Splitting the load: good news for infringers, ISPs

The UK government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has issued a press release today with the intriguing title "Rights holders to bear 75% of Online Digital Economy Act copyright infringement costs". The text goes like this:

"The Government today set out how costs would be shared as part of the Digital Economy Act’s measures to tackle online infringement of copyright. The decision will see costs resulting from these measures split between rights holders and internet service providers (ISPs) at a ratio of 75:25 [rights holders wanted 50:50] respectively [this being the case, I wonder whether the government would have done better to entitle this news "ISPs to bear 25% of Online DEA costs" ...].

Responding to its consultation on sharing costs for implementing the initial obligations to send notifications to consumers who have infringed online copyright, the Government also announced no fee will be charged to consumers who want to appeal a notification [might this prompt an outbreak of brazen and unconscionable appeals in unmeritorious cases, just for the hell of it, as the statement recognises later? Why not a presumption of no-fee-payable, coupled with discretion to waive it where appropriate?]. Minister for Communications, Ed Vaizey, commented:

“Protecting our valuable creative industries, which have already suffered significant losses as a result of people sharing digital content without paying for it, is at the heart of these measures ['these measures' presumably being the DEA itself and not the cost-sharing mechanism]. The Digital Economy Act serves to reduce [identifiable and detectable] online copyright infringement through a fair and robust process and at the same time provides breathing space to develop better business models for consumers who buy music, films and books online [Business models for consumers? Isn't it the 'valuable creative industries' whose business models are at stake, since the old ones aren't working any more?].

“We expect the measures will benefit our creative economy by some £200m per year [that's less than one-fifth of football club Manchester United's debt] and as rights holders are the main beneficiaries of the system, we believe our decision on costs is proportionate to everyone involved.”

The costs sharing decision applies to both the notification and appeals process. Following serious consideration of the issue of appeal costs, it has been decided that no fee should be charged to internet subscribers who wish to use the appeal system to refute a notification. However as a free system risks the possibility of large numbers of unnecessary appeals, the Government will monitor the situation closely, and reserves the right to introduce a small fee at a later stage [retrospectively?].

The decision will now be notified to the European Commission before being introduced in Parliament as a Statutory Order. Ofcom’s Online Copyright Infringement Initial Obligations Code will implement the notifications process and will also reflect the decision on costs. This will come into force in the first half of 2011".

We await further developments with interest.

BBC report here

Future Proofing Your WAN With Ethernet

The nature of wide area networks is changing. Once the exclusive domain of telephone technologies, core networks are being re-engineered for packet switched services. Voice will always be important, but data and video are now the dominant forms of network traffic. How does this affect your business connections and should you be doing anything to stay ahead of the curve?

Most businesses and organizations are being affected by increased requirements for bandwidth. As their line service contracts come up for renewal, savvy managers are taking a look at what’s available now and rethinking their options. Do you simply renew the T1 line contract that you’ve had for years or switch to a newer Ethernet service?

I mention Ethernet because Ethernet in the WAN, also called Carrier Ethernet and Metro Ethernet, are becoming the network connection resource of choice. What’s behind it is a recognition that virtually all business, organizational and home networks are based on standardized Ethernet. That includes the wildly popular WiFi wireless routers and hotspots that have Ethernet inputs and outputs. It seem intuitive that Ethernet would make a good metro and wide area connection technology.

What’s held back Ethernet WAN services is the entrenchment of telephone technology line services. Until deregulation, there was a century of monopoly ownership and development of analog phone lines, carrier telephony, T-Carrier digital line service and SONET/SDH fiber optic services. All of these services were designed to support the basic core element of the individual two-way telephone conversation. Even the vast cellular networks were designed with telephones in mind first and data piggybacked on later as an afterthought.

With data and video dominating digital traffic, it makes sense to take another look at what network characteristics make the most sense for now and in the future. Network providers, including incumbent telephone companies, have done this and are moving rapidly to IP networks and connections. The two most on the ascendancy right now are Ethernet and MPLS Networks. MPLS is an excellent choice for creating a virtual private network cloud that can transport nearly any type of traffic across the country or worldwide. It readily supports Ethernet, making those two network technologies a powerful combination.

