UK Highway Cameras Appeared Useless

It recently turned out that the advanced snooping technology of the British Highways Agency has proved so useless that no drivers at all have received tickets for speeding on the M25.

Although a lot of users of the largest carpark in the world may be surprised that anyone could go fast enough to get a speeding ticket, it’s clear that at least someone must have got past 70 miles per hour during the past year. Local newspapers explained that certain technical and legal difficulties were the reason why the Highways Agency couldn’t switch on the network of 36 new digital cameras.

The cameras were purchased and installed in order to enforce variable speed limits on the London orbital motorway. It was found out that the equipment was wasted only after AOL wondered which section of the road netted the most cash. Surprisingly enough, it

BitTorrent Certified Set-Top Box Released

Antik Technolog, Slovakian manufacturer of IPTV devices, has recently introduced its first BitTorrent Certified set-top box designed for telecommunication companies, providers and retailers.

The device in question was announced for the first time in this past January. Desperately expected by many, the device called the FullHD Juice Mini is able to play files users download as torrents directly on a TV. Antik Technology CEO explained that Juice Mini was a unique gadget, because it was the first BitTorrent Certified box in the world.

The company added that thanks to their partnership with BitTorrent they have designed that special IPTV device for customers who

British Government Rejected Online Porn Ban

The UK government has recently rejected demands that ISPs install automatic filters on porn material online to protect the kids. After a joint consultation of the Department and Education and Home Office, the ministers have agreed that broadband providers won’t be required to put default blocks on porn content, and the responsibility should lie with parents.

During the consultation, there were suggestions for a process whereby users would have to “opt in” if they wanted to see adult content, instead of being freely available for any users to access. But the report delivering the government’s response to the consultation read that broadband providers would continue to use a so-called “active choice” system employed by such providers as BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. The system involves encouraging parents to set certain controls on specific content instead of being putting it under the remit of the provider.

Iran Launched Its Own YouTube

The country has created its own YouTube which would only allow video on approval of the government’s regime.

Mehr, which means “affection” in Farsi, is created for Persian-speaking Internet users. Its aim is to promote and cultivate the local culture. At the moment, the URL YouTube.IR is redirecting to Fars TV, while Mehr, located at http://ir.mehr.ir, appears to be down. Anyway, the service is expected to share content specific to the country, including music videos. Iranian users will also be able to submit their own material.

Genetic Database to Be Created in UK

Advocates expressed concerns over a £100 million project that will see DNA information of 100,000 cancer patients mapped out in a database. Big Brother Watch has called the plan “wholly wrong”. In the meanwhile, David Cameron promised that the plans will be worked on over the next 5 years to finally hold the genetic details of every UK citizen.

According to the Prime Minister, this move will push the boundaries of science and allow genetic sequencing by unlocking the power of DNA information. However, the UK’s genome plan has also raised some concerns that the information could be used to create commercial deals with such entities as drug firms. People also fear that people having access to the database might use the genetic codes in order to identify and track everyone on it, as well as their relatives.

The Prime Minister’s office also promised that the genome sequencing would be entirely voluntary and the patients will have a choice to opt out without affecting their NHS care.

ITU Treaty Refused by US, UK, and Canada

The United Kingdom, United States and Canada have refused to sign a treaty which would allow greater involvement in web governance to nations throughout the globe

During the International Telecommunication Union conference in Dubai, a number of countries objected outright to the proposals of the agreement. For instance, there was strong opposition from the US Federal Communications Commission. Its head, Robert M. McDowell, claimed that the public governing of the web might impact the basic freedoms of web. McDowell also said that a number of countries present at the conference in UAE had gone back on commitments to keep the web free from government control.

Facebook Changed Policy despite User Vote

Although the company claimed to offer its users a kind of democracy, the social network still made the changes it wanted to its policies. In defense, Facebook blamed its users for not bothering to vote on a topic which received almost no promotion from the social network.

