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The US media stakeholders are taking their fight against internet piracy to another level, approaching a milestone of 100,000 P2P file sharers being sued in the last 12 months.

Thorough research

A Torrentfreaks reader has spent several months of his own time compiling a list of the numerous PS2 lawsuits filed in the US since the start of 2010. Most of these suits were mass suits, so, while his workload was large, it wasn’t as ridiculous as finding every separate individual guilty of sharing.

The anonymous reader’s findings were that between 8 January 2010 and 21 January 2011, 99,924 individuals were sued. It’s believed prosecutors are using these lawsuits in an attempt to discover the personal details of the major P2P file sharers. Oh, and with Limewire having been shut down lately, the bulk of the focus is around the popular BitTorrent service. The tactic being adopted by a lot of companies, especially adult companies, is a scheme called ‘pay up ’

Stop file sharing

The fact is it costs content producers to make the TV series’, music, movies and applications commonly shared on P2P networks. And in consuming something without getting hold of it legally, you’re committing a crime. And in our world, crimes are punishable. The problem is, to hunt down people who download the odd song here or there is ridiculous, as ridiculous as it may one day seem to buy films or music outright.

That’s why we’ve become major proponents of streaming movie services like LoveFilms, and streaming music services like Spotify. The simple ease of use of these services coupled with the low monthly costs makes pirating seem a tiresome, lengthy process, to get anything. This is the way internet piracy will be minimized – by making it seem like far too much work – and not by arresting people.

Photo: noii’s / Flickr

You have no doubt heard that Egypt is teetering. Civilians want a revolution, demanding democracy, while the government is doing what it can to stifle this. One of the Egyptian government’s major methods has been killing internet freedom by effectively turning the internet off in that nation. This has posed many critical questions for technologists, political analysts and global citizens, as a whole.

How does the internet get turned off?

Internet data is carried along interconnected undersea cables all around the world. Access to these cables is often held by the cable’s maintainer, who resells data access to large ISPs, who themselves resell data access to the smaller ISPs. In countries where you have very few end-user ISPs, turning the internet off requires they stop operating – something a forceful phone call from a menacing government official in an authoritarian nation can make some companies do.

Of course in developed nations in Western Europe, parts of Asia and North America, the sheer volume of service providers and the competitiveness means service providers are not as easily bullied, and would reject such ridiculous demands. In short internet freedom seems more ‘certain’ in the West, but who knows what the future may hold.

How do we stop this from happening?

With what’s going on in Egypt, the brightest minds in technology have already begun figuring out ways for this to not happen again in future. The Openmesh project is one such example, looking at various technological solutions to simulate carrying a ‘router on your back’ in the instance a government tries to pull something like this again.

Nevertheless, the real concern is, even in 2011, we live in a world where basic liberties like internet freedom are abused. Without being on the ground in Egypt, and learning all we have from a distance, it is difficult to not be unbiased in our judgment. Even then, though, the alarm cannot be understated. This is hectic.

Photo: Rob ‘n’ Rae / Flickr

Once upon a time, Microsoft’s Bill Gates predicted that in the near future every household would contain one PC. This prediction is coming true, and last week the UK government went one step further in achieving this dream by offering residents an affordable scheme to get online.

Connectivity

Over 9 million UK residents have no access to the internet from home, and this will be changed as new, refurbished PCs are now available, costing only £98. Martha Lane Fox, the government’s digital spokeswoman, admitted in a recent interview with the Financial Times that cost is a major barrier in getting people connected.

‘Motivation and inspiration are still two of the biggest barriers, but clearly perception of price is another big deal for people,’ she explained. Helen Milner, MD of internet support organisation UK Online Centres, agrees. ‘Although research shows going online can save people around £560 year, we know the cost of setting yourself up at home is still a real barrier for lots of people.’

Recent debut

The low-cost E-cycle PC scheme, making its debut last week, is being run by the disabled employment services and kit recycling company Remploy. These PCs will first be sold via 60 UK online centres offering computer courses and support to users unfamiliar with the internet.

