IT News
Skynet fires out 100 Copyright infringement notices
Last month, about 100 copyright infringement notices - issued under the two-month old Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act - were sent to local internet users alleging that they illegally downloaded and shared copyright material.
The numbers seem surprising. After all, the recording industry has been telling us for years how illegal downloaders are destroying their business, yet two months into the new legislative regime and they've picked up only 100 offences. That's less than 0.003 per cent of the country's 3.5 million internet users. Of course this may just be the system gearing up. There may be 10,000 notices next week. But I doubt it. I would have thought that from a purely marketing perspective - driving home the "don't download" message and all that - rights holders would have been keen to make something of splash with the initial batch.
The notices come in three flavours: first you'll get a "detection" notice, then a "warning" notice. Then, if you continue in your wicked ways, an "enforcement notice", at which point your details will be sent to the Copyright Tribunal and prosecution may result. The maximum fine is $15,000. If you receive an infringement notice, you have 14 days to challenge it.
There's still much murkiness in this legislation. It defines "file sharing" as "material [that] is uploaded via, or downloaded from, the internet using an application or network that enables the simultaneous sharing of material between multiple users". YouTube, the immensely popular video-sharing website, does just that.
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Skynet Goes Online
The first copyright infringement notices have been issued in New Zealand.
Telecom says it received notices from the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand overnight asking it to send copyright infringement notices to 42 customers that the association has accused of internet piracy.
Earlier today Orcon chief executive Scott Bartlett said it had received notices from Rianz in respect of the activities of eight of its customers and that it would be sending them infringement notices.
TelstraClear spokesman Gary Bowering said it had received a few dozen allegations of copyright infringement and was in the process of validating them. "If they are found to meet the criteria of the new file sharing regulations then we will pass on these allegations to the relevant customers in accordance with the obligations set out in the Copyright Amendment Act."
The notices will be the first sent under the two-month old "Skynet" law, which was passed by Parliament to combat piracy over peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
Telecom spokeswoman Anna Skerten said the notices it had received from Rianz appeared to comply with the conditions of the Copyright Amendment Act.
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Right Click Renames to Lilly Website Development
Right Click Website Development Ltd has changed its name to Lilly Website Development Ltd.
Still the same excillent service and great people. Just a change to our name. Everything will still operate as per normal. If you have an queires then please contact us.
John Lilly - Lilly Web
Steve Jobs - 1955 - 2011
Steve Jobs, the Apple founder and CEO who died today after a long battle with illness, said those words in 2005 after beating back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer. He was 56.
He went on to help Apple launch a series of groundbreaking products which revolutionised the computer and digital communication industries.
Jobs, considered by some to be the Leonardo da Vinci of his age, was renowned for his fierce determination.
He was the mastermind behind Apple, the company he founded only to be forced out and then return to rebuild into a dominant force via a string of hugely popular products - the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes.
In recent years he mixed huge business success with personal turmoil, including surviving a liver transplant in 2009.
Today the plaudits flowed, with Jobs being compared to the great American entrepreneurs Henry Ford and Walt Disney.
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Steve Jobs quits as Apple CEO
Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple arguing he can no longer meet his duties and expectations.
Apple's shares were suspended before the announcement but soon after fell 7 per cent on the news that one of Silicon Valley's most celebrated luminaries, who was integral to the development of the iPod, iPad and Mac products, was bowing out for good.
Jobs, who has been on medical leave due to an undisclosed medical condition since January 17, said in a letter to the Apple board of directors and community that Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook would be his successor.
The pancreatic cancer survivor, who co-founded Apple from a garage and brought the company back from the dead when industry figures including Dell founder Michael Dell were arguing it should be broken up and sold off, said he had always said he would let people know if there ever came a day where he could no longer fulfill his duties as Apple's CEO.
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Lilly joins The Hobbit cast
Lost star Evangeline Lilly is the latest celebrity to be spotted around Wellington as filming on The Hobbit resumes.
The 31-year-old actress, who played Kate Austen in Lost, was in New Zealand to play elf, Tauriel, in Sir Peter Jackson's film which is being shot from his Miramar studios.
Lilly joins a growing number of celebrities spotted in the capital as they film the anticipated two-part movie, including Orlando Bloom, Stephen Fry, James Nesbitt, and Martin Freeman.
Jackson's spokesman would not reveal which celebrities were currently in Wellington, but said filming had resumed last week and would continue until December.
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Retrospective Legislation: More evidence of Ill-conceived Law
I need not go into all the other questionable elements of the bill (skynet bill), such as how it was bought and paid for by international companies. These companies are of course the primary beneficiaries of such a bill. No, today I will just criticise the dangers of retrospective legislation.
Retrospective legislation means that the law will takes effect before it becomes law. If this sounds confusing it's because it is. The dangers of retrospectively is that someone can be held liable for an act legal in the present but illegal in the future. This leads to a minority report type future crime situation. Typically the Courts will tread wearily around retrospective legislation for this reason.
