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Sunday, November 30, 2008
 
  Defiant, BitTorrent and NZB Sites Fight Back Against ‘Intimidation’ | TorrentFreak
Last week TorrentFreak reported that South Africa’s answer to the RIAA had taken down the country’s largest torrent site and an affiliated Usenet NZB site. According to the lawyer representing the sites for free, the recording industry had no standing to make a complaint. Furthermore, the actions of the sites’ host were unconstitutional. Both sites, BitFarm and NewsHost, are coming back online.

RiSa and torrent website truce?
The issue of torrent websites and copyright infringement has been a hot topic worldwide for years, and recently hit local shores with the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) Anti-Piracy Unit issuing take-down notices to local torrent and newshost websites.

Local websites in danger
The recent debate over the take-down of local torrent and file-sharing websites Bitfarm, Ninja Central and Newshost have highlighted some serious shortcomings in the way in which complaints about online content are handled in South Africa.

Torrent and piracy debate rages on
The issue of torrent websites and copyright infringement hit the headlines recently with the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) Anti-Piracy Unit issuing take-down notices for local torrent and newshost websites.

How legal are torrents in SA?
Peer-to-peer file sharing has become one of the ‘killer applications’ of the broadband era, making it possible for users connected to the Internet to easily share files with other users and gain access to content from across the world.

Ivy abandons licence appeal
After staggering against the ropes three times, Communications Minister Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri threw in the towel on Friday.

OOXML standard is published
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has published the specification for a Microsoft-created file format, which has kept industry in a controversial debate for over a year.

Online spending drops for the first time
Online monitoring company ComScore reports that online spending has dropped for the first time since records began, according to Computing.co.uk.

President signs tech innovation Bill
The president has signed the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) Bill, which forms part of the Department of Science and Technology's (DST's) 10-year innovation plan.

Waspa tightens mobile regulations
Mobile content service providers will now be required to explicitly notify customers once their service bill exceeds its limit.

VANs dread new licence fees
The proposed licence fee structure for new telecommunications licences could put a damper on the victory celebrations of smaller value-added network service providers (VANs). They could now see themselves hammered by up to a 30-fold increase in their licence fees.

Internet firms hit at media copyright rorts | The Australian
THE local internet industry has cried foul over 'unfair targeting' by a coalition of film and TV behemoths over copyright infringement claims.

Court convicts Myspace cyber-bully
A 49-year-old Missouri mother has been found guilty in a landmark 'cyber-bullying' case stemming from the suicide of a teenager who killed herself after being sent taunting emails.

Judge puts 'Internet baby' into temporary care
A Dutch judge Thursday granted child care authorities temporary guardianship of a four-month-old Belgian boy allegedly sold by his parents to a Dutch couple over the Internet.

Report predicts 15m mobile Internet users
Local market research and analysis firm, BMI-TechKnowledge, has announced the publication of its latest report entitled: SA Consumer Handset Model and Cellular Activities Report.

Bandwidth prices to plummet
South Africa’s local and international bandwidth pricing remains one of the biggest hindrances to broadband and IT growth in the country. New telecoms infrastructure developments, however, promise to remedy this situation.

Concern as Icasa seeks to hike licence fees
TELECOMS companies are facing multimillion-rand hikes in licence fees under new regulations which will greatly increase annual costs.

Broadband awards
MyBroadband has announced its yearly broadband and IT award winners at their recent conference held at Vodaworld, Johannesburg. These ‘People’s Choice’ awards set themselves apart from other accolades in the industry as it is voted for by consumers, recognizing excellence by the people using a company’s broadband service or reading a journalists’ articles.

Thursday, November 27, 2008
 
  Online ad spending slowing, says eMarketer
\Growth in online advertising spending is slowing amid a weak economy and will fall into single digits next year for the first time, research firm eMarketer reported on Tuesday.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
 
  Recording Industry Negotiates With BitTorrent and NZB Sites | TorrentFreak
Earlier in November, South Africa’s recording industry body RiSA took action against the country’s largest BitTorrent and NZB sites. BitFarm and Newshost looked to be in peril but a lawyer experienced in dealing with RiSA stepped up to help them. Now it appears that a negotiated settlement could be on the horizon."

Recording Industry Negotiates With BitTorrent and NZB Sites | TorrentFreak
Earlier in November, South Africa’s recording industry body RiSA took action against the country’s largest BitTorrent and NZB sites. BitFarm and Newshost looked to be in peril but a lawyer experienced in dealing with RiSA stepped up to help them. Now it appears that a negotiated settlement could be on the horizon."

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
 
  P2Ps fight eviction
Buys Inc ICT attorney Reinhardt Buys is adamant two person-to-person (P2P) file-sharing Web sites, which he is defending pro bono, are legal in SA.

