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By Terence Huynh on April 26th, 2008

Music Industry opens new way to “stop” piracy

Telstra BigPond has shrugged off threats of legal action against the music industry after record labels drag ISPs to court to stop the piracy.

The largest ISP in Australia has said that it would be “gobsmacked” if the music industry here, represented by ARIA, would try to do the same; arguing that local copyright laws protected it for being responsible.

The industry wants to adopt a “three strikes and you’re out” system, where after you get complaint of piracy three times will be disconnected. All but one local ISPs have rejected the plan. Shocking, that one ISP that has approved the plan is Exetel.

The industry is also frustrated as it believes that the other ISPs are waiting for BigPond to jump on board with the new scheme before adopting it, and has indicated that it may sue local ISPs as a last resort.

Internationally, the “three strikes” rule has been adopted in Japan and France, with the British government indicating that it could force ISPs in the UK to adopt it.

However, the European Parliament has rejected the “three strikes” rule, with a Swedish MP and a former Prime Minister of France saying that it would conflict with civil liberties, among other things. Both France and the UK are members of the European Union.

But this vote is not legally binding, and France is expected to push for the system to be adopted in Europe when it takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU in the second half of this year.

By Terence Huynh on April 26th, 2008

15 cents for just an extra 2GB? Hell no!

Optus has this weird thing on your internet where you have to pay an extra 15c for every MB, with a maximum of 2GB. This is absurd, and outrageous.

It’s just another money-making scheme, where we are in a middle of paying higher interest rates and many of us losing our homes or have to cut back spending. These, however, are making additional hell. And I’m facing it.

By Terence Huynh on April 25th, 2008

CNET Networks and Yahoo in new partnership

While both CNET Networks and Yahoo are facing threats on their companies, both companies have announced a partnership which will provide content to Yahoo sites and will cross-sell advertising.

The new venture will bring about $100 million in revenue for the next three years for CNET Networks, who publishes CNET, GameSpot, TV.com and many other properties in the US and internationally. It is set to launch in the third quarter.

By Terence Huynh on April 24th, 2008 in Pwnage

Europe games rating face update

The Pan European Game Information, or PEGI, is set to get a ratings update after a survey was done in all of the EU member states.

The survey has revealed that some nations have not done anything to enforce the age limits, with a code of conduct is being suggested with retailers around Europe.

By Terence Huynh on April 24th, 2008

Hacker claims News Corp hired him

A hacker has told the court that he was hired by News Corporation, the owners of The Australian, The New York Post and FOX, to develop pirating software.

Christopher Tarnovsky, described as one of the two best hackers in the world, denied using the software to hack into a rival satellite television service. He is testifying in a corporate-spying lawsuit against News Corp’s NDS Group by Dish Network.

By Terence Huynh on April 23rd, 2008 in Pwnage

Intel slashes quad-core chips by 50%

In a move that signals the "next phase", as APC says, Intel has slashed the price of the Q6700 Core 2 Duo Quad processor in half, with the other chips in its line reduced by 30 percent. The Q6700 now sells for US$266, or around AU$280; from the original price of US$530, or AU$558.50.

By Terence Huynh on April 22nd, 2008

Office 2007 is not compatible with OOXML

Microsoft now has some explaining to do after a document standards specialist has said that the latest version of Office does not conform to the latest OOXML (Office Open XML) standard.

By Terence Huynh on April 21st, 2008

Anti-CNN group hacked sports sites

An anti-CNN group promoting to hack the site has hacked into two sites relating to sports, one under the CNN.com’s Sports Illustrated name.

Sportsnetwork.com and sports.si.cnn.com were both hacked Early Sunday, with the former still showing the message written by the group.

By Terence Huynh on April 19th, 2008

eBay hacker arrested in Romania

A hacker notorious of repeatedly accessing the off-limit parts of the eBay’s network and bragged about it in the public has been arrested, according to the company.

Vlad Constantin Duiculescu, also known as Vladuz, was arrested by Romanian police force with the help of the US Secret Service, the FBI and eBay’s global fraud investigation team. It would not discuss additional details; and both the Secret Service and the FBI could not be reached for comment.

By Terence Huynh on April 19th, 2008

AT&T says internet to reach full capacity by 2010

In less than two years, the current network architecture that makes up the Internet may reach its limits in 2010; according to the U.S telecommunications giant, AT&T.

Speaking at the Westminster eForum in London; Jim Cicconi, the vice president of legislative affairs at AT&T, warned that the current systems will not be able to cope with the increasing amounts of video and user-generated content that is being constantly uploaded to sites.

Speaking at the event as part of meetings with the UK government officials, he said that at least $5 billion was needed to invest in new infrastructure in the US alone for the next three years. He also claimed that the “new wave” of traffic would increase 50-fold by 2015; with AT&T investing $19 billion to maintain and upgrade its network.

He also warns that HD content would create the increasing strain on the network.

“Eight hours of video is loaded onto YouTube every minute. Everything
will become HD very soon, and HD is 7 to 10 times more bandwidth-hungry
than typical video today. Video will be 80 percent of all traffic by
2010, up from 30 percent today,” he said.

By Terence Huynh on April 16th, 2008 in Gadgetlyst

Police targets Pay TV piracy ring

The Australian Federal Police have arrested two men in Victoria, after a six-month investigation into an alleged piracy syndicate.

Executing 10 search warrants in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland; they managed to find hundreds of fake Pay TV encryption cards and set-top boxed. These fake smart cards, or “gamma” cards, are used with these set-top boxes to receive and decrypt the signals from Foxtel and Austar service.

By Terence Huynh on April 16th, 2008

France to crack down on sites promoting anorexia

French politicians have called for stiff penalties, including three years in jail, for fines against “pro-anorexia” sites and publications that encourage girls and young women to stave themselves.

“Giving young girls advice about how to lie to their doctors, telling them what kinds of food are easiest to vomit, encouraging them to torture themselves whenever they take any kind of food is not part of liberty of expression,” Roselyne Bachelot, France’s Health Minister, said to the French parliament.

By Terence Huynh on April 16th, 2008

XP SP3 debut date announced

Microsoft has now officially said the SP3 version of XP will come out of the “first half of 2008″, but some RTM (Release to Manufacturing) builds are expected to come out on the second half of April.

By Terence Huynh on April 15th, 2008

Telstra’s CDMA to close in days

Telstra will shut down the CDMA mobile phone network after the Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has told the press that the giant telco has met the requirements that would allow such closure.

The CDMA network is being superseded for the new Next G Network, and Telstra has told customers to switch or move to another network.

The ten-year-old network served almost two million users in the regional areas of Australia. Telstra wanted to shut down the network in 2007, but the government forced it to be postponed until it met the requirements.

Telstra will also provide a hotline for those who are want their questions resolved and its handset replacement program for those who switched to Next G. You can call them on 1800 888 888. However, on July 1; it will continue the handset exchange using the established customer service line on 125 111.

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