This is an interesting post on Googles Blog at:

Google explains. At the outset, I want to acknowledge what I hope is obvious: Figuring out how to deal with China has been a difficult exercise for Google. The requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship – something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company. Despite that, we made a decision to launch a new product for China – Google.cn – that respects the content restrictions imposed by Chinese laws and regulations. Understandably, many are puzzled or upset by our decision. But our decision was based on a judgment that Google.cn will make a meaningful – though imperfect – contribution to the overall expansion of access to information in China.

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The BBC is teaming up with Bit-Torrent client, Azureus, to make hundreds of television shows available to people worldwide.

This means that users will be able to download popular shows like: Little Britain, Red Dwarf, League of Gentleman, Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers no matter where they are for a small fee. What’s most impressive is that the BBC isn’t going to just dip its toes into this project but is instead going to offer hundreds of shows from the very start. This gives the service a much better chance of taking off and becoming successful.

The move by the BBC is a response to the huge increase in websites that offer free downloadable TV series. Currently, by using video-share websites like YouTube, you can easily watch BBC shows like Match of the Day for free. A quick search on Google will find other sites which offer downloadable BBC television on demand for free. By enlisting the help of established Bit-Torrent software creator Azureus, which already has over 130 million downloads of its bit-torrent client, the BBC hope to distribute high quality video in a completely legal manner.

How exactly the content will be secured is unclear at the moment and the biggest fear for both the BBC and Azureus must be that the high quality downloads will end up being available on the illegal file sharing networks. If the BBC is to secure the files with something similar to the Windows Media Player DRM they could be making a big mistake. As soon as someone hacks it, they will be able to rip all of the content and then make it available on the net for free. Brave or stupid BBC?

MPAA sues popular BitTorrent search engines

This February the MPAA announced lawsuits (PDF) against Torrentspy, Torrentbox and Isohunt, three of the most popular BitTorrent search engines. Isohunt owner Gary later told Torrentfreak that they will not bow down to the MPAA. Isohunt hired a top-notch lawyer, specialized in Internet copyrights, and teamed up with Torrentbox.

The MPAA argued that the sole purpose of these torrent sites is to infringe on copyrights. But they are wrong according to Gary, who said, “We process copyright takedown requests daily, and have done so for hundreds of requests in the past, if not thousands. We work with all copyright owners, and even the RIAA email us routinely. The MPAA is the only organization unwilling to cooperate with us.”

Torrentspy was the first torrent site that took action against the MPAA. In March they filed a “motion to dismiss” the lawsuit (PDF). According to Torrentspy, the MPAA would be better off suing Google. “Everything alleged about defendants’ website (Torrentspy) is true about Google, and even more so, because Google outperforms the allegations in the complaint. Plaintiffs’ (MPAA) factually empty and broadbrush categorical accusations are like mud that covers all distinctions,” said Torrentspy’s lawyer.

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According to the NPD Group, a consumer and retail information company, for every legally downloaded video file, there are five illegally downloaded ones on P2P networks and BitTorrent sites.

The research carried out by the group shows that 8 percent of all U.S. households (6 million) illegally downloaded at least 1 copyrighted video from a P2P network in the past 3 months, whereas only 2 percent of U.S. households purchased a video legally.

Legal video downloads took place largely on Apple’s iTunes Store with 9 in 10 downloads occurring on that site, followed by Vongo (5 percent), Movielink (3 percent) and less than 1 percent for CinemaNow.

It’s hardly surprising that almost 60 percent of all illegally downloaded video files were “adult-oriented”. TV shows were the second most popular at 20 percent, and only 5 percent were “mainstream movie content”. With regards to legal video downloads, sixty-two percent were TV shows, 24 percent were music videos and 6 percent were movies.

Russ Crupnick, the vice president of the NDP Group wants the movie industry to take the issue of illegal video downloads seriously, even though only a fraction of the video downloads were feature films, and the percentage of legal movie downloads was higher than that of illegal ones. “Even though right now the majority of downloaded video content is adult-film content, the amount of intellectual property stolen from mainstream movie studios, networks, and record labels will continue to rise, unless strong and sustained action is taken to prevent piracy,” he says.

