Swedish File-Sharers Mull VPN (Virtual Pirate Network)
If Sweden’s Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive was crafted to scare the hell out of the country’s Internet population, it seems to have had the desired affect. Swedish Internet traffic dropped by a third on Wednesday after the law, which allows copyright holders to force ISPs to divulge the IP addresses of computers sharing copyrighted material, was implemented.
U2: The Unforgettable Embarrassment
U2 manager Paul McGuinness must be beside himself. Despite the band’s best efforts to prevent its new album, “No Line on the Horizon,” from appearing prematurely on the Internet, copies are being distributed there a week prior to its scheduled release. It’s not the fault of the ISPs, never mind that they are, according to McGuinness, “destroying the recorded music industry” by failing to tackle piracy.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Google to WSJ: I Got Yer Dumb Pipes Right Here…
Ironic, isn’t it, that Google, one of Net neutrality’s staunchest advocates, has been approaching major cable and phone companies with a proposal that appears to violate the very tenets of that principle? How could a company that has argued tirelessly that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, suddenly reverse course and seek preferential treatment for its own traffic?
Short answer: it didn’t.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A 40 Percent Drop in Spam? Too Bad It’s Temporary…
Wow. Global spam volumes plummeted today after two ISPs disconnected a Web hosting firm outed by the Washington Post as harboring some truly unsavory clients. Denied Internet access by Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric, bot hosting network McColo is clearly having trouble spewing out spam and malware. There has been a 41 percent drop in spam volume since the Washington Post story broke.
75 Percent of All Spam Globally? On Our Backbones? Holy Cow!
According to security experts, Web-hosting outfit McColo is responsible for enabling the broadcast of more than 75 percent of all spam globally. Its client list is a rogues gallery of bad-guy syndicates involved in everything from botnets to counterfeit pharmaceuticals and kiddie porn. So how is it that MoColo’s ISPs, Hurricane Electric and Global Crossing, were unaware of that until notified by a Washington Post reporter?
250GB Should Be Enough for Anybody
In the future, “heavy users” of Comcast’s broadband service speeds may face not just a periodic slowing–sorry, deprioritizing–of their service, but a capping of that service as well. Broadband Reports brings word today that Comcast plans to implement a 250GB broadband cap come October.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Comcast to FCC: Ow! My Wrist!
To Comcast, throttling or degrading the performance of file-sharing services is a necessary traffic-management technique. To the Federal Communications Commission it’s a violation of the agency’s network-neutrality principles.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
French Add Censuré to “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”
The Internet-filtering agreements New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo inked with Verizon (VZ), Sprint (S) and Time Warner Cable (TWX) today, while certainly groundbreaking, pale a bit in comparison to the ones announced in France.
Cuomo: Just Say No to Usenet
John Gilmore once famously claimed that “the Internet interprets censorship as failure and routes around it.” If he’s right, there’s no reason to worry that an agreement by three of the nation’s largest Internet-service providers to block access to newsgroups and Web sites that traffic in child pornography might have other frightening consequences. If not, well …
Thursday, June 5, 2008
U2: The Unforgettable Ire
If Bono is U2’s geopolitical pragmatist, the band’s manager, Paul McGuinness, is its neo-Luddite. At the Music Matters confab in Hong Kong, McGuinness slagged broadband Internet service providers, accusing them of aiding and abetting music piracy while CD sales and royalty payments to musicians plunge.
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About John
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
alt.misc
- 10 Best Uses Of Classical Music In Classic Cartoons
Includes “Pigs in a Polka,” “Rabbit of Seville” and, of course, “What’s Opera, Doc?”
- Web Site Story
Take the famous ballads and duets of West Side Story, insert a dozen mentions of famous social media sites like twitter and facebook, and this is what you get.
- Wooden iPod
An iPod mini rebuilt with a wooden case
- Han Solo, P.I.
Star Wars meets Magnum, P.I.
- The “literal video” collection
Music videos recreated with new lyrics based on what’s actually happening in them. Daydream Believer and Total Eclipse of the Heart are particularly good.
- E-Mail From Your Facilities Department
In response to numerous e-mails, I have no idea what planet the giant alien creature is from. Judging from its enormous gills, I’d have to guess it’s from a watery planet. Reminder: please let me know if you plan to be in the office on Memorial Day so I can request HVAC for your floor.
- Amazon Customer Reviews: Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt
For those of you who mock the wolf shirt beware. There is an old Navajo story about a young man who made fun of another man for wearing a wolf trio shirt. Legend has it that in his sleep, the wolves on the other man’s shirt came to life and tore his body to shreds. They never found any part of that man’s body. The Wolf is something to be respected and feared, not treated like a novelty.
- Nice Muscle!
Hands down the most inexplicably bizarre game for Wii I’ve ever seen
- Respectful Yo Mama Jokes
Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.
- Introduction to Microcontroller Programming: The Flatulometer
The inspiration for this project was to determine who could generate the worst flatulence measurable in a personally unbiased manner.
