculation that the BPI is stepping beyond the strict remit of America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act and calling on Google to block access to whole website rather than just infringing content. The BPI has denied there is anything out of the ordinary about this takedown notice to Google and BPI Spokesman Adam Liversage told C-Net that such documents were filed with Google on a regular basis by bodies like the BPI and that "in most cases, Google takes down the links in question, following its own internal procedures".

In more encouraging news for the recorded music sector, The Black Eyed Peas' track 'I Gotta Feeling' has become the first ever single to be downloaded more than one million times in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/22/google-bpi
http://chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=40373

Monday, June 21, 2010

Fiber Ethernet WAN Bandwidth Advantages

Large businesses and other larger organizations generally require more bandwidth than is available through T1 lines or other broadband services that can be provisioned over copper twisted pair. Fiber optic connections can provide nearly unlimited bandwidth, but what is the most cost effective service?

Check Fiber Ethernet prices and availability. Fast service on fast Etherent services.If you are a current user of fiber optic bandwidth, you are probably leasing a SONET/SDH service such as OC3, OC12, or OC48 for your wide area networking needs. These are traditional telecom services that were originally developed for the telephone companies to carry large numbers of telephone calls. They are circuit switched channelized networks that have been adapted to transport today’s demand for high data bandwidth connections.

A newer service that is offering serious competition to the legacy telco services is Ethernet over Fiber or EoF. It’s a packet-switched network that transports Ethernet at the layer 2 switching or layer 3 routing level. Within metropolitan areas, this service is known as Metro Ethernet. Over long distances, it is called Carrier Ethernet or Long Haul Ethernet. Just about all bandwidths are available, but generally you’ll find fiber Ethernet being used to carry 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, 1 Gbps Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gbps 10 GigE. Even high bandwidths, including 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps, are used for carrier backbone networks.

One advantage of fiber Ethernet is that it is scalable. You may start out with 100 Mbps service but quickly find out that you need more bandwidth. With traditional SONET services, there can be long delays in upgrading your service to the next level. There may also be a big jump in bandwidth and cost to get to that next level. OC3 gives you 155 Mbps. But OC12, the next readily available increment, runs at 622 Mbps.

Fiber optic Ethernet can easily scale up to the limit of the installed port. For instance, if you have a port that is capable of 1,000 Mbps, you don’t necessarily have to buy that much bandwidth. It’s common to order a fraction of the port’s capability, say 100 Mbps and then upgrade to 200 Mbps when demand justifies such a move. Often this can be done with only a phone call to your Ethernet service provider. Only when your demand exceed the 1,000 Mbps capacity of the port will new equipment need to be installed.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of fiber Ethernet services is cost savings. In additional to the traditional telephone companies, there are numerous competitive carriers that have their own regional or nationwide fiber optic networks and points of presence. These carriers can build-out a fiber connection to your building. It may not be that expensive if you can guarantee a high enough bandwidth level to justify the construction. You’ll find the monthly lease rate attractive, too. They are often only a fraction of what you’d pay for equivalent OCx services.

How can you determine if fiber Ethernet services are the best option for your business or organizational needs? You can get a quick answer with multiple vendor quotes and recommendations now using the Fiber Ethernet Services Inquiry form that you’ll find at Ether Rabbit. It’s fast service on fast Ethernet services.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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Linkomanija user lives to fight again

"First case against torrent search engine user fails", by Edita IvanauskienÄ— and Julius ZaleskisLideika (Petrauskas Valiunas ir partneriai LAWIN), was published last month in International Law Office. You can read it here. This article describes Lithuania's first-ever copyright infringement case against a user of a torrent search engine. This action, in which ANVA, the Lithuanian Anti-piracy Activities Association, sought a ruling of administrative liability against a user of Linkomanija, Lithuania's biggest torrent search engine, was apparently dismissed on what were mainly procedural grounds relating to the collection of evidence.

Actions against internet users for copyright infringement have been possible since Lithuania's Code of Administrative Infringements was amended last year, extending the scope of the earlier provisions which could only be invoked against infringements perpetrated for commercial purposes. In cooperation with the police, the association tracked the internet protocol addresses of 106 Linkomanija users who were downloading and seeding the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. Based on this information, the police issued a statement of administrative infringement against one of the users.