Millions of Brits who receive new MP3 players this Christmas may have to pay tens of millions of pounds for music and videos they have already legally downloaded.

Those who receive a new make of music player could be in for a shock when they find that they cannot transfer music they have already downloaded and paid for from their old player.

And with the Microsoft Zune, set to be a major rival to the iPod, due to be launched next year, those who buy it may find themselves paying hundreds of pounds to download all of their music again because the new system isn’t compatible with their old player.

Today music bosses were accused of holding millions of musci loving Brits to ransome.

Martin Higginson, founder of mobile content provider MonsterMob Group plc, said that companies were effectively locking customers into staying with them for life to save paying twice for their music.

He also warned it could encourage people to download music illegally.

Mr Higginson said: “The likes of Microsoft and Apple must not be allowed to continue to hold the consumer hostage in this way. The future could prove to be even more costly and confusing as more products and devices enter the market.”

BitTorrent is fast becoming the leading p2p network as video surpasses music as the most popularly shared content medium, according to a survey by iPoque.

Indeed figures from its analysis of German Internet usage show that BitTorrent has already usurped eDonkey in terms of the amount of data traffic that each protocol generates: BitTorrent 53 per cent and eDonkey 43 per cent. Statistics from the rest of Europe show eDonkey still slightly ahead, but the trend is towards torrents.

So dominant are the two networks, that others barely register: the third most popular, Gnutella, accounted for less than three per cent of traffic during the June to October 2006 period of the survey.

The rise of BitTorrent mirrors the increase in the sharing of movies and television shows, which torrents are better equipped to handle. Where p2p was once the preserve of music sharers (and pornographers), film and TV now make up more than a third of the number of files being shared on BitTorrent and 22 per cent on eDonkey. That said, there are still many more files available on eDonkey - and much more pornography - than there are on BitTorrent. The survey found 250,000 different eDonkey files as opposed to just 56,000 on BitTorrent.

A grand jury’s handed down indictments to eight people who allegedly used LimeWire to help with their identity-theft circle.

The Denver District Attorney announced that three main players, Michael Sarrasin, 27, Shawn Adams, 32, and Tamara Stesney, 36, were indicted yesterday (Nov. 30) on 115 charges, including racketeering and computer crime. The indictment follows an October arrest in the Mile High City that linked the peer-to-peer file-sharing network LimeWire in an identity theft ring.

Authorities allege the Sarrasin, Adams and Stesney, along with five others, used LimeWire to access names and account information from personal computers and use them to open fraudulent accounts at Denver-area banks, where they’d deposit phony checks and then turn the money over to purchase methamphetamines. Police peg victims’ losses at about $70,000.

No details about how the trio used the software to gain access to personal data were given. Court dates are pending.

According to Gensler’s arrest affidavit obtained by the Grand Junction Sentinel, his downloads were first flagged during May 2005 by the FBI’s Innocent Images Unit, which tracks the traffic in child pornography over peer-to-peer networks.

The FBI said that some videos on the computer showed adults engaging in sex acts with children as young as 1 year old.

Gensler told agents he found the images by searching for “under age” in the Limewire software, according to the arrest affidavit.

Gensler is not accused of abusing any of the children himself. He is due back in court on Dec. 19.

The Innocent Images Unit recently expanded to include investigations involving all areas of the Internet and online services, including:

Internet Web sites that post child pornography
Internet news groups
Internet relay chat (IRC) Channels
File servers (“FServes”)
Online groups and organizations (eGroups)
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs
Bulletin board systems (BBSs)

The world’s first convicted internet movie pirate has started a three-month jail sentence in Hong Kong after his appeal against the conviction was rejected, a media report said Wednesday.

Chan Nai-ming, 38, also known by his internet alias, ‘Big Crook,’ had been on bail since being found guilty last November, the Standard reported.

