‘News Update’

Here is a quick video summary to show you exactly what was on the minds of South Africans during the course of the year 2011.

Interesting!

Anonymous Facebook Attack Video can be a Hoax or Internet Meme in the Making

The Anonymous group according to videos posted at YouTube plans a Facebook attack on 28 January 2012. Although it has been proven to be a hoax with members of the group denying any involvement, one has to consider the possibility of 60 000 servers of the Social Media Network to be down because of a hack or ping attack.

The narrator in the YouTube video stated that a war is looming between Anonymous and the USA government because of SOPA, PIPA and regulations that threaten the existence of the Internet in its current form.

How Did Anonymous According to the Video Plan to Attack Facebook?

The alleged Anonymous threat to Facebook took the form of a video, requesting viewers supporting their stand to also participate in the protest. Accordingly, the attack already commenced with attacks on other sites including some FBI sites. Supporters of the online protest were asked to download a program that would help them attack Facebook at 12 AM, 28 January 2012. The idea would be to attack Facebook servers forcing them to shut down.

The YouTube Anonymous video narrator stated that participation in the Facebook attack would be safe and that nobody had to fear prosecution, as accordingly, prosecution of such a large number of people throughout the world could not be done.

Is Anonymous Behind the Facebook Attack?

According to Anonymous they are not behind the videos for a Facebook attack, but since Anonymous is not a single group of people with a leader, it is difficult to substantiate their statement. Posts from various accounts were made to YouTube. Not too long ago a similar message was broadcasted on YouTube stating a Facebook attack on November 5, which never occurred. So whether it is a hoax or not will only really show on 28 January 2012.

Why a Facebook Attack?

Since Facebook did not come out strong against PIPA and SOPA they could be a target for an Anonymous attack and with the video showing through the protest that Facebook, according to them is with the US government on SOPA and PIPA, it could explain the protest. One can expect various claims to arise before the 28^th of January will have passed.

Facebook Announces Protest – SOPA and PIPA

Meanwhile, Facebook has given a statement to indicate that they do not support PIPA or SOPA and maybe it will help to prevent an Anonymous Facebook attack if it ever would have taken place.

AnonOps Twitter Tweet

A tweet showed that the members of Anonymous are not involved in any such attack messages and according to the tweeter, the mass media has lied about the issue.

Is Facebook Ready?

According to Facebook, they are ready for any Internet-based attacks with numerous precautions and security measures in place, whether the attack comes from Anonymous or any other source. Staunch FB users thus don’t have to fear no status updates and life is expected to go on as normal. FB users also don’t have to fear invasion of privacy in case of a server attack as according to the company, they value the privacy of users and have taken every step to protect such and the integrity of the social media network.
Mark Zuckerberg in a tweet came out against PIPA ad SOPA and the case should thus be settled once and for all about Facebook’s stance on the issue.

Who Is Anonymous and Why the Fear of a Facebook Attack?

To establish whether the group is indeed a real threat one must look at their past behaviour. Pro-Nazi sites have come under attack as have child pornography sites. The group does have teeth and they have brought servers down in the past. With that then any such threats are not taken too lightly by Internet communities.

The word Anonymous has developed as an Internet meme as long ago as 2003 to indicate groups of users who exist without a clear leader or coordinator. All members act as a group, but also individually. It has become a blanket term to describe the way people operate in the online environment where their identities are hidden.

Originally the term referred to people with a similar goal focusing on the entertainment industries, but a collective has developed where protest actions have taken place to promote specific actions and to denounce others. The group of users have for instance, promoted piracy and hacking seems to be a means to an end. With not a single group to be identified, but rather users labelling their attributions as Anonymous, prosecution does seem a bit difficult.

Websites that affiliate with the term do exist. Imageboards, some wikis and forums clearly associate with Anonymous including 4chan. Attacks in the form of distributed denial of service attacks have been done during 2008. Users who support the actions share some form of identity in the hiding of their identities, labelling their actions accordingly and in some way acting as if there is a real person or clear group behind it all.

The unnamed masses supporting specific concepts and have adopted some form of Internet identity of not being inhibited can be grouped in the collective. Users associating with the concept have described themselves as Anonymous, a non-forgiving group that takes action against perpetrators.

Where Do The Users Come From?