The Kaunas Regional Court, referring to principles of legality and Supreme Administrative Court case law on the collection of evidence, ruled that there was no evidence that the association, as a public institution, was authorized to collect evidence independently, and no information had been provided as to whether the equipment used to track copyright and related rights infringements by internet users was officially certified. Accordingly the defendant's activity had not been shown to amount to an administrative infringement and the case was dismissed. This decision is under appeal.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Find The Ethernet Internet Connection

Are you interested in more bandwidth for your business, but concerned about the cost? You may be able to get just what you want with an Ethernet Internet connection.

Find the Ethernet Internet Connection for your business in just a minute. Click to see.


Ethernet Internet connections are something new. Certainly, we’ve all been using Ethernet on our local area networks for as long as we can remember. The Internet itself is an IP service that is very compatible with your LAN Ethernet. The odd protocol in-between has been the telecom services available to link to the Ethernet itself.

You probably have T1 or DS3 service as your network access connection. Each of these requires a special CSU/DSU or router interface card at each end of the connection. These units and their associated software perform a protocol conversion and provide the proper signal interface to standard network Ethernet ports. But with Ethernet connections, none of that is needed. It’s Ethernet all the way. How do you connect to the Internet? How about just plugging into a standard RJ-45 connector?

In addition to simplicity of connection, Ethernet WAN or Wide Area Network services are also generally cheaper than T1 lines or DS3 bandwidth. In many areas, you can now get 3 Mbps Ethernet for the same price as 1.5 Mbps T1. 10 Mbps Ethernet is very popular for small to medium size businesses. It can be had for what T1 lines cost just a few years ago.

Ethernet Internet connections are also scalable. You can get bandwidths from 1 Mbps up to 1 Gbps. The lower speeds, from 1 Mbps to about 50 Mbps, can be provided over existing twisted pair copper telco cables. For the higher speeds, you’ll need a fiber optic connection. Those are also highly affordable compared to what you’ll pay for traditional telecom services at that level.

Are you interested in how you can increase your bandwidth and perhaps even save money at the same time. Take a minute now and use the Ethernet Internet Finder to get connection prices and availability for your business location.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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Influence and the Copyright Tribunal

In a 14-page ruling in Meltwater Holding BV v The Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd, CT114/09, 10 June 2010, which you can read in full here, the UK's Copyright Tribunal has confirmed that leading barrister Henry Carr QC -- one of the Tribunal's two deputy chairmen -- can represent a client in proceedings before the three-person Tribunal (the chairman is a lawyer; the other members are laymen). The proceedings in question are part of the big battle between contentious news monitoring service Meltwater Holding BV, which is among other things seeking improved terms for a new web database licence offered by the National Licensing Agency Ltd (NLA).

Obviously, if he was representing Meltwater, Carr wouldn't be able to chair the Tribunal at the same time. Accordingly the hearing of Meltwater's application was scheduled to take place before the other deputy chairman, Colin Birss QC. But might the Tribunal's lay members be likely to be affected by the authority of, and pay undue deference to, Henry Carr's submissions of law?

Presumably influenced by Tribunal chairman Judge Michael Fysh QC -- though, we imagine, not unduly so -- the Tribunal concluded that the NLA had not shown sufficiently that there was any real possibility of unconscious bias arising in the lay member's minds. Certainly there was not enough to lead to a real perception of possible bias to the fair-minded and informed observer. Crucial in this decision was the fact that Henry Carr had not actually sat together with the two lay members (Lucy Connors and Philip Eve) whose turn it was to sit with Colin Birss.

You can check out the full complement of Copyright Tribunal members here.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Flickr Teaming with Getty – Good for Copyright Holders?

Yesterday, Flickr announced a new program available to its users – licensing through Getty Images.  Through the program, users can add a “Request to License” link next to their photos.  Viewers who click this link are put in contact with Getty Images.  Getty licenses the photo to the viewer on behalf of the Flickr user and transfers payment from the viewer to the Flickr user.

At first glance, this program may seem like a really good opportunity for photographers.  But Flickr users interested in the Getty program need to think carefully before jumping on board. 

