Songwriters Association of Canada's Internet money-grab proposal

This is for real... the Songwriters Association of Canada has proposed that the Canadian government force each internet subscriber to give the Association $5 each month because songwriters aren't able to make as much money as they would like to. Not gonna happen... (fortunately!)


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CIPPIC releases short copyright law video

"The Canadian government is expected to introduce copyright legislation modeled on the controversial American Digital Millennium Copyright Act. How will this affect Canadians' everyday life? To explain this issue, CIPPIC has produced a short movie, now available on our website."


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Bad ISPs

Azureus has a list of Internet service providers (ISPs) that are known to cause trouble for BitTorrent clients or other P2P clients- Wireless Nomad, on the other hand, encourages subscribers to use P2P apps, because they are really useful.

"The following is a list of Internet service providers (ISPs) that are known to cause trouble for BitTorrent clients or other P2P clients and the reason why. If you are using one of the following ISPs, please consider finding a new, better one."


LINK to Azureus

>LINK to MacWorld net neturality article (part 3)

Liberal MP Karen Redman Wants to Force ISPs to Get a Licence to Offer Internet Access

From Prof. Geist's blog:

"Liberal MP Karen Redman yesterday introduced Bill C-506, the Internet Child Pornography Prevention Act. The bill envisions a new licensing system for ISPs to be administered by the CRTC, with liability for knowingly permitting access to child pornography. The bill also empowers the government to order ISPs to block access to child pornography."

Trotting out the old "we'll do anything to stop child porn" angle, Liberal MP Karen Redman would force ISPs to get a license just so they can connect subscribers to the 'Net. Does she plan to propose a license for book stores next? What about people lending books to friends? Or co-operative users sharing internet connections?

>LINK

Ridiculous Internet Proposal in the UK

From Ars:

UK ISPs don't want to play umpire to "three strikes" rule
By Nate Anderson | Published: February 15, 2008 - 10:27AM CT

"Lord Triesman, a one-time communist and student agitator, is now the man leading the charge for ISP content filtering and a "three strike and no more Internet" policy. ISPs are not pleased."

Totally nuts.

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Apple iPhone's Ease of Use Encouraging Mobile Internet Usage

The iPhone, and the iPod Touch do the best mobile web access I've ever seen. I use my Touch to get web pages and email almost every day, sometimes just because it's more convenient than getting a big old laptop out to just look something up on Wikipedia. For $300, the Touch has been worth every penny so far- and I can't wait to get an iPhone when they are out in Canada (for real, not just the "Pacific Mall Edition").

"Indeed, it appears that iPhone owners are using the internet many times more than their non-iPhone counterparts. Google revealed that there are 50 times more searches originating from the iPhone than any other mobile handset. The discrepancy was so great that Google initially thought it was a mistake."


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Inside Net Neutrality: Protect your privacy when using BitTorrent

"You might think that when you sign up with a high-bandwidth service plan with an ISP, you’ll be able to transfer data at the advertised speeds. Yet that’s not always the case: As we learned in part one of our network neutrality series, some Internet service providers have begun examining their customers’ traffic, throttling back bandwidth, or talking to industry organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America about the possibility of identifying and filtering out copyrighted material on the network level."

Of course, Wireless Nomad doesn't mess around with subscriber's connections, but not all of you are Wireless Nomad members, sot this article might be useful.


LINK to MacWorld

Business coalition opposes harsh copyright reform

From the CBC website:

"A who's who of powerful companies and business associations have banded together to push for less restrictive copyright reform, driving a stake into the heart of the federal government's argument for its new copyright bill."

Among other things, the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright is calling for:

-A clause that prevents copyright owners from going after people or companies who circumvent for non-commercial reasons the technological protection measures placed on content. A record label, for example, should not be able to sue a consumer who gets around copy-protection measures in order to transfer a song to an iPod.

-No surcharges on downloadable content. Copyright owners have been pushing for downloads to be considered as "communications to the public," and say they should therefore be subject to an additional fee. The coalition believes such a charge would unfairly double the delivery cost of online music, films, games and other software.

-An exemption for violating copyright as part of legitimate business practices, such as when a broadcaster copies a show for its archives.

-No liability for internet service providers for the actions of their users.


LINK to CBC

ArsTechnica has a piece as well:
LINK to Ars

Macworld Takes a Look at Network Neutrality

"Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) acts as a gateway between you and the Internet. It’s the pipeline that allows you to access everything from your e-mail to remote file servers where you back up your important data—not to mention browsing the Web.

But what happens if, instead of a pipeline, your ISP instead acts as a filter? In some cases, that scenario is beginning to play out as ISPs increasingly seem to be moving toward favoring some types of traffic over others."

Filtering content goes against everything Wireless Nomad stands for as an ISP. Each subscriber has a connection, and as far as we're concerned, it's theirs to do with as they wish, so long as that use doesn't unreasonably impair the use of the network by others (but all subscribers have to share their extra bandwidth over the WiFi!).


LINK to Macworld

Rogers Unlimited data plan not so unlimited after all

From ArsTechnica:

"In advertising, superlatives rarely mean what they are meant to. However, there are times when "truth in advertising" gets stretched beyond reasonable limits. Case in point: the introduction of "unlimited" mobile data service plans by network providers such as Rogers' new Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing Plan in Canada.

At first glance, the plan seems fairly straightforward: unlimited mobile data and Internet access for a mere extra $7 per month on top of your existing phone plan. However, when you look a little more closely, the "unlimited" deal turns out to be anything but unlimited. There is a limit of 2,500 sent text messages per month, and 1,000 picture or video messages, despite the fact that these too are "data" and should be unlimited. Of greater concern is the fact that the deal only applies to select phones and does not include Blackberries, Windows Mobile devices, laptops using PC cards for mobile data access, or unlocked devices such as Apple's iPhone. The latter is still officially unavailable in Canada, but many wondered if the revealing of this "unlimited" plan was a clue that Rogers was about to announce that they had secured exclusive access to sell the iPhone in the Great White North. This does not appear to be the case at the moment."


LINK to Ars

Funny story about computer confiscation in Denmark (and open WiFi abuse)

Police in Denmark confiscated the computer belonging to the guy who does the Rottin' in Denmark blog. They accused him of using a stolen credit card to buy stuff online. The blogger explained that he has an open WiFi access point, and that anyone can use it. It took them a long time to figure that out, but they took his computer (and his room mate's computer) anyway.

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Students tout WiFi co-ops as alternative to municipal WiFi

Good to see this kind of coverage for co-operative technology ideas and initiatives. As always, though, these things are harder in the States because of the elimination of competitive access to incumbent carrier's networks.

"Many urban areas already have enough WiFi hotspots to create a municipal WiFi service. Students at two universities have come up with an idea to link disparate WiFi networks into city-wide WiFi co-ops."

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