It is possible to raise this as a defence in a Tribunal situation (perhaps, this is not legal advice) because parliament does not intend to pass retrospective legislation in criminal matters (s26 Bill of Rights Act). However, it suggests that people maybe receiving their first notice the day the law comes into effect. Furthermore, the fact it has yet come into effect will be no excuse.
This is just another example of how this legislation seeks to punish by operating contrary to the majority of laws. It is once more to favour one party at the expense of others. So the lesson seems to be: even before its past this law is bias towards one party. Most civil matters at least attempt to place the parties on equal footing so the case can be heard on the balance of probabilities. This law, bucks the trend, favours one party absolutely, and seeks to penalise anybody irrespective of guilt.
A woeful day for civil law procedure!
Lindsay Breach - LLB/BA (hons) (Cant.)
Google Plus - the new Facebook
Google has just launched war on Facebook with Google+ and it has all ready been named 'The Facebook killer'.
The main point of difference which Google+ brings to the social network community is 'Circles'. The circles feature lets you group your different relationships such as 'friends', 'work colleagues', 'family' or just 'strangers'. You can then decide on which groups you would like to communicate with and the way you communicate with them.
Another feature which stands out is 'Hangouts' which lets you group video call any of your circles. This makes organising which movie to go see with a group of your mates an easy task or setting up a conference call with work colleagues very practical.
Will Google+ be the next Facebook? Only time will tell, but it looks very promising from what we have seen so far.
Currently it appears that Google+ is still in trial mode, but if you would like a sneak peak please let us know via our Enquiry Page and we will send you an invite.
John Lilly - Lilly Web
Labour won't support Govt's broadband changes
Labour claims broadband customers will get a bad deal from legislation setting up the country's ultra-fast broadband network.
The party voted against the Telecommunications Amendment Bill at its second reading yesterday, but the bill still had the numbers to pass.
It sets up the rollout of rural broadband and separates the major broadband contractor, Telecom, into two new business arms.
Labour MP Clare Curran says her party is committed to faster broadband, but won't support the bill.
The Government has already backtracked on the provision that would stop the Commerce Commission inquiring into prices for a decade.
RadioLIVE
Copyright law 'will not change'
The Government will not revisit a controversial law that allows internet providers to disconnect users for alleged copyright infringements, despite a UN report that said internet access was a human right.
In a recent report on internet freedoms, UN special rapporteur Frank La Rue said he was "alarmed by proposals to disconnect users from internet access if they violate intellectual property rights".
That included laws that would introduce a graduated response, whereby a series of penalties could lead to the suspension of internet services.
New Zealand recently passed legislation that would allow internet service providers (ISPs) to send up to three infringement notices to alleged copyright infringers.
The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act also includes a provision that would allow copyright holders to apply to a court for suspension of internet services, but that would not come into force unless the Government considered the warning system was ineffective.
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Sony CEO's apology for internet breaches
Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer apologised to users of its PlayStation Network, breaking his silence on one of the biggest Internet security break-ins ever, but failing to provide a date when services would resume.
Stringer's comments come after he faced criticism of his leadership since Sony revealed hackers had compromised the data of more than 100 million accounts. Kazuo Hirai, his likely successor, led a news conference and apology on Sunday.
Sony issued its first warning on the break-in a week after it detected a problem with the network on April 19, infuriating many PlayStation users around the world. Sony said it needed time to work out the extent of the damage.
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Law to fight internet piracy passed
A bill that could see internet users have their access cut off if they repeatedly share copyright material has been passed by Parliament.
The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill, which aims to stamp out internet piracy, passed by 111 votes to 11 this morning.
It was supported by all parties except the Greens and independent MPs Chris Carter and Hone Harawira.
Fierce protest erupted last night as the Government used urgency to rush the bill through its final stages.
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Almost two million at risk of being hacked
Nearly two million New Zealanders are at risk of having their personal information, including credit card details, stolen by hackers.
All Microsoft users with Internet Explorer are vulnerable to the security breach, which is described as a loophole in the programming.
Nearly 900 million users are understood to be affected.
"This is an information disclosure fault, so they have the ability to access names, addresses, that type of thing," Mark Ross of Microsoft told ONE News.
Full Article From TVNZ News Click Here
Aftershocks shake up computers
The aftershocks from Canterbury's earthquake are finally starting to subside but fresh damage is still coming to light.
There has been a massive surge in the number of computers rendered useless by vibration damage.
When the September earthquake struck Canterbury early in the morning most of the regions computers were turned off and the subsequent power failure protected those that were not, but that was not the case during the thousands of aftershocks that followed.
If a computer is running during an aftershock it can hit the area where all the data is stored - the hard drive, which can scratch it and lead to loss of information.