A couple weeks ago, the company opened the polls in a bid to provide its users the chance to vote on how the social network processes people’s information, as well as a plan to get rid of the website’s policy to allow users vote in the first place. However, Facebook has now claimed that participation in the polls wasn’t high enough to reach a consensus from its users.

Entertainment Industry against UK Pirate Party & TPB

Music industry group (British Phonographic Industry) is accusing the British Pirate Party of running its TPB proxy. The copyright outfit is going to sue the British Pirate Party because it refused to take its proxy for The Pirate Bay tracker offline.

The British Phonographic Industry asked the Pirate Party to close down the site, but the outfit had to quickly turn to threats when it didn’t get its way. The Pirate Party leader claimed that the party will stand behind its principles, which could result in an expensive legal battle.

After the High Court ordered a number of British Internet service providers to block their subscribers’ access to the largest BitTorrent tracker earlier in 2012, millions of users began using the British Pirate Party’s proxy service. Frankly speaking, it’s currently one of the most popular sites in the country.

Metallica on Spotify

One of the most famous rock bands – Metallica – finally joined Spotify this December. For a long time the band remained “the poster child of not doing things on the Internet”. Daniel Ek, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spotify, confirmed that the music streaming service is making available Metallica’s music catalog during a presentation to introduce new features in New York.

Previously, Metallica was firm in its refusal to stream its music, but now metalheads will be provided with access to 30 years of recordings from the legendary rock band. Metallica’s official website announced that the band was beyond excited to confirm that music from every single Metallica album was now available on

McAfee Got out of Jail

If you follow the fate of anti-virus guru and Intel brand, turned outlaw, John McAfee, you might be surprised to know that he has been let out of a Guatemalan detention center. Local media has reported that McAfee had been fighting deportation to Belize where the local authorities wanted to question him about his neighbor being shot in the back of the head. McAfee recently admitted that it was ok in his cell, with PC and coffee and everything.

Apparently, judge Judith Secaida has decided that John’s detention was unlawful and ordered him released with providing him with 10 days to put his immigration situation in order. Thus far, it is unclear whether McAfee could get a kind of temporary or transit visa which

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IRC Botnet Takes Advantage of Tor Networks

One of the German anti-virus firms, G Data Software, has found out a controlled from an IRC server botnet inside Tor’s networks. According to the security experts from G Data Software, the botnet is operated via an Internet Relay Chat server hidden inside Tor’s networks.

The security specialists point out that this method involves both benefits and drawbacks. However, the specified list of benefits seems to over weigh the disadvantages. First of all, the obvious advantage is that the botnet server can’t be closed down, because it is nearly impossible to pin-point its location. Secondly, Tor’s protocol also includes encrypted data running via several nodes, which makes surveillance on a certain network very difficult.

UK Copyright Outfit Advised for Transparency

The Open Rights Group made an attempt to avoid complications of website blocking, at the same time having in mind transparency and accountability. The outfit asked ISPs to maintain the public lists of blocked sites, provided by the entertainment industry.

In 2012 the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in cooperation with ISPs managed to block such websites as The Pirate Bay and Newzbin2 across the country. Nevertheless, these giants were only the primary targets, while received injunctions enable the outfit to block other sites providing access to “rogue websites” via alternative addresses. The lists in question are sent to ISPs that ultimately apply the blockage.

UK Black Cabs to Get Free Wi-Fi

London’s famous black cabs are expected to provide free Wi-Fi to passengers. This will be possible thanks to technology provided by a TechCity startup. Passengers of the cab will be able to use the CabWifi service to gain access to 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi after they watch a 15 second ad.

Actually, startup firm Eyetease has been pushing the system in question for 2 years already, trying to offer broadband usage without racking up huge fees. This is especially important for tourists who are forced to pay huge money for data usage when being abroad. However, as Eyetease founder Richard Corbett pointed out, taxi drivers themselves have also seen data costs increasing.