Affordable PCs

With the problem of affordability being targeted, the refurbished hardware will begin to sell from £98, which will include a flat screen monitor, a mouse and keyboard and will run the operating system Linux. Also included is a package containing a warranty, telephone support and free delivery. Three Mobile have agreed to provide internet connectivity, at only £9 a month.

Various cost options will be made available by Remploy, offering various connectivity and hardware for the low cost PC scheme. Cash payments are available at over 20,000 sites.

Photo: psd / Flickr

A report coming out of Ericsson says that worldwide mobile data users will top 1 billion in 2011. This remarkable feat is only further exaggerated when one considers that the half a billion milestone was only crossed a few months ago.

Significant milestones crossed

In a statement (via Reuters) Ericsson said that: ‘During the course of 2010, a significant milestone in terms of mobile broadband subscriptions was reached as their number surpassed the half-a-billion mark globally.’ Considering the company is the world’s biggest maker of mobile network gear, it’s safe to say the company knows what it’s talking about. Things are only going to get better with respect to mobile data users, with the statement going on to read: ‘Ericsson estimates that this number will double before 2011 ends.’

Internet everywhere

With the proliferation of smartphones, as well as feature phones being paired with decent browsing experiences like that provided by Opera Mini, on-the-go mobile data usage has exploded. Add to this the proliferation of cheap netbooks, more data solutions for notebooks and tablet PCs, it becomes clear why the number of mobile data users has seen the torrid growth it has in recent years.

We win!

Ericsson has benefitted from this since it means more carriers are buying more gear from the company to handle the load. Carriers are also benefitting from this exploding demand, since this rise in data use is helping their earnings across the board. The only group who haven’t seen significant benefits are consumers, who are battling carriers reducing data allowances so that they, the carriers, can better handle the load from this surge in demand, as well as reap greater profit.

The revolution has been repeated

Mobile phones have fundamentally changed how people communicate and connect with each other. In the 90s, as handsets and networks became more ubiquitous around the world, people who previously couldn’t afford expensive to maintain landline connections had a way of connecting with each other affordably.

Now, what mobile phones did for voice communication, they are doing for internet connections, providing new ways for longtime web users to connect, as well as enabling first time web users access to the world’s most important communications platform. The growth of mobile data usage and mobile data users is to the benefit of all parties involved.

Photo: Mozilla

Changing people’s product habits is exceptionally difficult, particularly when they’re introduced to a platform using that software only. And this is what makes the news that Firefox has eclipsed Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the most used browser in Europe such a big deal – for several years many people thought Explorer was the only gateway to the internet, so much so that they thought Exporer was the internet.

Well, in Europe this is no more!

Massive victory

Web analytics company StatCounter released data on Tuesday that said that, for the first time in history, Firefox is the most used browser in Europe, eclipsing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Using stats gleaned from its tracking code that is embedded on over 3 million websites around the world, which receive no less than 15 billion monthly hits, Statcounter found that Mozilla’s web browser holds market share of 38.11 per cent in Europe.

This is followed closely by IE, which has 37.52 percent of the share in Europe.

Thanks, commission

Though Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been out of favour for some time, and steadily losing market share, a big contributor to its sharp decline in market share is attributable to the browser lottery the European Union had the company instate.

Another potential contributor to Firefox claiming the most used browser mantel in Europe is Chrome, which has been making strong gains since its release. According to StatCounter, the browser had 14.58 per cent market share in December, nearly three times the 5.06 percent share it had in December 2009.

Symbolic victory

Microsoft losing this lead is symbolic in that it validates the open source community’s long-held desire to see one of its own projects eclipse a significant Microsoft product. Sure, this is not Linux overcoming Windows, but still. Furthermore, browser proliferation and online revenue are directly correlated, since the default search engine on IE is Bing and on Firefox it’s Google, further cementing how much MS is struggling with its online business. Why else do you think Microsoft and Google both are making major plays for the smartphone space? For now, the team at Mozilla can celebrate a massive achievement in becoming the most used browser in Europe.

Photo: chang_sen / Flickr

Even though the UK is one of the most developed nations in the world, a significant percentage of the population is stuck in the poverty trap, which directly impacts a child’s ability to get a competent education.  A new study by the E-Learning foundation has emerged suggesting that over one million British school children have no home computer access at all.

