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Technologists are warning that the practical effects of a controversial copyright bill backed by Hollywood will "weaken" Internet security and cause other harmful side effects.

As more Internet engineers, networking professionals, and security specialists have evaluated the so-called Protect IP Act that was introduced last month, concern is growing about how it will change the end-to-end nature of the Internet in ways that could do more harm than good. (See CNET's previous coverage.)

The Protect IP Act would give the U.S. Department of Justice the power to seek a court order against an allegedly infringing Web … Read more

As the Internet developed there was debate over the network communications protocol to use, but ultimately the fourth revision of IP (IPv4) was implemented for communication between computers and networks. When the Internet was small the 32-bit addressing of IPv4 that limits it to just over 4 billion addresses was perfectly adequate, but recently the last sets of IPv4 addresses have been issued, meaning the size of the IPv4 Internet has reached its maximum.

To overcome this limitation, the Internet Engineering Task Force has been developing a 128-bit addressing system called IPv6 that allows for trillions upon trillions of additional … Read more

Skype is down for the second time in a matter of a couple of weeks, the VoIP service provider confirmed on its Twitter account this morning, saying it is working to address the issue.

"A small number of you may have problems signing in to Skype," the company wrote on its Twitter page today. "We're investigating the cause, and hope to have more details to share soon."

Skype users on Twitter aren't so sure it's just a "small number" who've been affected. One user wrote that he and "all … Read more

The amount of Internet traffic crisscrossing the world will quadruple by 2015 as the number of networked devices surpasses 15 billion, according to a report out today from Cisco.

Releasing its fifth annual Visual Networking Index Forecast today, the networking giant forecast that global Internet traffic will reach 966 exabytes a year in just four years. One exabyte equals 1 million terabytes, 1 billion gigabytes, or about 250 million DVDs.

Per month, global IP traffic will hit 80.5 exabytes by 2015, up from about 20.2 exabytes per month in 2010. And per second, traffic will hit 245 terabytes, … Read more

Skype was down for some users this morning, but the VoIP provider fix seems to have quickly set things straight.

Around 5:00 a.m. PT this morning, Skype posted to its Twitter account that "some" of its users were having trouble signing in to the service and placing calls. The company didn't say what was causing the trouble. An hour later, Skype updated its Twitter account to inform users that it had discovered the issue and would roll out a solution as quickly as possible.

That fix, which the company posted to its blog shortly thereafter, … Read more

As expected, the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to approve a bill that targets Internet pirates based overseas.

The Protect IP Act looks to hand the U.S. Department of Justice the ability to seek a court order against allegedly infringing Web sites. The order could be served on search engines, certain Domain Name System providers, and Internet advertising firms--which would in turn be required to "expeditiously" make the target Web sites vanish from the Internet.

The bill was backed by leaders of both major political parties and is supported by a wide range of … Read more

Smart, strategic, and frequently inscrutable, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's comments must often be closely analyzed. Sometimes they're discounted as regrettable, off-the-cuff remarks. Other times, his statements are a window into what is really going on inside his company.

On Wednesday, Schmidt shocked big media conglomerates, federal lawmakers, and apparently even executives within his own company when he told reporters in London that Google would defy U.S. government attempts to remove sites from the Web that are accused of trafficking in pirated goods. Schmidt, who was at Google's helm during an unprecedented decade-long run of online-advertising success, … Read more

Google has signaled that the company is prepared to oppose the major film and music companies as well as Congress and the president of the United States on a controversial bill designed to thwart online piracy.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said today in London that the company is prepared to go on fighting the bill should it become law, according to published reports. U.K. publication the Guardian is reporting that in a discussion with reporters during a London business conference, Schmidt said: "If there is a law that requires DNS [domain name systems, the protocol that allows users … Read more

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today introduced a revised version of a controversial bill that would give the Department of Justice and individuals new powers to enforce copyright and trademark law against "rogue" and "pirate" Web sites that offer unlicensed copies of protected content or which sell illegal knock-offs of brand-name goods.

The new bill was long expected. A late draft leaked out last week.

The proposed law, "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property" or Protect IP, includes several revisions to a draft introduced last year, known then as &… Read more