Google Overwhelmed with Bogus DMCA Takedown Requests

Inspired by the overzealous campaigns against digital piracy, many important film studios have asked the search giant to not only remove their own legal material, but even to drop their Facebook pages and Wikipedia posts.

After Google announced of its intentions to publish DMCA notices (within the frames of a program called Google Transparency Report), the company found itself overwhelmed with an unprecedented number of requests.

File-sharer’s Extradition Case is Over

The 24-year-old UK student Richard O’Dwyer has welcomed the end of an American court case following charges over copyright violation. Richard was threatened with a jail sentence in the United States after launching the TVShack site which provided its members with links to pirated movies and other content. O’Dwyer has now had charges dropped, but he was ordered by the court to pay a £20,000 fine.

The student said he was happy that the lawsuit had now drawn to an end, but pointed out that he wished the British government had prevented the legal proceedings from going that far. O’Dwyer announced he was very happy that the case was finally over with, and claimed that he still believed he had never committed any crime. The student appreciated that the United States has decided to drop the case against him.

Bank to Reimburse Hacking Damages

Bank in Maine has finally agreed to reimburse its client $345,000. This amount was lost to hackers because, as the court ruled, the financial institution’s security practices were “commercially unreasonable”.

People’s United Bank, which owns Ocean Bank, will now have to pay Patco Construction Company all the assets the hackers stole from its account three years ago, plus around $45,000 in interest. Back in 2009, the hackers installed malware on the company’s PCs and stole its banking credentials in order to siphon money from its bank account.

The construction company had argued that the authentication system of the People’s United Bank was inadequate and therefore failed to contact Patco after the transactions were flagged as

10 Million Mobile Downloads for BitTorrent

BitTorrent Inc. has recently announced that its mobile apps have reached an impressive milestone: 10 million mobile downloads for a year.

BitTorrent’s popularity is obvious, but it still seems to be propelling insanely fast among Android users. At the moment, the company offers 4 different BitTorrent apps for Android devices (which you can get through Google Play): BitTorrent and µTorrent, as well as remote apps for both BitTorrent and µTorrent. In addition, the file-sharing giant has also made available uTorrent Remote for iOS (Web app), and uTorrent Remote for Windows Phone. According to the recent report, the total number of downloads for all clients amounted to 10,000,000.

UN Allowed Deep Packet Inspection

Despite the fact that Germany warned about the implications of allowing deep packet inspection, a UN summit decided that this method can help protect copyrighted works.

Media reports confirm that a UN summit has approved the Chinese proposals to spy on BitTorrent file-sharers. Back in November, Dubai held a meeting where ITU agreed upon a secret Y.2770 proposal, which allowed access to the papers to members only. Another meeting began this week, where the American government and a few Internet companies harshly criticized the decision.

IMAGINE Group Cammer Got 40-Month Prison Term

One of the members of the in-theater camcording gang called “IMAGiNE Group” was recently handed a 40-month prison term, which became the longest sentence in a file-sharing case in the country. Gregory A. Cherwonik, 53, from New York, was handed the term by a Virginia federal judge one year after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright violation.

Overall, 5 people have pleaded guilty to running IMAGiNE, which is regarded as the most prolific piracy release group since 2009. The indictment said that the group in question sought to be the best group to first release the online copies of new movies only showing in the theaters.

The MPAA said that the group was more successful than any other unauthorized Internet release group due to its short latency periods between the theatrical release and their pirated release. They also

MPAA Denied that MegaUpload’s Shutdown Hurt Box-Office Revenues

MPAA is currently taking issue with the recent research which claimed that the closure of MegaUpload has negative effect on some movies’ box-office revenues.

The researchers at the Munich School of Management and the Copenhagen Business School have published a summary saying that the shutdown of the cyberlocker this January had hurt box-office revenues of some movies, especially independent projects which might benefit from the exposure to file-sharing websites.