Getty Images is a large, professional, photo clearing house that has been in business for a long, long time.  Although working with Flickr is a foray into the future, Getty is still an institution based on old business models.  This means a lot a lot of legal gymnastics for anyone wishing to participate, as a photographer or a licensee.

You can check out the FAQ section for more information on model license requirements, the 2-year exclusive contract required for the program and other program details.

Beneficial?

As one Getty program user and supporter comments,

“The effort is not minimal. Gathering model releases, unloading full size images, doing any post processing required, filling in photo details, having to book the shot date in about three different places, uploading model releases seperately [sic] for every photo even if you have the same release for 5 photos from one shoot.”

With all this work required to submit photos, plus the restrictions of a two-year long exclusive contract that prohibits anyone other than Getty Images from licensing your submitted photos and photos similar to your submitted photos – yes that includes even you – is there really any benefit to participating?

After all, there really isn’t a need for a third-party intermediary for licensing photos on Flickr.  Every photographer can easily be contacted via Flickr Mail.  Why should it be necessary to ask a third-party for permission when you can already ask the copyright holder directly?  Additionally, many photographers have already granted licenses to use their photos, without the need to contact anyone.

The most apparent benefit, currently, appears to be the vetting.  Photos admitted to the Getty program are thoroughly reviewed by Getty Images and approved for admission to the program.  Knowing that the vetting is already done might make some photo users feel better about the search process for the right image.  However, Flickr has a strong community that can also serve as a vetting process based on how many views, uses and comments a photo receives.

In the end, the program seems to be more of a way for Getty to increase the number of photographers in its pool than to really help copyright owners with licensing.  But perhaps this judgment is coming too early.

Stretching copyright with contract

Copyright has its limits. To what extent can they be pushed by contract law?

GlobalCOAL facilitates the trading of coal and coal derivatives by means of a standard industry contract (‘SCoTA’) and an online trading platform. Traders and brokers who make use of this platform sign a Product Licensing Agreement. Under this agreement, globalCOAL grants licensees a licence ‘under its Intellectual Property Rights in the globalCOAL Products to use the globalCOAL Products and the Trade Marks’ and in return the licensees undertake not to the ‘use the globalCOAL Products’ in certain ways, including transactions with parties that are not other globalCOAL licensees. ‘Products’ include data, prices, indices and contracts developed and published by globalCOAL.

This agreement was scrutinized last week in Global Coal Ltd v. London Commodity Brokers. The court asked itself: is it only globalCOAL’s IP that licensees are undertaking not to use in prohibited ways or does the undertaking extend further, to not using any of globalCOAL’s information and documents? Mr Justice Briggs came to the conclusion that the undertaking related to the Products, not the IP. If London Commodity Brokers had used the Products in brokering trades with parties that were not globalCOAL licensees, it would be in breach of contract even if it had not made use of globalCOAL’s IP.

So when a licensee signs the agreement he finds himself in some ways more restricted than he was before signing it both because much of the ‘Product’ information is in the public domain and because the restricted ‘uses’ go beyond the types of uses that IP law regulates. Briggs J tried to make sense of this by saying that it would be difficult to trade in this market without making use of globalCOAL’s IP, so globalCOAL’s IP ownership gave it de facto control of the Products. This is questionable and hotly contested by the parties: it seems entirely possible for a broker to implicitly refer to SCoTA and globalCOAL’s index without using the trade marks or copying the contract.

Either way, the licensees’ obligations technically extend beyond IP rights. Copyright could never forbid you to refer to a dictionary when you write something. A contract can, perhaps. Moreover, restricting use of the Products was working more efficiently for globalCOAL than enforcing IP: the court found it easier, quicker and cheaper to determine whether a licensee had used the Products than the IP (e.g. copying SCoTA) – and jurisdiction was cleaner too.

But the advantages may not be without their risks. As the judgment draws to a close, it makes a passing reference to ‘potentially serious issues of abuse of dominant position’, but leaves them for another day.

