The Internet is broken. You may have noticed some of the signs: slow connections, sluggish downloads, constant disconnections, lost emails, tons of spam. Who broke it, and how can we fix it? This was part of a very interesting talk by Chris Marsden at BILETA 2008, an earlier version of Read more…
Last month we talked about the much reported plan to force ISPs into enforcing file-sharing by imposing a “three strikes and you’re out” policy by which users who download infringing material online will be issued with two warnings and then their system will be disconnected from the network. I commented Read more…
It’s been a week since the largest ever fine by the European Commission was issued to Microsoft for failure to comply fully with the eponymous competition case. I must admit that even I, not a fan of Microsoft, flinched at what seems to be unusually steep punishment for failure to Read more…
The British technophobe media are having a field day. As a result of the tragic series of suicides in the Welsh town of Bridgend (17 since last year), some sectors of the mainstream media have been quick to allocate the blame on the internet in general, and social networking sites Read more…
President Nicolas Sarkozy has a new target: Internet pirates. According to Reuters, France is set to punish illegal downloaders by cutting off their broadband. Apparently, they will receive warnings, and at the third their ISP will be forced to cut them off. I am sure that many people will make Read more…
Back in August we reported on a surprisingly visionary paper from the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, which requested urgent government action against cybercrime. Last Friday Blogzilla commented that the official government response was disappointing. The government’s response has been that all is well, all legislation is Read more…
The Washington Post reports on action being taken by some ISPs in the United States to curb high traffic. Comcast is reportedly terminating users’ accounts based on high bandwidth usage, although it seems like there is no specification of how much is too much. I’m surprised by the move, as Read more…
I have been meaning to to write about this column by Marina Hyde in The Guardian, but I wanted to keep some distance from it. While I welcome all sorts of articles that criticise technologies, I have been distraught by certain tone emerging in the supposedly more progressive sectors of Read more…
(via net.wars) The official Second Life blog has announced that it will ban gambling from the popular virtual world. The new policy bans all games of chance through random-number generators that provide a payout in Linden dollars or any real life currency. This includes all sorts of casino games (such Read more…
The idea that the Internet is filled with sexual predators has received a boost as MySpace has admitted to having found and removed 29,000 registered sex offenders on its site. The admission comes amongst attempts by North Carolina’s Attorney General to change the law so that social networking sites require Read more…