The survey says that the information-spreading effect of unauthorized downloads is especially important for films with smaller audiences. The abstract of the summary was published on

Finnish Police Dropped Piracy Case against 9-Year-Old Girl

Finally, the Finnish copyright cops have agreed to drop a case against a 9-year-old girl. The latter might have tried to download some music, but eventually paid for the album anyway. During the investigation, local cops turned up at a man’s house searching for evidence of unauthorized downloading and seized a Winnie-the-Pooh laptop of his very young daughter.

When the girl’s father was suggested to pay a civil settlement fee to the copyright outfit, he rejected. However, he changed his mind after the police showed up at his house to seize one of his girl’s possessions. The man eventually agreed to pay off the outfit named CIAPC (Finnish Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre).

Although earlier the man, who detailed the situation in his Facebook post, was asked for a €600 to settle the case, the Finnish Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre finally settled for half that amount. In any case, it was much lot more than the price of one CD, which the family had already bought anyway.

Employees Use File-Sharing Portals for Work Data

A lot of employees use consumer file-sharing services like Dropbox for storing and exchanging sensitive work-related information, even if they realize that their employer has a specific policy which prohibits the use of such services.

Companies normally rely on corporate IT teams to manage secure protection and controlled access to sensitive information. When their employees turn to using consumer-grade file-sharing services for work files, they can even override the systems in place as well as usurp the responsibility of IT.

Instagram against Twitter

Surprisingly for many, Facebook has handed Instagram a huge cheque. However, it proved to make sense – apart from data mining, Internet users share photos on Facebook, and Instagram was on the up and up with its automatic shot filtering, which makes a simple iPhone snap look decent. Although Instagram’s popularity soared on Twitter as well, the latter has put a stop to that without explanation. This means that Twitter users won’t be able to properly display the pictures via its site or applications, but instead redirected from tweets to Instagram’s website. This deprives users of the quick view option they have enjoyed from its inception. Apparently, Instagram believes that a picture is worth more than 140 characters, though the company only said that disabling Twitter integration made sense at the moment.

Facebook Sent out Vote Notifications

After the recent discussions, the social network has decided to try and calm the debates surrounding its privacy policy. Facebook gives its members a chance to vote on how they want the website to be governed.

Facebook has opened the polls in order to give its members the chance to vote on a few of proposed policy changes as to how the website is run. The changes include the guidelines on how to handle members’ information, and – ironically enough – a plan to get rid of the Facebook’s policy to allow members vote in the first place.

In fact, the proposed votes were a result of a backlash after Elliot Schrage, Vice President, Communications, Public Policy and Marketing, introduced a few changes to the social network’s policy last week.

Australia’s Copyright Law under Discussion

Tech companies keep insisting that the current Australian copyright law needs to be changed in order to welcome the technological revolution. However, Australian Federation against Copyright Theft is perfectly satisfied with the current version of the legislation.

Such tech giants as eBay, iiNet, and Optus had a discussion with the Australian Law Reform Commission. They were arguing that the local Copyright Act should be updated, because the current law has a lot of restrictions – for the use of cloud storage, web search, and caching to name a few.

Google Wins UN in Propaganda Battle

Google is seen winning a propaganda victory against the efforts of the United Nations to regulate the web, but it currently seems that the International Telecoms Union, responsible for the changes, is fighting back. For a while, the efforts of the UN telecommunications body have been pitched as a cunning plan to enable the organization to bring in tough controls for Internet users.

The US made this claim – apparently, the country doesn’t want to give up its own control of the web under the bogus justification that it was the US who invented the Internet. However, the Secretary General of the UN telecommunications body told the

Users Dissatisfied with TalkTalk

One of the largest British ISPs, TalkTalk, has gained the highest percentage in some dissatisfaction levels in the national customer satisfaction research 2012.

TalkTalk has previously been slated as the worst ISP for customer service and in 2012 gained 18% dissatisfaction again – the highest result among landline providers. In the meanwhile, Orange came out with 20% dissatisfaction with a fixed broadband provider.