More freshly-squeezed Lime

In a fresh blow, peer-to-peer file-sharing service LimeWire has been sued for copyright infringement by eight member companies from the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) headed up by EMI and Universal. The lawsuit is similar to the thus far successful suit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against LimeWire and its executives, seeking damages and injunctive relief and is also filed in the Manhatten federal court. A trial is scheduled for January and the NMPA said in a statement “The songs that make their illegal venture lucrative don’t appear out of thin air .... Behind every song is a vast network of people - a songwriter, a publisher, a performer, a record label. They have robbed every individual in that chain.”

Limewire publicly remains convinced it can offer legitimate business models to the content owners in the music industry saying in a statement "We have had many promising meetings with labels, publishers, and artists alike about our new music service and a business model that will compensate the entire industry”.

EMI April Music Inc. v. Lime Wire LLC, 10-cv-04695, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

http://www.dailytech.com/New+Suit+Against+Limewire+Could+Total+15+Times+Music+Industrys+Yearly+Income/article18769.htm

Thursday, June 17, 2010

So Many Free Phones Online

Your old cell phone is looking pretty shabby after two years. Even if you’ve kept it nice and shiny in a leather case, the functional capability just doesn’t begin to compare with what’s available now. You want one of those new models, don’t you? Well, before you fall into the trap that high-tech cell phones have to cost a bundle, take a look at what you can get for free from Cell Phone Plan Finder.

Free phones available from Cell Phone Plan Finder. Click to check today's selection.


If you squint, you might be notice something amazing in that screen shot. All but one of the top phone models this week are available FREE. That’s right. There’s no need to shell out for a new cell phone when you order it with a new service plan online. That is, if you know where to look. Try Cell Phone Plan Finder right now and see for yourself.

These phone are no entry level basic phones, either. Look what you can get for free:

Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm2
BlackBerry Bold 9700
T-Mobile Nokia Nuron
Verizon Wireless Droid Eris by HTC
AT&T Samsung Mythic
T-Mobile Motorola Cliq XT
AT&T Motorola Backlip
Sprint BlackBerry Curve

What’s the one hottest selling phone that isn’t free? It’s the Verizon Wireless Droid by Motorola. For that, you’ll have to shell out all of $19.99.

Do any of those deals sound like what you had in mind for your next phone? They’re all available as of this writing at Cell Phone Plan Finder. You can review images of each phone and all the specifics at this site.

Here’s a bonus feature. If you’d like to keep shopping, you can check all the available phone at the “Shop Now” tab. Or, you can select the “Free Phones” tab and just see the phones that are free when you order them with a wireless service plan. There are new models available every week, so be sure to bookmark that site and come back whenever the mood strikes. You’ll be surprised by what you can get for free online.



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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

EVPL Ethernet Virtual Private Line Service

You are probably familiar with private line services for business. A private line is one where you have exclusive use. An analog telephone line is a private line. So is a T1 voice or data line. Now there is something new is the mix. It’s the VPL or Virtual Private Line.

Ethernet Virtual Private Line Service. Click for inquiryTelephone lines weren’t always private. Remember the party line? Decades ago, several houses in a neighborhood would be connected to the same physical line. If you picked up your phone to make a call, you might hear one of your neighbors already engaged in conversation. In the pre-Twitter days, listening-in on other phone conversations was often a form of amusement.

That lack of privacy is long gone for telephones. But shared digital services exist today, especially with public access Internet. No, you can’t casually eavesdrop on your neighbors email or Web activities, but if some of the users start heavily downloading large files, your Internet service will slow down. There are also tools available that allow anyone to monitor everything going over a particular WiFi hotspot. The whole Internet is one big party line in the sense that you can’t be sure who’s monitoring the traffic and what they might be doing with information they skim.

It’s the security risk and the lack of consistent bandwidth that have driven businesses to private line service. T1 lines are private lines. They offer the advantages of rock solid 1.5 Mbps bandwidth and exclusive use of the line. The disadvantage is that you pay for that line even when traffic is light or non-existant.

Ethernet also offers a private line service called EPL. It works like T1 in that it is a physical line connection between you and your service provider. The difference is that the protocol is Ethernet and you can often get scalable bandwidth, typically 10 Mbps.