He was convicted for attempting to distribute three Hollywood movies - Daredevil, Miss Congeniality and Red Planet - using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing technology. Chan created and activated files for the movies that enabled other BitTorrent users to download the movies on January 10 and 11, 2005.

Chan’s counsel, Kevin Pun, told the Hong Kong’s appeal court that allowing the films to be available on the internet was not the same as distributing copies of the films. Pun said this was done by other internet users when they downloaded the films.

GigaOM is reporting that there’s a rumor going around that Google is investing a major stake in a Chinese P2P startup called Xunlei (or Thunderbolt P2P network) Translated Website for Xunlei

More from The AlarmClock

Word on the street of Shangai is that Google and Shanghai-based venture capital firm Ceyuan Ventures plan to invest in Chinese download accelerator and peer-to-peer file sharing network operator Thunder Network Technology aka Xunlei, according to a rumor reported by eNet. A spokesperson for Shenzhen-based Thunder or Xunlei, told eNet that the start-up will close its third round of investment in two weeks. Previous rounds were for $1M and $10M from from IDG and Morningside Technologies. Xunlei’s peer-to-peer file sharing software has been downloaded 75M times. The start-up was founded by two Chinese-born techs working in Silicon Valley who moved back to China.

This type of investment would make lots of sense given the growing bandwidth costs of YouTube and Google Video.

Coca-Cola has launched a YouTube promotion that invites users to create, submit and send video holiday cards.

The Coca-Cola Holiday WishCast promotion allows visitors to select and send a classic Coke commercial or customize a pre-made video created by popular YouTube personalities. The video cards are then delivered via email messages with Coke branding.

According to AdWeek, this is not the first promotion to tap YouTube stars — Young & Rubicam recruited popular video bloggers to make clips for World Poverty Day in October — but it is the first time YouTube has brokered an ad deal that uses content from its top users, who will be paid an undisclosed fee for their participation.

Last week, Reuters and Yahoo! revealed they are working on a plan to compensate users whose contributed photos are selected for commercial syndication.

Four major TV networks are considering creating a jointly owned Web site to offer their programming online rather than have to chase down pirated clips on YouTube, a source close to the talks confirmed Monday.

Fox, Viacom, CBS and NBC Universal have been in talks over the last few months, according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous. “We are approaching it seriously,” the source said. “They are ongoing and preliminary discussions… Everybody wants to figure out the right (online business) model.”

Spokespeople from the four networks either did not return calls seeking comment or declined to comment on the talks, which were first reported Saturday by The Wall Street Journal.

http://news.com.com/

Espoo, Finland - Nokia and Mobitel Slovenia have signed a contract for Nokia’s hosted Push to talk over Cellular (PoC) and Presence services. Nokia will integrate and host commercial, OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) compliant services for Mobitel Slovenia, thus enabling the operator to roll out the solution more quickly and with a reduced investment. Mobitel Slovenia will launch the services commercially on November 15th, 2006.
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Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced expanded support within its Intellisync Device Management solution for managing Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync settings on the Nokia Eseries device range — the Nokia E50, Nokia E60, Nokia E61, Nokia E62 and Nokia E70 — based on S60 3rd edition and Symbian OS, and Windows Mobile 5.0 powered devices, such as Palm Treo 700W and Motorola Q. With the Intellisync Device Management solution, an IT administrator can now centrally configure and manage mobile email, calendar and contact settings on Nokia Eseries and Windows Mobile 5.0 powered devices over the air, taking the burden of manually configuring each device with the correct Exchange Server settings off employees and the IT help-desk. This new capability will be an essential tool in large scale enterprise Exchange ActiveSync email deployments.
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Successful trial represents next step towards utilization of 900 MHz band in WCDMA 3G operation

Espoo, Finland - Nokia and Finnish telecom operator Elisa today carried out the world’s first WCDMA/HSDPA data call on the 900 MHz band in a commercial network. The call was conducted in Elisa’s live network in Finland, and the equipment included the Nokia Flexi WCDMA Base Station with a special solution for sharing the site infrastructure of the existing GSM base station.
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