Transcript

Thursday July 24, 2008

Internet Service Providers Support Ending Internet Piracy

Six of the UK’s biggest Internet service providers, after years of resistance and a push from the government, have joined forces with the music industry to put a stop to piracy online. Letters will be sent out to those suspected of illegal file sharing under a three month trial, warning them they are being monitored. Secondary measures have yet to be determined, but options under consideration include a three-strikes-and-you're-out rule, traffic shaping to slow internet access for those who are either illegally uploading or downloading, or filtering to prevent illegal tracks from being downloaded. ISPs around the world who had previously argued they were mere conduits and not responsible for policing the usage of content are considering a different approach. France is actively engaging Internet service providers in tackling copyright infringement on their networks and countries such as Australia, Denmark, Japan and New Zealand are in discussions over how to approach the issue. The US has bypassed the issuance of warnings or taking an educational approach, instead embarking on a large number of lawsuits against alleged file sharers.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL2491024120080724
http://www.searchengineworld.com/daily/3458023.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7522334.stm

Google Launches Wiki Like Website Knol

Google yesterday rolled out a service called Knol, which stands for a unit of knowledge, designed to let the public contribute pages of knowledge on any topic of expertise. Unlike online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Knol entries are not anonymous or focused on collective creation, but rather tied to a specific author or authors, whose identities are verified by Google. Entries, called Knols, are limited to a single page and allow anyone to contribute, however additions only go live after the pages’ main author or authors give permission. In order to encourage competition, Google ranks entries by popularity. Perhaps the biggest draw to Knol is the opportunity it provides authors to earn income by running Google Ads adjacent to Knol entries, to which resulting revenues are split with Google.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2325911820080723
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/larkin_on_the_web/148844/like_wikipedia_but_for_cash_googles_knol.html

[edited by: Vanessa_Zamora at 6:16 pm (utc) on July 24, 2008]