ISP

Ofcom, the U.K. communications regulator, published draft code today that would require ISPs to notify suspected pirates via "copyright infringement reports."

Such reports would tell the ISP customers that their Web activity is being monitored, inform them of ways to find legal online content, such as through paid services, and alert them that they could face legal action as a result of infringing copyright.

Today's draft code puts the U.K.'s Digital Economy Act, a law aimed at curbing piracy, into action via a three-strike system, or "graduated response."

Under Ofcom's draft code, … Read more

The next-generation Internet technology called IPv6, vastly more accommodating than its predecessor, began arriving for a small but significant fraction of Internet users today.

Several technology powerhouses are trying to encourage adoption the IPv4 sequel through an Internet Society event called the World IPv6 Launch that began today. (Well, actually it started at 5 p.m. PT yesterday -- blame the time-zone complications of global events.)

But start it did. The organizers want to keep tabs on the IPv6 performance during this sensitive introductory phase, and their data shows the arrival of IPv6 connections.

I use the IPvFoo Chrome extension … Read more

The U.K. is holding a fiery debate over the free and open Internet and how to protect kids from the perils of online porn. The drama-filled saga has enough cartoonish details and self-serving characters in it to fill out an entire Guy Ritchie film -- sadly, sans the comic relief. Or even cute little dogs.

Even though content filters are available, religious organizations and conservatives think the government needs to force ISPs into default filtering. On this bandwagon, loud and proud, are tabloids such as the Sun and Daily Mail.

Under the default filter plans, customers of internet service … Read more

The European Court of Justice laid down a law interpretation today that could have a profound impact on the prosecution of alleged pirates in Sweden.

The ECJ said today (translate) that Sweden's law does not provide any barriers for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to hand over the data of alleged pirates when rightsholders, trying to prosecute those folks, request it. The move could pave the way for Sweden's highest court to force ISPs to hand over user data upon request whenever a person is suspected of pirating music, movies, e-books, or any other form of entertainment.

Those on … Read more

Under the United Kingdom's new Digital Economy Act, Internet service providers must pitch in on the legal costs incurred by people suspected of illegally sharing files on their network, an appeals court has ruled.

According to the Guardian, a U.K. court today ruled against an appeal brought by ISPs TalkTalk and BT. The companies, as well as their competitors, now must pay 25 percent of all "qualifying" costs related to establishing and operating an appeals body for alleged file sharers. Ofcom, a U.K.-based communications regulator, will pay the remaining 75 percent of the costs.… Read more

Data-heavy services like YouTube are apparently costing a South Korean Internet Service Provider serious money, and the ISP doesn't want to take it any longer.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview published last night, Kim Taehwan, vice president of KT, Korea's largest ISP, said that his company is tired of "free riding" Internet streaming services that consume huge amounts of data and don't pay it a dime to do so.

"We want to set a rule that we can equally apply to every platform operator that offers data-heavy content as those services threaten to … Read more

PARIS--Free, a French company that already shook up the Internet service provider business here, just shook up the mobile phone service business, too.

Last week, Chief Executive Xavier Niel took to Twitter to announce a service plan that gets subscribers unlimited calls, unlimited text and picture messages, and data transfer of up to 3GB per month, after which download rates are throttled.

One big departure is the price: 20 euros per month, or $25.45. An even bigger departure: there's no long-term contract. And free international calls (though only to some countries, and not with cheap international roaming) … Read more

As consumers turn more to mobile devices to watch Internet video, the greater the burden that traffic places on wireless carriers and Internet service providers.

Qwilt, a provider of video-infrastructure products, aims to ease that burden by preparing networks for the expected explosion in Internet video traffic. The company announced today it has raised $24 million in two rounds of funding from Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Crescent Point Group, and Real Networks founder Rob Glaser.

"The explosion of Internet video viewed through all types of Web-enabled devices, from smartphones to iPads, calls for new technology to help the consumer … Read more

Your home's Internet router is an idiot. It is the one device you have that, theoretically, could accurately tell you how fast your Internet connection is over time, and who in your house is using up the bandwidth. But it does none of that.

It's not in the name of simplicity, either. The software that's baked into demented routers is not, for the most part, user-friendly. It's just dumb, because dumb is cheap.

Adventurous geeks who have the right hardware can upgrade a router by reprogramming it with an open-source replacement operating environment, like DD-WRT or … Read more