Vibration damage to hard drives was something owner of computerservice.co.nz Brendon O'Connor found in very few computers, but now says it's in one in four coming through his door.
Full Article From TVNZ News Click Here
Save time with your emails, avoid inbox anxiety!
Emails were meant to make our lives easier but a survey of New Zealand office workers has found it's one of the major factors in workplace stress.
More than a third of workers said they stressed about unanswered and irrelevant emails.
A productivity consultant says all that can be changed within five minutes.
Debbie Mayo-Smith is the mother of triplets and twins so it is no wonder it takes more than a full email inbox to leave her frazzled.
"I'm Miss productivity, Miss conquer your email overload!" She says.
Full Article From 3News Click Here
Updated bill revises penalties for pirates
Video, music and software pirates no longer face the prospect of having their internet cut off, unless the Commerce Minister gives the green light.
The commerce select committee reported back the Copyright Amendment Bill yesterday, watering down the ability of copyright owners to punish those that breach copyright by illegal file-sharing.
The bill would enact a three-notice system whereby downloaders would have three chances to stop breaching copyright until they faced a fine of up to $15,000 and the prospect of losing internet access for six months.
But the committee - in a cross-party, last-minute decision - decided that all applications to suspend internet accounts would have to get approval from Commerce Minister Simon Power.
Full Article From nzherald Click Here
HTML5 vs Flash? Pick a side with 'Pong'
Coders created one side of the digital tennis court (for lack of a better term) with HTML5 and the other with Flash, letting users compare and contrast the two. Tech observers predict the two languages will be vying for dominance in the coming months and years.
"The Flash vs HTML5 debate has caused much discussion over the recent months and it certainly got us thinking here at Code," the creators wrotein a blog post. "We believe the two technologies are not in competition and each have their purpose, but thought it might be amusing to actually put them in direct competition."
HTML5, which is currently still being refined, is the latest version of HTML, the most popular coding language used to create Web pages.
Play Code Computerlove's Flash vs. HTML5 game of "Pong"
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Mouse of the future!
Designed in Christchurch and made in Thailand, the Swiftpoint promises to be a revolutionary device.
For one thing, it's tiny - with is partly the point. It's so small you can happily use it on the space below the keyboard and beside the central trackpad on most laptops, and most definitely there is plenty of room on Apple's.
The NZ based technology company, Swiftpoint Ltd, was formed by Grant Odgers. He says the idea came from frustration with the touchpad on his laptop. Odgers wanted the benefits of laptop mobility but found the limitations of a touchpad ruined the experience.
Full Article From nzherald Click Here
Microsoft, Facebook team up on social search
Microsoft is starting to incorporate what your friends do on Facebook right into its Bing search engine.
The software maker began rolling out a new feature Wednesday that can show what someone's Facebook friends "like" on the search results page.
On Facebook and sites around the Web, people can click a "like" button to show support or share information with Facebook friends.
In the coming weeks, if you use Bing to search for a topic in the news, articles that friends have shared on Facebook might appear, along with their names and Facebook profile photos.
Restaurants and movies that friends have "liked" could help you decide what to do on your next date.
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Microsoft sends out major fix
Microsoft issued its biggest-ever security fix on Tuesday, including repairs to its ubiquitous Windows operating system for flaws that could let hackers take control of a user's personal computer.
Microsoft released 16 security patches to address 49 problems it identified in its products.
It said four of the patches were high priority and should be deployed immediately to protect users from potential criminal attacks on the Windows operating systems. The patches are software updates that write over glitches.
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Google reveals new image format
Google has introduced a new image format, which it claims delivers files 39 percent smaller than equivalent quality JPEGs.
"Most of the common image formats on the web today were established over a decade ago and are based on technology from around that time," Google product manager Richard Rabbat wrote on the company's blog.
"Some engineers at Google decided to figure out if there was a way to further compress lossy images like JPEG to make them load faster, while still preserving quality and resolution."
The result is WebP, which the company claims delivers equivalent image quality to JPEG but uses 39 percent less space.
Full Article From 3 News Click HereWindows 7 overtakes Vista
Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7, now has more users than its predecessor, Windows Vista.
Both however still lag well behind Windows XP, which at nine-and-a-half years old, is comparatively ancient in computer terms.
Trade Me Glitch
Trade Me says it will do everything it can to "nail" the cybercriminals who targeted users of its popular auction site with malicious software. The malware was part of an online advertisement, purportedly for Lonely Planet, that appeared on the Trade Me website over two days last week. It told users their computers were affected by a virus and prompted them to download a virus-removal program, which was actually a virus.
Full Article From Stuff Click HereMishka: Talking dog to singing star
Saying "I love you" made Mishka the husky a YouTube hit, an iPad app could make her a recording star.
Mishka the talking dog's various videos on YouTube have had more than 59 million views since her first post on YouTube two years ago.
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