No comment

The Department of Education refused to comment on these findings, but the implications of this technology void has a massive bearing on a child’s ability to keep up with their peers. Without home computer access, these children fall behind in terms of educational purposes such as homework, research for projects, and collaborative work that schools are increasingly relying on.

Two million not connected

And though children without computers in the home at all is a problem at a million, the number of children with zero access to the Internet at home is double that. According to the E-Learning Foundation Charity, over two million children have no home access to the web – and the subsequent learning advantages it rings.

Poverty trap

What’s more is the likelihood of those in the poorest homes not having home web access is two and a half times more likely than that of opulent homes. This creates a poverty trap of sorts, since education is the basis of liberation from poverty, but if those already well off are twice as likely to have access to the most important information source of all time, escaping the plight becomes less likely.

What the E-Learning Foundation aims to do is make sure every British school going child have Internet-enabled computer access in the home. And with the prices of laptop computers and desktop computers continually falling, there is hope still that the number of children without home computer access continually falls.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

In the build up to this year’s elections, political candidates all waxed lyrical about what they planned to do for the UK’s broadband space. And while we were circumspect about trusting our government with our Internets given their recent form, it seems the ConDems plan to come good on their promises, by providing every United Kingdom community with super-fast broadband connectivity come 2015.

Private-public combination

For those shuddering at the idea of having the UK broadband service provided by the government, you can breathe easy since this is not what is going to happen. The government will be working closely with private companies to ensure that super-fast broadband connectivity is delivered to at least two thirds of the population.

While the private ISPs will actually deliver and maintain the service, the government will be spending public money so as to bring fibre optic technology to rural areas that are currently without.

What are we in for?

Ofcom’s definition of a super-fast broadband connection is a minimum data speed of 24Mbps, of which only 1% of the population currently receives. Come 2015, this percentage is slated to jump dramatically.

Jeremy Hunt, who is the current Culture Secretary shared these UK broadband plans from Microsoft’s London Headquarters, reiterating his previously stated plan of having the UK have Europe’s best broadband network come 2015. And to be fair to Mr. Hunt, whose come under some stick from us, at least he’s doing something – and it’s about time we do what Finland has now made a legal right for every citizen.

Who stands to benefit?

With super-fast broadband connectivity, the whole economy stands to gain. It will see the proliferation of many more world class web-based services and applications, while directly affecting offline commerce initiatives. Companies that provide networking and routing products and services will be buoyed by this movement to, both from an enterprise level and consumer level, with the dramatic increase in infrastructure needing a lot of capital outlay and technology.

The video gaming industry also stands to benefit, especially in the wake of the launch of two potentially disruptive companies – OnLive and Gaikai. These cloud gaming services will only be helped by improved internet, with the UK broadband market’s improving landscape hopefully leading more people to try their services.

What do you make of these movements in the UK broadband space? Do you think they’re long overdue, or are we being too harsh by being a wee bit cynical?

Photo: Stock.Xchng

The Nepalese mobile provider Ncell has recently installed a 3G internet connection at the base camp of Mount Everest, allowing adventurous hikers to browse the web from thousands of feet up the highest mountain in the world. According to Reuters, Ncell managed to make a video call from 17,388 feet.

Internet both luxury and life saver

To some people, if it didn’t appear on Facebook, it didn’t happen. To those who take that mantra seriously, climbing Mount Everest could be a problem, as there would be no way of proving to your friends that you were in the middle of a great adventure. Well, those days are in the past, thanks to the good people at Ncell, who have successfully installed a 3G internet connection at the bottom of Mount Everest.

With the giant mountain being twenty-nine thousand feet high, it’s still uncertain as to whether a clear connection can be achieved at the peak. However, with the temperatures way below freezing, there won’t be many people updating their Twitter accounts on the summit. Mount Everest’s internet connection could prove to save lives in the future, as in the past expensive satellite phones were the only way for hikers to stay in touch with their families or get help.

