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PROPOSED US BILL TO CRIMINALIZE FILE-SHARING
A bill to criminalize file-sharing on the Internet is moving rapidly through the U.S. Congress. Reportedly, the proposed law makes it easier for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to seek criminal prosecutions against file-sharers of copyrighted material. It also establishes jail time and fines for anyone who shares 2,500 or more pieces of content or distributes a single file worth more than US$10,000. That legislation would extend the DOJ’s powers to file lawsuits in civil, rather than criminal, copyright-infringement cases. However, some attorneys view the proposed act as a way to have taxpayers pay for the lawsuit campaign being waged against file-sharers by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Other views are that increasing penalties for an activity conducted by millions of Americans billions of times per year is counterproductive and that instead of criminalizing, the activity needs to be figured out legislatively and users called customers. Source: www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/33262.html
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TRANSFER OF .IE TO COMMUNICATIONS REGULATOR ANNOUNCED
Dermot Ahern TD, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, has announced that regulation and control of Ireland’s domain name (.ie) is to be transferred to the Commission for Communications Regulation (Comreg). Officials at the Minister’s Department are currently drafting legislation to provide for the transfer of the .ie domain name registry (IEDR) to Comreg. The new Bill will provide also for fines of up to €2,000 daily for non-compliance with regulations laid down with the operation of the registry. Minister Ahern said: “The .ie name is Ireland’s website address. As such it is in a sense a national resource. I want to ensure that Ireland’s national domain name registry is in a position to thrive and benefit business and consumers alike. I believe the transfer of responsibility to an organisation such as Comreg will immeasurably strengthen the operations of the registry. In addition, increased regulatory sanctions will ensure that those in breach of domain name regulations will be hit in their pockets.” The latest domain name figures show almost 40,000 websites with .ie registrations.
Eoin Costello, managing director of Register.ie, has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Communications. He said that the .ie domain should be available to Irish companies and individuals with a minimum of bureaucracy and cost. To this end Mr. Costello is requesting that Comreg commence an immediate study on the practicality of the deregulation of the .ie domain with the objective of full deregulation in 18 months time. In the past number of years an increasing number of European registries have deregulated with predominantly positive results, he says. For more information please contact Eoin Costello Register.ie, A division of Novara IT, eoin@novara.ie.
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TWELVE IIA MEMBERS SHORTLISTED FOR ICT EXPO AWARDS
TWELVE IIA MEMBERS SHORTLISTED FOR ICT EXPO AWARDS
Congratulations to the following IIA members that were shortlisted for the ICT Expo Awards to be held on the 28th of April 2004. See link: www.ictexpo.ie/awards.asp for full details.
ICT Company of the Year Award
Vodafone
Best Network Infrastructure Company
Data Electronics
Interfusion
Best Systems Integration Company
Mentec
Mobile Internet Technology Implementation
Continuum Technologies
E-Commerce Implementation Private
Continuum Technologies
DVD Rentals
E-Commerce Implementation SME
DVD Rentals
World Class Innovation Award
IQuate
Technology Marketing Campaign
Dell
Eircom
O2
Best Vendor/Manufacturer of the Year Award
Dell
Best Use of Technology in Education and Training
Electric Paper
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NEW CRIMINAL RECORD DATABASE LAUNCHED
Comprehensive, up-to-date and accurate information on convictions and criminal records is now available to all Criminal Justice organisations (NI) with a relevant interest, Criminal Justice Minister John Spellar has announced. Speaking at the launch of the Criminal Record Viewer, John Spellar said: “The ability for authorised users across all Criminal Justice Organisations (CJOs) to now access criminal records on one confidential database marks a considerable advancement in the modernisation of the criminal justice system. This unique achievement within the United Kingdom is the first tangible benefit to come from the multi-agency Causeway Programme, that will ultimately allow for the electronic flow of all information between the CJOs in Northern Ireland.” Fujitsu Services, technology partner for the £35m programme, said the project had been implemented on time and within budget. http://ie.fujitsu.com/
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MICROSOFT & SUN ENTER AGREEMENT
Microsoft Corporation and Sun Microsystems have announced that they have entered into a broad technology collaboration arrangement to enable their products to work better together and to settle all pending litigation between the two companies. The companies have also entered into agreements on patents and other issues. The agreements involve payments of $700 million to Sun by Microsoft to resolve pending antitrust issues and $900 million to resolve patent issues. In addition, Sun and Microsoft have agreed to pay royalties for use of each other’s technology, with Microsoft making an up-front payment of $350 million and Sun making payments when this technology is incorporated into its server products. www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2004-04/sunflash.20040402.3.html