If you have a private line service, why would you want a virtual private line service? For one reason, you may want private lines running from your headquarters out to a number of branch offices. With dedicate private lines, you need separate physical circuits for each of these lines. You pay for the exclusive full time use of each circuit and there may or may not be enough pairs of wire into your headquarters office to give you the number of private lines you desire.

Ethernet Virtual Private Line service, EVPL, uses a single physical copper or fiber circuit to connect you to the service provider. Within that circuit are multiple EVCs or Ethernet Virtual Connection. This is not a party line arrangement. Each EVC carries its own traffic to and from another location without any cross-talk or interference from other EVCs.

The power of EVPL is not only that you only need one network interface at each of your facilities, including headquarters, but that those virtual connections can be extended to other cities or states over the provider’s MPLS core network. The MPLS is a cloud network that carries traffic for many users, but the integrity of each user’s virtual circuit is maintained from point to point regardless of distance.

EVPL is also a switched layer 2 service, which means that you can use it to extend your LAN network across town or across the country. It’s the simplest way to bridge multiple LANs when they are not located in the same facility.

Can EVPL service be of benefit for your organization? Find out with a quick inquiry about Ethernet Virtual Private Line service. Our expert Telarus consultants will be happy to get you price comparisons and service level agreements so you can make the best decision for your company.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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4G Speeds From T-Mobile Now Broadly Available in the Northeastern U.S. and Other Major Cities

What no Seattle 4G?

:)

T-Mobile expands “4G speeds” to 25 new markets – Android and Me

See my post on how to get 4G right now on your Android phone!

T-Mobile 4G in the Puget Sound!

Why you won't find Specsavers in the Thesaurus ...

In "Synonyms – a shortsighted attempt to avoid copyright infringement", Tim Golder and Nadia Guadagno discuss Budget Eyewear Australia Pty Ltd v Specsavers Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 507, a recent Australian Federal Court decision in which interim injunctive relief was granted to restrain the use and publication of an advertising campaign where the alleged infringement consisted of the substitution of synonyms for the plaintiff's original work.

In short, Budget alleged that Specsavers' print ad and itscorresponding terms and conditions infringed copyright in two versions of a print advertisement, a radio script and a set of terms and conditions under which an offer in the advertisements were made, seeking interlocutory relief for infringement. Budget pointed to the following phrases as reflecting originality:
'If your Specsavers glasses break – and we're not saying they will – simply bring them into Budget Eyewear. We'll replace them with [sic] pair from our own range – free of charge';

'We're not saying they will, but if your Specsavers glasses break, we'll replace them for free'; and

'If your glasses aren't all they're cracked up to be, don't worry, we'll come to the rescue. For the next two weeks... you can take any Specsavers glasses to your nearest participating Budget Eyewear store and we'll replace them with a pair from our range – free of charge'.
Specsaver's print ad contained the following phrases:
'If your OPSM glasses happen to break, and we're not saying they're going to, we'll exchange them with a pair from Specsavers with a 2 year guarantee, for free'

'If your prescription glasses aren't what you hoped for, don't stress – we're here to help. From Thursday 13th May to Thursday 27th May, take any broken OPSM glasses to your nearest Specsavers store and we'll give you a pair from our range – for free'.
Did copyright subsist in the works? Before asking whether there had been infringement, Bennett J first had to establish whether copyright subsisted in the works at all. She felt there was sufficient evidence of authorship for the purposes of seeking interim relief, and said Budget had an arguable case that
"the way in which a concept is expressed in an advertisement intended to attract customers may involve originality that attracts copyright protection ... the fact that the words are commonplace does not mean that the way in which they are put together cannot have a degree of originality".
On the issue of infringement, Specsavers acknowledged the a causal connection since it had read and absorbed Budget's advertisement and did not deny it had copied the text of Budget's ad for its own ads; it also accepted that it had copied the idea of the campaign, although this copying did not extend to exact word reproduction. Said Budget, Specsavers had sought to avoid infringement by the simple use of synonyms; Specsavers in return argued that the use and arrangement of the words and phrases in the ads was 'obvious and prosaic' and since there was a lack of any requisite originality.

Justice Bennett agreed with Budget that Specsavers chose to adopt the same expression of ideas where various means could have been used to express the concept. Specsavers could have copied the idea but exercised its own imagination to express that novel concept in new and different language. rather than "using a thesaurus" to substitute a synonym. Accordingly a prima facie case of infringement had been made out.