Most of the users can be found at imageboards and forums as well as social networks, chat networks and wikis. It is thus a very loose collection of Internet users who have the usage of some sites and IRC channels and social network tools in common who mobilize without a clear leader in protests.

With not a single leader, the individuals participate willingly and in their own way to benefit the group of people known as Anonymous.

What is an Internet Meme?

It can be described as any idea that is spread through the usage of the Internet. It can take the form of a video, chat, website, link, image, phrase or a misspelling of a word. It is spread from one user to another through the usage of email, blogs, tweets, forums and Facebook posts.

How Real is the Anonymous Facebook Attack Threat?

It remains to be seen, but since any user sharing the common goal of protesting against a site, action, government policy or anything that affects the Internet, can label their action as part of the Anonymous group, the collective common goal of a real Facebook attack can still be realized or the idea can just become another Internet meme.

The Piracy Bay Highlights the File Sharing Copyright Infringement Controversy

Peer to peer (P2P), file sharing networks and file share hosts, so-called torrent hosts or  torrent search engines such as The Pirate Bay, Napster, Supernova.org, TorrentSpy and isoHunt have all come under fire for so-called copyright infringement or the facilitation of copyright infringement.

Most recent, is the controversial ordering of two Dutch cable companies to block access to The Pirate Bay website. Although the owners of the website have already been found guilty of copyright infringement facilitation, the website is still fully functional. Users can still download and share music, videos, games and other content.

Although file sharing may be illegal in some countries, not all countries are equally strict on such. The Pirate Bay is a Swedish based website, and with millions of users around the world, it certainly has a lot of support. Indeed, the governments will have a hard time in tracking down every single user of such sites.

Indeed, one doesn’t necessarily need a website or search engine to download torrents. With numerous P2P networks facilitating file sharing, it can become a full time job for police around the world to track and shut down every single network.

There is also the question of whether file sharing is illegal. Not all files shared are copyright protected. Public domain works can be freely downloaded and distributed. Many authors or creators of works share such works under shareware and freeware licenses. Most of them welcome file sharing as such ensures that their works can be distributed to more people.

Anti-piracy group BREIN and other firms in the entertainment industry, including EMI and Sony Universal Music, originally brought the case against the owners of The Piracy Bay. A Swedish court ruled for jail sentences and a hefty fine trailing in the millions.

The issue has highlighted the plight of musicians, film companies, record houses and television producers regarding piracy. Whether it does constitute copyright infringement or piracy to share a file with another person for personal usage remains a hotly debated issue.

Torrents

With torrents, a user downloads not from one person alone, but can download from several persons. Rather than downloading one large file from a single supplier, such is thus downloaded in many bits from several sites or computers acting as sources on a network. This is done simultaneously and there is normally no fee involved. With a person downloading only one bit from one seeder for instance, and the rest from several peers in the network, one is thus not technically involved in infringement if the file is downloaded for personal use or so everyone thought, until recently.

Torrents differ from the normal P2P networks in the sense that one doesn’t have to subscribe, but where the users actively share files. Users are encouraged to share their files which are known as seeding. Users, who only download and don’t seed, are penalized. Such users are known as leeching agents. Torrents download at amazing speeds and with an open source code; file sharing communities are becoming exceedingly popular.

Torrent Engine

The Pirate Bay has adverts, which makes it different. However, since it doesn’t actively host the files, but is rather a search engine to find torrents, some controversy still surrounds the banning of the site. Some arguments have been made that the site owners were enriched because of their advert income, but the counter arguments state that the costs for running such a search engine are extremely high and that the advert income thus just covers the costs.

Napster at the other end indexed and made the files available. As such the site was involved in copyright infringement and not just facilitating such or finding torrents for the purpose. A recent jury verdict in the USA highlighted the danger for personal computer users when it comes to file sharing. A verdict was awarded against a woman for wilfully sharing music files. Although the verdict was reduced based on her downloading and sharing files for personal usage, it shows that consumers should expect to be act against for large quantity file sharing.  Although most of the attention is focused on file sharing websites and Internet service providers allowing for such consumers may in future be cut off from services if they are found guilty of such actions.

What are the Consequences of File Sharing?