First of its kind

Ncell is a partnership between Scandinavian mobile providers TeliaSonera and local investors, and TelieSonera chief, Lars Nyberg, explained the importance of this installation. ‘This achievement is as mighty as the altitude as 3G high speed internet will bring faster, more affordable telecommunication services to the people living in the Khumbu Valley, trekkers, and climbers alike,’ Nyberg said last week.

Ncell chief Pasi Koistinen launched the new 3G service by announcing the success of the world’s highest video call: ‘Today we made the (world’s) highest video call from Mount Everest, – a VoIP call made from an astounding 5,300 meters (17,388 feet).’

So if you do plan to climb the highest mountain in the world, be sure to remember the essentials: food, water, oxygen and a notebook computer, as Mount Everest is now online.

Photo: id-iom / Flickr

While TiVo led the DVR charge, Netflix brought streaming video into the home, and YouTube introduced online video to the world at large, the entire media consumption landscape has since changed. This is a brief look into how, through the Internet and brilliant pieces of technology, watching television has escaped the television.

When you want it

The first one-up over traditional broadcast television was the PVR-led introduction of pre-programming recordings of shows you wanted to watch so that you could catch them later. Not only did this feature introduce the ability to skip commercials, it significantly changed when we watched television. The Internet and on-demand services have only exaggerated this fact with people not even bothering to keep a schedule or remember to turn on their PVR devices. It’ll happen when it happens. This was the start of the entire revolution of media consumption.

How you want it

Now you can watch television when you want it, but certain pieces of technology have also made it such that you can watch television how you want it. The Slingbox – available in North America – allows you to stream television from your home to a number of connected devices, including smartphones.

Where you want it

Not only have we seen a revolution in when you watch traditional television shows, and how you can watch them, we’ve also seen a revolution in where you get to watch these shows. Slingboxes and the like mean you can stream your TV shows to a number of devices, even your smartphones!

What’s next

What these various consumption means have meant, ironically, is people have begun looking for convenient methods to watch all their content on their televisions again. It’s almost humorous how the further and further we’ve got away from our traditional television sets, the closer and closer we want to be to them.

This has seen the emergence of various home media centres, from the stripped-down Apple TV to the hyper capable Western Digital TV HD Live boxes. What they’re doing for media consumption is bringing everything we watch online and stored as media files on our computers back to the television set, where they originated and were once locked.

Photo: Matt McGee / Flickr

Time just released its ‘World’s Top 50’ websites, and since we didn’t think it was very reflective of our tastes, we thought we’d put out our own spin on it. Here’s the top three web services you should all be using right now.

Quora

Quora is a Q&A site co-founded by the former CTO of Facebook, so the pedigree to build something really good is certainly there. The Q&A service, which we’ve written about before, is remarkable for the quality of questions asked and for the quality of people answering those questions. It’s currently a hub for all of Silicon Valley’s bigwigs to mix with entrepreneurs, but if it scales well towards other fields, it would not be a stretch to see it become a top 10 web property in terms of traffic. Quora answers its way into our 2010 best sites list.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark is not a new service by any stretch of the imagination, but has been popping up on a bunch of people’s radars recently. The service lets users upload music, which you can then play back from the web. The site is remarkable for looking like a stand-alone iTunes app from within the website, and has a huge database of fantastic music. What’s more, due to the way Grooveshark distributes its music, it doesn’t have the licensing challenges competitors Spotify and Rdio have, meaning it isn’t geolimited, so now you can listen to streaming music of your choice from anywhere in the world. Grooveshark sings its way into our 2010 best sites.

Twitter

Yes, another site that isn’t exactly new, but 2010 was Twitter’s coming out party, if you will. Traffic to the service has exploded, with news agencies, celebrities and common people alike using the service to break news and update followers. Outside of being the place for breaking news on world events, even celeb Kanye West, who once said he’d never tweet, has used Twitter as a platform to give away music every Friday in a campaign called ‘GOOD Fridays’. That’s awesome, right? Twitter tweets its way into our best sites of 2010 lists.

We limited these sites to websites that are fairly mainstream, with user bases of over 1 million and that are likely to be known. Naturally, we all have esoteric preferences, so nothing that’s super niche appears here. We are compiling a list for that, though, so if you have any recommendations, that’d be way cool!