Says the 1709 Blog, if the original Budget ads had been more imaginative and less prosaic, Specsavers' synonyms might -- at least in an application for interim relief -- been clad with the figleaves of parody and/or commercial free speech. Even so, the message is clear: that well-known Thesaurus Rex no longer rules the world of advertising copy, if indeed it ever did.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

IP VPN vs MPLS VPN

Security is an issue anytime you send data into a cloud network. One way to ensure that your data cannot be observed or tampered with is to build your own WAN network from point to point private lines. Another approach is to use a virtual private network that runs on resources that you don’t have exclusive use of. That’s what is meant by a VPN.

Check out IP VPN and MPLS options quickly and easily. The beauty of using dedicated private line connections is that you are in control of both access and resource utilization. You need to manage bandwidth demand and packet priority. What you don’t have to worry about is someone else crowding you for resources. There is no one else. If you are really concerned about malicious parties tapping into your line surreptitiously, you can chose to encrypt the data while it traverses the WAN connection. That’s the ultimate in network security. It’s also the highest cost approach.

What’s attractive about VPN solutions is that they are much less expensive to lease and require fewer resources on your part. Both the cost and resource savings come from sharing the facilities with other parties. The Internet is a prime example of how massive utilization can drive down costs. If you want to really minimize costs, a shared access connection, such as DSL or Cable broadband, is the cheapest approach by far.

The same things that make the Internet cheap also make it insecure. Anybody and everybody worldwide can connect to the Internet for what you are paying or less. Perhaps they’re using a public library or WiFi hotspot network without paying a cent. Many of these networks make no effort to even verify user identity. It’s the perfect breeding ground for mischief makers and criminal activities.

Fortunately, there is a way to secure your data as it traverses the Internet. The trick is encryption. You encrypt your data packets using a key that only you know. Anyone else who has access to your data stream sees only gibberish. A popular standard for doing this is called IPsec for IP security. It requires hardware and/or software that you manage at each location for the encryption/decryption process.

IPsec lets you create a virtually private network out of the Internet, a completely public network. This is generally what is meant by the term IP VPN. One big advantage of this IP VPN approach is that laptop computers can be configured with this system to give corporate access to remote or home workers. All that’s needed is the VPN enabled computer and a broadband Internet connection.

While the Internet is cheap, it offers no guaranteed performance. You take your chances on network congestion, packet corruption, latency and jitter. File transfers generally work fine, but voice and video can degrade without warning. Many businesses want a more reliable network to connect their branch offices, warehouses, retail locations, and so on.

MPLS networks come to the rescue as an improved form of virtual private network. The MPLS network doesn’t have public access, but it is a shared resource. Your costs are reduced compared to dedicated private lines because the cost of regional, national or international connections are amortized across the total user base. What makes MPLS networks a VPN solution is that your data connections are essentially tunneled through the cloud wrapped in proprietary routing labels. You define your connections and the network operator instructs the MPLS network on how to route your packets.

MPLS networks are often referred to as MPLS VPN because they are inherently virtually private. Connections to the network tend to be through dedicated private lines, such as T1 or Ethernet. If you want an even higher level of privacy, you can choose to encrypt your data while it traverses the MPLS network. In addition to improved security compared to the Internet, MPLS networks offer performance guarantees for bandwidth, jitter, latency and packet loss. That makes MPLS VPN a popular choice for mission-critical business applications.

Do you have a need to connect multiple business locations? Which type of VPN makes the most sense for your needs? Is it IP VPN or MPLS VPN? One easy way to sort out the options is to get complimentary network consultation and price quotes through our Affordable VPN site. You may well be spending far more than you need to for the performance and security you desire.

Click to check pricing and features or get support from a Telarus product specialist.




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Make no mistake: Newspapers are still in trouble

With newspaper share prices up some 380% in the last 12 months, even the ordinarily incisive Economist Magazine last week offered an upbeat appraisal for an industry that many had written off for dead a year ago. But it is flat wrong to believe that newspapers are on the mend in the United States. In fact, American publishers missed out on the broad advertising recovery that took place in