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USTR on ACTA: “Not Seeking P2P Penalties Beyond US Law”
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk responds to written questions from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), telling him that “we are not seeking any obligations that go beyond US law concerning termination of repeat infringers, monitoring of online behavior, or expeditious receipt by copyright holders of information concerning alleged infringers.” US Trade Representative Ron Kirk has responded to questions from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) regarding the highly controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in a letter recently published on the USTR’s site for public viewing. Senator Wyden, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness, had asked Kirk for details on variety of copyright infringement proposals currently being discussed. Specifically, he asked what sort of “legal incentives” he’s seeking to encourage ISPs to cooperate with copyright holders to deter illegal file-sharing.
Continue reading »Huge Russian BitTorrent Site Has Domain Suspended
In the Western world, sites such as The Pirate Bay and isoHunt get plenty of publicity, largely due to their size and prominence. Of course, there are other sites elsewhere that attract relatively little attention in English speaking countries and around Europe, despite being very large indeed. One such giant is Torrents.ru, a huge Russian BitTorrent site with 4 million torrents and one million users which has operated relatively trouble-free – until now.
Continue reading »FCC wants 260 million people on 100Mbps broadband by 2020
Finally, the FCC has had it with “small ball”—and the agency is at last detailing some big-picture aspirational goals for US broadband. By 2020, the National Broadband Plan calls for 100 million homes to have 100Mbps Internet access, and the US should have the world’s largest “ultra-high-speed broadband testbeds.” In addition, Internet adoption rates should hit at least 90 percent—way up from the current 65 percent. Broadband will also become a universal service like the telephone system of old—and FCC Chairman Julius Genachoswki promised today that even baseline service would be faster than the 1-2Mbps currently pushed by other countries .
Continue reading »Google Camera Helps Nab Alleged Tree Killers
Forget about all of those ubiquitous police surveillance cameras in your city: the new sheriff in town is that shifty Google Maps camera wheeling through your neighborhood. Recently, a property owner in Canada was charged with illegal removal of trees after a Google camera helped capture the evidence, according to CanWest News Service. Last May in Vancouver, Margaret Burnyeat allegedly hired a company to remove 23 cedar, cypress and evergreen trees from two adjacent lots she owned.
Continue reading »Omnifone snares HP bundle deal
PC giant cocks an ear Three years on from its debut , streaming music service Omnifone has gained a toe hold on the desktop, thanks to a major PC deal. HP will bundle its MusicStation service pre-installed in 10 European countries on laptops and desktop PCs.… ?
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