Nowadays I am very sceptical about reading government consultation reports. After all, recent events would lead us to believe that consultation and evidence-based advice appears to be systematically ignored by decision-makers, and that the commercial interest will always prevail. So I was almost ready to ignore the report from the Read more…
There were many reasons to believe that the UK would not be seeing any three-strikes legislation against file-sharing. First, the European Union had declared that it was a bad idea. Second, HADOPI had been declared unconstitutional in France. But most importantly, the Digital Britain report had considered that the proposal Read more…
Last night something interesting happened online, a small incident that I think illustrates the problems of instant communications quite well. Geek blog Mashable broke the news that telecomms giant AT&T was filtering access to imageboard 4chan. For those unfamiliar with this site, 4chan is a forum dedicated to the exchange Read more…
The final Digital Britain report was released yesterday. It is long, filled with something for everyone, from digital radio to a new broadband strategy. Some interesting commentary already from panGloss, Charles Arthur, Chris Marsden, and TorrentFreak. The report will be dissected by Internet pundits in the following days, but I Read more…
A mage contemplates his doom in Ulduar I have been reading about a bizarre occurrence that took place in World of Warcraft back in April that has got me thinking about morality, contractual terms, open data, and regulation (whoever said that you could not have serious discussions about games? ) Read more…
The BBC reports that Iran has blocked access to Facebook. According to them, this has been done in order to make sure that followers of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi cannot meet online and gather more support. Does anyone remember our early dreams of a free internet? The Web Read more…
I’ve just listened to a very interesting interview on Radio 4 with Dan Ariely, author of the book about behavioural economics Predictably / Irrational. The interview was in the context of the scandal about MP expenses here in the UK. For readers not located in the land of marmite and Read more…
Good news everyone! The discussion on the Telecomms Package at the European Parliament has produced a good result against “three-strikes and you’re out” policies, as some of the measures that would involve cutting internet connection have been sent back to the negotiating table.I have not been keeping up with the Read more…
The internet is growing. I know that as far as obvious statements go, this one pretty much comes on top. However, when one charts its rate of growth, one can’t help but notice that it seems to be accelerating. For example, a graph showing the number of internet hosts displays Read more…
(via The Guardian’s Tech blog) What is it about the relative anonymity awarded by the internet that turns some people into monsters? Read the story of the Catsouras family, where gruesome pictures taken after the tragic death of their daughter started being distributed all over the internet. Nikki Catsouras had Read more…