Monday, November 17, 2008
 
  Local websites in danger
The recent debate over the take-down of local torrent and file-sharing websites Bitfarm, Ninja Central and Newshost have highlighted some serious shortcomings in the way in which complaints about online content are handled in South Africa.

P2Ps fight eviction
Buys Inc ICT attorney Reinhardt Buys is adamant two person-to-person (P2P) file-sharing Web sites, which he is defending pro bono, are legal in SA.

Monday, November 10, 2008
 
  MySpace and MTV try to profit from piracy - Times Online
Software that lets broadcasters place advertising on video clips uploaded by other people will be tested this month by MySpace and MTV Networks.

Cocaine addicted IT manager hacks ex-employer's mail servers • The Register
An IT manager was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for hacking into his former employer's computer system and opening its mail server to the public.

NY man charged with boosting TJX credit hijack • The Register
A New York man has been charged with aiding the alleged leader of the hacking gang accused of stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from stores owned by TJX Companies and other companies.

Former Intel worker faces more charges in alleged trade secrets theft | Latest Security News - CNET News
A former Intel employee who previously was charged with stealing trade secrets from the chipmaker reportedly faces four new charges of wire fraud.

LA engineers cop to traffic system sabotage • The Register
Two traffic engineers for the City of Los Angeles have admitted they illegally disrupted the computer system that controls traffic lights just prior to a 2006 union action related to contract negotiations with the city.

Chess Federation Sues Board Member, Saying E-Mail Was Filched - NYTimes.com
The United States Chess Federation, the nation’s governing body for the game, has sued one of its board members, claiming she unlawfully gained access to e-mail between some members of the board and a lawyer hired to investigate accusations against her and her husband.

Count page views, not site visits, when suing for internet libel | OUT-LAW.COM
Courts cannot assume that online material has been read without some evidence in libel cases, a court has ruled. The court cannot simply infer from statistics on website visits that certain people have read a particular article, it said.Courts cannot assume that online material has been read without some evidence in libel cases, a court has ruled. The court cannot simply infer from statistics on website visits that certain people have read a particular article, it said.

Hustinx: nameless data can still be personal | OUT-LAW.COM
A person does not have to be identifiable by name for details of their computer usage to be protected by data protection laws, a senior European privacy watchdog has warned.

Sunday, November 09, 2008
 
  How legal are torrents in SA?
Peer-to-peer file sharing has become one of the ‘killer applications’ of the broadband era, making it possible for users connected to the Internet to easily share files with other users and gain access to content from across the world.

Local torrent websites to close down?
Local file sharing websites apparently shut down following alleged RiSA legal threats.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008
 
  Principals Suing Students over Fake Social Networking Profiles : Internet Business Law
A great number of lawsuits have been filed recently in the United States claiming that personal profiles posted on social networking Websites contained false, defamatory, and misleading information about the plaintiff’s individuals. In many cases, the victims are principals and teachers, and the culprits are their students who use these sites as a form of retaliation. Thus far, the courts have not accepted the plaintiffs’ arguments that these activities are actionable.

Blogger detained in Nigeria
A US journalist's rights group said on Friday that Nigeria is holding a US-based blogger without charge, in the second such incident in two weeks.

I.B.M. Sues to Block Executive’s Move to Apple - NYTimes.com
I.B.M. sued one of its top executives on Thursday in an attempt to prevent him from taking a position at Apple.

Kochi engineering student held for e-mail threat to Sonia
The city police arrested an engineering student on charges of sending an e-mail to President Pratibha Patil stating that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi would be killed on November 14 and bombs set off at different places in the country. He had used an email address he falsely created in the name of a friend.

MySpace 'welcomes' pirated videos
MySpace and Auditude on Sunday rolled out an innovative solution to the problem of people posting pirated television show snippets on the Internet.

Saturday, November 01, 2008
 
  Hout Bay boasts own online TV
The residents of two of Cape Town's most beautiful seaside suburbs have something new to brag about. On Wednesday a brand new TV channel was launched in Hout Bay and Llandudno.

Google's version of Wikipedia goes multilingual
Google on Thursday made its version of communally-constructed online encyclopedia Wikipedia multilingual, opening its Knol compendium to nuggets of knowledge shared in French, Italian or German.

SA makes official switch to digital
South Africa entered a new era in terrestrial broadcasting as its digital signal was switched on for the first time, marking the start of a total migration from analogue to digital.

Google reaches online book settlement
Google has reached a legal settlement with authors and major publishers that paves the way for readers to search through millions of copyrighted books online, browse passages and purchase copies.

Court rejects business method patents
A US patent appeals court ruled yesterday that business methods, such as Amazon.com's one-click to buy goods on the Internet, cannot be patented.

Ivy loses Altech appeal
Allied Technologies (Altech) has won yet another coup in its battle against the Department of Communications. After two days of legal submissions at the Pretoria High Court, acting judge N Davis refused communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri the right to appeal a judgement which found in favour of Altech last month.

 

 

 

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