The heated debate continues with some arguing that file sharing causes lower ranking music albums to struggle whilst the high ranking albums get a boost. The smaller artists thus feel the brunt of file sharing effects.  In the same group the feeling is that author’s creativity is negatively affected. Some sources, however, suggest that it doesn’t affect the sales of albums and that the sales of books, films and music albums have increased rather than decreased because of file sharing.

Whether or not torrents or P2P file sharing communities should be allowed to exist is another hotly debated issue.  Understandably, musicians, actors, artists and writers want to benefit commercially from their work. With that in mind, it has been suggested that sites such as The Pirate Bay be allowed to exist, but that a membership fee should be charged. Proceeds can then be shared amongst the contributors to the site.

It seems a plausible solution, but not one that will be accepted by large entertainment companies needing a lot of profit. The sheer volume of administration can be another problem when it comes to royalty payments.

SOPA

The Stop Online Privacy Act, a bill being discussed in the US Senate and House may significantly change the online environment for millions of users who will no longer be able to download and share files. Google and Facebook are some of the larger players opposing the Bill while supporters include the large entertainment companies. If the bill passes through, it could mean that the US government would be able to block out certain sites deemed to be involved or facilitating illegal downloading and file sharing.

Google, Facebook and YouTube may lose thousands to millions of visits and ad revenue. Content creators may also feel the pinch. As such the opposition to be bill is extremely strong. What do you think? Should Internet file sharing sites be blocked out and should consumers be prosecuted for downloading and sharing files in P2P networks?

The web strike against SOPA and PIPA is to go ahead on Wednesday 18 January, 2012. The web is to be a dark and silent place with many of the major sites going on a black-out. The occasion – SOPA and PIPA. One the 18^th of January 2012, the unprecedented will occur. Never in the history of the Internet have so many sites protested censorship at once. Wikipedia will also strike in protest against SOPA and PIPA as will thousands of other sites.

Do Your Homework Today

If you have research to do, it will be best to get to work today as for tomorrow, you will find the web on strike against SOPA, PIPA and web censorship. The protest across the web is against the Internet censorship bills to be voted on in the USA Congress on 24 January 2012. The idea behind the blackout, including the Wikipedia strike, is to create enough public opposition against SOPA in the USA House and PIPA in the Senate.

Core Protest

Protesting sites state that web censorship attacks the very core of the Internet. It takes away freedom of speech, creativity, and privacy. Should a government not like what is said about it on a website, it will be easy to ban the site and block access to it, pretending that it has violated copyright through file sharing facilitation or the likes. The Internet belongs to the users and not the governments of the world. If the USA is allowed to enact SOPA and PIPA, they will in effect exert control over the information flow on the web.

Wikipedia Will Not Be Available

Sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are at the forefront of the all-out strike against SOPA, PIPA, and web censorship. If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your browser, you may very well find it offline tomorrow. DowntownMiamiNews.com will also join the SOPA Blackout. According to them, the MPAA and RIAA, as driving forces behind the bill are the only ones to benefit whilst thousands to millions of users will be negatively affected by the regulations.

Even if you haven’t paid any attention to the information war between large corporations, including the likes of Google, Wikipedia and Facebook and the USA government hoping to push through legislation to censor the web and to prevent online piracy, you will be affected by the all-out one day blackout strike.

Wikipedia is a popular research source on the Internet, used by students, writers, and the general public to get a background on any topic before conducting more in-depth research. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, announced that the site will not be available for a full 24 hours in support of protest against the shutting down of sites such as The Piracy Bay and other file sharing sites and the proposed bills.

Entertainment Companies Support SOPA and PIPA

At the other end of the spectrum, the movie and entertainment companies fight hard to get SOPA and PIPA through because they lose money according to them, because of piracy, file sharing, and illegal downloading of movies and music on the Internet. Wikipedia has warned students to do their work early because the site will be off for the whole of Wednesday.

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has indicated that such laws will help to fight piracy and general intellectual property theft. According to them, the protest in the form of a web strike or black-out distracts from the real issue of ongoing piracy. They feel that foreigners, that is users outside the USA, are stealing from the USA by means of downloads; facilitating downloads, and file sharing.

Large Sites Join Opposition to Legislation

Notably, rather useful sites and resources on the Internet are against the proposed SOPA and PIPA including WordPress and TwitPic. WordPress provides free content management blog templates, plugins and resources and with such has the right to oppose such bills. As a free resource with contributions from developers around the world, willing to share their knowledge, it is understandable that they will oppose legislation.