O2 & Be Broadband Sent out File-Sharing Notifications

Subscribers of O2 and Be Broadband, alleged of unauthorized downloading copyrighted content, have already received notifications from their Internet service providers.

Local media reported that O2 and Be Broadband have begun sending out notification letters to their customers alleged of being involved in downloading copyrighted material. The notifications have been issued to almost 2,800 subscribers.

The Promo Bay Website Banned in UK

After successfully testing out promoting platform for musicians via file-sharing, TPB officially launched The Promo Bay as a separate platform for content creators. However, in a few days, the UK’s ISPs banned the website.

The Promo Bay was started as a launching pad for new content creators and proved to be a great idea. The Promo Bay was appreciated not just by TPB’s users, but also by lots of artists who signed up in a few months. This success made The Pirate Bay to

BitTorrent Introduced Live Streaming

BitTorrent Inc. believes that if you don’t push forward and progress, then you surely regress. This is why the company is busy launching a new service in response to an ever increasing demand of live streaming services.

A new service is called BitTorrent Live: it’s an innovative protocol for P2P live streaming, and BitTorrent invites users to contribute to it. The system in question employs the principles of the BitTorrent protocol, which, when applied to streaming, are able to make broadcasting much easier and provides greater freedom.

Kim Dotcom Became a Commodity in the Anti-Piracy War

Of course, no official of the United States or Hollywood executive would admit that, but Kim Dotcom became a rare commodity. The MegaUpload founder, after the service was closed down, is still promising more than one could imagine.

First of all, Dotcom promised a kind of “retaliation” by rising from its own ashes, though this plan might cost him 400 million NZ dollars. Secondly, Kim recently claimed that he wants to give free broadband for the New Zealand.

Congresswomen Called for Improved Domain-Seizure Regulation

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) has been making attempts to improve the existing legislation over domain seizures, asking Reddit’s users to crowdsource a better law which would diminish the power of American authorities over the web.

The US government managed to seize over 750 domain names since 2010 within “Operation in Our Sites” project, which was started in order to fight Internet piracy. Normally, .com, .org, and .net domain names were targeted, which were allegedly guilty of copyright violation.

UK Pirates Are Also Big Spenders

The recent Ofcom’s report revealed that one out of six British citizens is involved in downloading copyrighted goods. But on the other side, the report in question states that the UK pirates are also spending more than the average consumer.

The country’s communications regulator, Ofcom, launched a survey to find out about the citizens’ download habits. It has published the results on the 20th of November, which reflected the answers of 4.400 Internet users (12 and older).

Canada against Film Piracy

Despite the fact that the country has always been criticized for its failure to come up with better anti-piracy legislation, Canada is currently ready to take on film pirates. The plan is the following.

The Canadians who enjoy downloading pirated films now may think twice before continuing to do so. Recently, a software company has been appointed to gather data on citizens who are accused of downloading illegal material. The company, which

Facebook Proposed New Data Use Policy

Last week the largest social network in the world announced its proposal for new Data Use Policy. More than 3 years ago, the company introduced a voting system, which enabled users to vote on data usage and privacy policies. While the first vote allowed the network members to vote for the proposal, the second one took place this past June. Actually, the results were surprising: only .038% of the users wanted to get involved.

In the meantime, the third and – most likely – final vote is still to come. The policy changes would allow the company to make further changes without informing the users. While those .038% that voted may be unhappy with such result, Facebook has an

Copyright Cops Arrested 9-Year-Old Girl

The entertainment industry sunk to a new PR low recently – they managed to accuse a 9-year-old girl of piracy and confiscate her Winnie-the-Pooh laptop.

CIAPC – the very company that had TPB blocked by Finnish Internet service providers, has tracked some evil file-sharer. The media reports say that they demanded that she pay €600 or go to court. Apparently, the company had no idea that the evil pirate was only 9, which means that €600 was undoubtedly out of the range