While there are other network protocols for specialized applications, it looks right now like we are headed toward an everything-over-Ethernet world. It’s an easy connection from your switches and routers to the carrier that transports your packets to remote destinations. You just plug-in and go. You also have the option of ordering a layer 2 Ethernet service so that you can make all your distant sites connect like they are on the same bridged LAN. In a way, Ethernet makes the WAN portion of the network disappear.

Is it the right time for you to move to Ethernet services? You’ll likely find that they are less expensive per Mbps that other options and offer scalable bandwidth anywhere from 1 Mbps on up to 10 Gbps or more. Check out the cost and availability of Ethernet WAN service for your locations before you commit to other options. You could be missing out of a better deal.

And so to Beth

Breaking news in the United States is that Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters has announced her intention to retire with effect from 31 December 2010. How appropriate a date, it seems, since the last day of the year is also the last day of copyright protection for all those works which fall into the public domain on 1 January of the 51st or 71st (or whatever) year following the author's death or other termination-triggering event.

In post since August 1994, Marybeth's tenure is the second-longest in US history.  Only Thorvald Solberg -- remember him? -- served longer. He reigned from 1897-1930, a period of 33 years, but that was in the days before the internet and computers.

If you want to apply for the job, apply here -- but if you really want to run the show, apply here.

Many thanks to C.E. Petit, distinguished author of the Scrivener's Error weblog, for letting us know. 

Eight strategies to help newspapers thrive

This column originally was published in Editor & Publisher Magazine and is being reprinted with permission. To subscribe to the magazine so you can see the full array of industry coverage when it first appears in print, click here.“What trees do they plant?” the original Major Richard J. Daley once demanded angrily of his critics in the Chicago press. He had a point. Anyone can find fault with

Avoid DNS Cache Poisoning With UltraDNS

On today’s Internet you are going nowhere without DNS. Well, at least if you are human. DNS, the Domain Name System, is what converts all those domain names and lengthy page links into the numerical format that is the native language of the Internet. Living without DNS is untenable with IPV4. When we move to IPV6, probably within a year, it will become even more hopeless.

That’s why fast, reliable DNS services are absolutely critical to anyone using the Web. We tend to take DNS for granted, since these services are provided by every Internet service provider and every Web hosting company. But all DNS services are not equal. Some are slow, some are slow to update, and some are just plain dangerous.

The dangerous part comes from a security attack called cache poisoning. Evil doers, mischief makers, criminals and some of your nastier competitors, compromise a DNS server by exploiting a software weakness. Once in control, they can hijack your traffic and serve up any content they want to unsuspecting visitors. Imagine paying for traffic to your sales sites and then having that traffic redirected to someone else’s sales sites behind your back. Even worse, the content served up could contain malicious content that infects the computers of your visitors and ruins your reputation.

A good way to avoid security issues like DNS cache poisoning is to use a more premium DNS service that offers improved security features. UltraDNS from Neustar is a managed external DNS service that offers a feature called Cache Defender designed to do just that. UltraDNS creates a secure link between the ISP servers and the UltraDNS authoritative DNS servers to prevent malicious DNS responses from poisoning the ISP server’s cache. It uses proprietary software rather than the industry standard BIND software that has been known to have security vulnerabilities.

Managed DNS services are an alternative to taking whatever default DNS service is available from your hosting provider or managing your own DNS servers in-house. The UltraDNS Managed DNS Service has the advantage of being built on a global directory platform with network nodes on five continents worldwide. DNS service requests are routed to the nearest geographical node, with redundancy provided by the other nodes. Being a managed or “cloud” service, you are relieved of burden of system maintenance and operation and benefit from having this immense global resource at your disposal. So confident is Neustar in the robustness of this system that they offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with a 100% uptime network guarantee.

Read all about it - new book is a real Page turner!

Robbie Williams co-manager Tim Clark has told the Popkomm conference that the U.K.’s recently passed Digital Economy Act – aimed at curbing Internet piracy – was “laughable and unworkable" saying that "It allows ISPs to sit on their hands for longer, knowing they are off the hook,” claiming one major label CEO agrees with him that the Act is "a waste of time” and “is never going to work.” Clark said that “the truth is digital technology has driven a panzer division through copyright law” (an interesting choice of words given the location of the Berlin based event) adding “If 70% of the population are ignoring a law, it’s no longer a law – we have to figure out a new way of working with copyright.”

Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails front man, has been at the forefront of creating new music business models for copyright which combine new media and traditional business models – offering free internet downloads of albums alongside premium internet products, limited edition CD and vinyl box sets, special merchandise and other paid for product – in an eclectic mix of free and paid for. Now Jimmy Page, the legendary guitar hero from Led Zeppelin, recently voted the best ever rock band in a BBC Poll, has announced that he will be releasing a limited edition signed photo-memoir priced at £445 bound in silk and leather. The Book was trailed in the Sunday Times Magazine two weekends ago with new and unseen images, and now 2,500 fans can get their hands on the unique book which will contain more than 700 Page picked photographs, starting with the guitarist as a 12 year old choirboy. If the band’s recent massively oversubscribed and sold out 02 reunion is anything to go by, selling 2,500 copies won’t be a problem for Page – whatever the price. Page was described by Rolling Stone magazine as “probably the most digitally sampled artist in pop after James Brown” but he and his publisher Genesis Publishers seem to have hit on a neat revenue generating idea here – free from the worries of digital copyright infringement – and which will net them a cool million – well actually £1,112,500.00.

Photo Sean Preston (c) 1995

POS For Temporary Store Locations

One thing you see every holiday season is the emergence of “pop up stores.” These are temporary retail locations that take over unused floor or store space in malls and strip centers to offer seasonal merchandise. You’ll find them selling christmas decorations or gifts, Halloween costumes, calendars, and other items that only sell for a few weeks or months during the year. When the season is over, they shut down operations until the next year. While these stores are in operation, they need to have the same or even more efficient point of sales systems than regular stores.

Why is POS so important? Simply because the nature of a temporary store is that you have lots and lots of customer traffic in one big burst. Any slowdowns at the checkout lane will drive potential customers to get out of line and go somewhere else. These are sales that can’t be recouped. If you don’t grab them when they’re hot, you don’t get them at all.

Traditional telecom services are a problem for temporary operations of all types. The standard contract for a T1 line or other bandwidth solution is the 1 to 3 year contract. That’s fine for bricks and mortar operations that are a fixture in the community. They know they’ll need the service for at least that long. But what’s a pop-up operation to do? Pay for an entire year’s service even if you need it for only a few weeks to a few months?

Relax. You don’t need to resort to cash only sales or those credit card machines that mangle the cards. You can get highly reliable, fast and secure cashless transactions. What’s more, you can lease this wireless broadband capability on a month to month basis and be up and running in a matter of days. No professional installation is needed. The system comes ready to plug-in and use.

What sort of bandwidth solution is this? It’s a proprietary 3G wireless service from Accel Networks. What Accel has done is make arrangements with the 3G cellular service providers for coverage in the US and Canada. These cover over 90% of business locations, pretty much wherever you can get a strong cell signal. Accel provides you with a bundled proprietary hardware and access solution pre-configured for the best performance at a particular location. Support and monitoring is 24/7. Bandwidth bursts to over 1 Mbps download, considerably more than you’ll likely need for POS even during your busiest times. It’s all PCI compliant so you can accept major credit cards.

Temporary store locations are just one of the important uses for this wireless service. It also works perfectly to provide broadband Internet connectivity to construction trailers, special events, cleanup and rebuilding after natural disasters, or while waiting for permanent wireline services to be installed.

Many businesses use this service on a continuing basis. It takes the place of VSAT satellite terminals, hideously slow dial-up Internet access, and unavailable DSL or Cable broadband. The honest truth is that many smaller businesses don’t need more bandwidth or need to pay higher prices than with this near-universally available business wireless service. These include retail stores, gas stations, convenience stores, quick service restaurants and others.

Do you have a need for temporary or attractively priced wireless broadband service in your business or organization? Find out how little it costs and how fast you can get 3G wireless broadband service at your desired locations. You may wonder why you ever thought you needed a wire.