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LAW FIRM L.K. SHIELDS USES DIGITAL DICTATION TECHNOLOGY
LK Shields, one of the larger law firms in Ireland, has used digital technology to radically change how the company shares information between solicitors and their support staff. They have moved from analogue dictaphone tapes to the digital WinScribe solution provided by Abacus Systems. L.K. Shields, Solicitors was founded in 1988 and now boasts more than 100 employees. WinScribe allows users to dictate from any touch-tone or mobile phone anywhere in the world or from any multimedia PC connected to the office network. Within seconds, the users’ communication will be in the hands of word processing personnel, who may view their entire workload to see which job must be completed next. Previously solicitors tended to record until the tape was full before handing this to the secretarial staff. However, it was difficult to prioritise letters, only one secretary could handle each tape at a time and remote working was not feasible. www.WinScribe.com or www.lkshields.ie
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IRISH BROADBAND IN ESB LINK-UP FOR ROLL OUT
Irish Broadband, providers of wireless broadband Internet access, has announced the further development and rollout of its service in the greater Dublin area through an initiative with the ESB. The company will be enabling Internet connectivity for new customers from outside Dublin via the existing ESB national fibre network. Customers outside of Dublin can avail of Irish Broadband’s high-speed, always on and most economical data transmission service. Irish Broadband plan to launch Cork and Drogheda this month. Other areas (Drogheda, Waterford, Limerick, Galway) will be live by q4 this year on a staggered basis. Irish Broadband brings business and home users high speed always on Internet access (upstream as well as downstream) with unlimited connection to the Internet at a price point of €75 (ex VAT) for business and €35 (incl. VAT) for home users per month. Enquiries: Nigel Heneghan/Susie Cronin, tel: (01) 660 7395 or Caitlin O’Connor, Irish Broadband, tel: (01) 206 3780 www.irishbroadband.ie
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AM-BEO RELEASES SECOND NEW PRODUCT
AM-BEO, provider of rating, charging and revenue settlement software, has announced the availability of nRate™, the second of three planned product announcements for the 2nd quarter of 2004. With this announcement, AM-BEO has further aligned its technology and delivery capabilities to solve existing and anticipated business problems in a rapidly changing marketplace. nRate is a highly developed next-generation rules-based rating solution designed to price existing and advanced communication and content services. nRate makes it possible to rate and price complex business transactions, as well as create service bundles, for the expanding range of voice and data services being offered to consumers. In another announcement Am-Beo has been selected as a finalist for two World Billing Awards. AM-BEO was recognized in the category of ‘Overall Best Contribution to Billing’ and the category ‘Best Billing Implementation for Telecoms’ in the World Billing Awards. www.AM-BEO.com
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MYHOME.IE RELAUNCHED
As the design and interface partner on the new MyHome.ie website, Fluid Rock is pleased to announce the relaunch over the weekend of Ireland’s No.1 property website and home portal at www.myhome.ie. MyHome.ie wished to overhaul their current online service and provide a more robust, scalable and user-friendly property and home portal. Fluid Rock were selected as interface partner on the project, following their experience of similar work for clients such as Allied Irish Bank, European Consumer Centre, Online Motor Tax and the National Development Plan. Fluid Rock applied their design development methodology in order to plan a completely new architecture and front end for the MyHome.ie portal, which organised the information in a manner that provides users with logical access to pertinent information. The property search facility was streamlined and the experts’ listings areas and registration modules overhauled. www.fluid-rock.com
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EUROPE’S INFORMATION SOCIETY PORTAL LAUNCHED
The EU Commission has launched its thematic Portal “Europe’s Information Society”. It provides a user-friendly and easily accessible presentation of the Information Society, grouped under seven broad themes. The policies and activities currently being pursued by the European Commission are also presented and re-grouped under their own menus, to ease the navigation of more frequent visitors, familiar with the site. For its launch, the Information Society Portal has been published only in English, but in the coming months, the more general “higher levels” of content addressed to the interested public, will be presented in all 20 Community languages. Europe’s Information Society Portal is the pilot for ” Europa 2nd Generation” and is part of the Commission’s reforms. The new Europa modernises the presence of all EU Institutions on the Internet, and enhances their levels interactivity with a wider audience. All subjects addressed by the European Commission are to be presented thematically, and totally independently of the structure of Directorates General undertaking the work. http://europa.eu.int/information_society/index_en.htm