The New Zealand Government’s amendments to the Copyright Act, the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill, that was introduced last night has passed today by its Parliament with support from all major parties.
Topic: ISPs
AFACT brings iiNet case to High Court
The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has announced that it plans to lodge an appeal with the High Court in its case against iiNet, alleging that the ISP has allowed its users to infringe on the copyright of the film and television studios it represents.
iiNet victorious in AFACT trial
iiNet has been given a huge victory against a long-running lawsuit by the film and TV studios represented by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT); which included Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warber Bros, 20th Century Fox, Disney and the Seven Network.
Conroy given green light on mandatory filtering scheme
The Federal Government has today announced that it will give the green light to the compulsory internet filtering plan, after a controversial trial to filter the internet was conducted earlier in the year, with the legislation being introduced in Parliament next year.
Conroy threatens further telecommunications reform
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has threatened the telecommunications industry with a plan to add additional reforms to the Telecommunications Act after an report by the industry’s ombudsman said that there was a massive spike in complaints from customers.
Report : Google moving away from net neutrality?
According to a report made by the Wall Street Journal, Google is being reported to have approached the major internet service providers in America with a proposal that would create a “fast lane” for Google’s own content, which includes YouTube, GMail and Google Maps. But the problem is that Google has been one of the advocates for net neutrality.
Comcast to offer usage monitor in January – report says
If a report from DSL Reports is true, Comcast is soon offering its internet subscribers a bandwidth usage metre as early as the first week of January of next year. The new usage metre will allow customers to track how much they have used on their new 250GB caps, meaning that they don’t have to install third-party software to monitor their downloads.
Internode offers ADSL2+ broadband to those far away from exchanges
Internode has announced that it will no longer follow the restrictive rules made by Telstra on their exchanges about the length of the ADSL line in areas where their own ADSL2+ DSLAMs have been installed. It also claims that it will also be able to offer ADSL2+ broadband to those living 7.5km away from an exchange from Telstra.
UK ISPs agree to new plan on piracy
Six of the UK’s biggest internet providers have agreed on a brand new plan to tackle music piracy online. BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have signed up on a plan that will see hundreds of thousands of letters sent to users who were suspected of illegally sharing music.
Internode starts support on IPv6, first in Australia
Internode has announced that it has started supporting the new IPv6, which allows a vast number of new and longer IP addresses after the current shortage on the current system, IPv4. It will operate the new network around Australia and with international PoP (Points of Presence) in Japan and the US.
Koala’s owners in financial strife
Blitz Telecom, the owners of G-Node and Koala Telecom, is being reported to be in financial trouble and has been placed in administration earlier this month.
Director Umut Omer said in the Whirlpool forums that its primary investor recently withdrew his support and that he is working to "propose a Deed of Company Arrangement that would see creditors paid and the company come out of receivership".
Adam suffering technical dramas
Adam Internet customers have been suffering serious technical issues with their ADSL2 connections for almost two days, according to Whirlpool.
The issues began on Wednesday afternoon, with Adam informing its customers that it was impacting many of its exchanges. These have been blamed on its backhaul provider.
iiNet to buy WA ISP for $81 million
Australian internet service provider iiNet has said that it would buy fellow Western Australian ISP Westnet for $81 million.
This will bring iiNet closer to the top two ISPs in Australia, in subscriber numbers; with 685,000 subscribers. Optus has one million subscribers, with Telstra having around 2.5 million.
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.
EFTel to bring in VDSL2 in Australia
EFTel has announced that it will bring VDSL2 (Very High Speed DSL Line 2) to Australia, with more than 70 exchanges being upgraded to support it.
VDSL2 is to be the offer faster speeds than ADSL2, with 100mb/s. However, according to Whirlpool, that it becomes the same as ADSL2 when the connection is 1.6km away from their exchange.
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