Online Piracy is a Problem

Online piracy is definitely a huge problem for the entertainment industry, but although the large companies complain that file sharing costs them millions in revenue, research reports have indicated that book, music and film sales have increased rather than decreased because of or despite file sharing practices.

Information Flow at Risk

The dynamic nature of the Internet is in jeopardy should the USA be allowed to control web access to so-called pirate sites or file sharing sites considered as facilitators of intellectual property theft. It does, however, ring alarm bells even with free information contribution sites such as Wikipedia since legislation will open the doors for more web censorship. It creates the risk of a completely USA controlled Internet.

Google has indicated that they support such a web strike because SOPA would allow for governments and companies to take action against so-called perpetrators without a proper trial or investigation. The free flow of information is at risk with such legislation.

Internet companies joining the web strike said the proposed legislation — SOPA in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate — would allow operators no real chance before government actions could be taken against them. The web strike also including the Wikipedia blackout is a desperate cry-out by the public against web censorship and control over the information flow and freedom of expression that will come about with SOPA and PIPA.

Voting to Go Ahead

The USA Chamber of Commerce has reacted to the proposed web strike with an announcement by Steven Tepp (Chief Intellectual Property Counsel) that concerns about the bills have already been addressed including the wholesale blockage of infringing sites. Accordingly, the criminal activity of intellectual property theft is robbing companies of their rightful income.

The web strike against SOPA and PIPA will reach far and wide with many Facebook pages also joining. It is expected that as many as 5000 websites could join the black-out. There are even sites promoting the black-out in protest with the inclusion of an HTML code or JavaScript in the site’s theme. People are encouraged to Tweet about the blackout and to join the strike effort by adding their sites to the protest sites such as ProtestSOPA.org and Sopastrike.com.

The Apple and Samsung patent battle has been going on since April 2011. The giant Apple has sued Samsung for infringing on their iPad and iPhone designs. The patent infringement case is battled across borders from Australia to Europe.

Ban of Galaxy Tablet and Smartphones in Australia Lifted

The Samsung Galaxy Tab. 10.1 as the alleged patent infringing object was removed from the shelves of Australian shops because of an injunction filed to court by Apple. It obviously was a strategic move as the court order came only days before the big shopping spree for Christmas started.

More recently Samsung Australia admitted that because of the court ordered injunction the Samsung brand name got free and welcoming publicity. Indeed, it seems as if the court order backfired against Apple in their patent battle. With the public prepared and now in waiting for the Samsung tablet that will be returning to the shelves after a sales ban on the Galaxy tablet, orders have already rolled in for the tablet.

Galaxy Nexus

The Galaxy Nexus will also ride on the free publicity gained through the patent battle. It is perhaps something worth waiting for as it is the first smart phone that will have features such as facial recognition for user identification and with the cool bump app available, the phone users will be able to share information and pictures with other users by simply bumping their phones against each other.

Bump App

Although reviews about Bump seem to indicate that it is a slightly more complex process than advertised, it is still a feature that will be well appreciated by Android-based mobile phone users. Although Samsung certainly received a lot of free publicity because of the patent battle, the company has lost a lot of money because of the retraction from the shelves.

Free Advertising for Samsung Galaxy

According to reports, no indication has been given regarding the exact amount lost, but Samsung has indicated that they appreciate the awareness created for the Galaxy Tab. The company plans to take Australia by storm with units and looking at the orders already rolling in, it seems that a shortage can be expected in the market. This can in turn drive up market prices as well as create even more desire for the tablet.

What will perhaps count in Apple’s favour in terms of market share is the pricing of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Previous indicators have shown that consumers are not so eager to pay just as high prices for Android-based mobile phones and tablets as will be the case for iPad and iPhone technology.

Samsung Market Growth

The expectation is that Samsung will take larger chunks of the market in the coming 24 months, putting it just behind Apple on the top tablet chart. Fans of Android tablets will be glad to know that the 7.7 inch version is expected to hit the world market early in 2012 with the 8.9 inch version to be released only later. Samsung has already reached the top spot in the Australian mobile market in 2011.

Google took a risk with the Galaxy Nexus with the Android platform, but at the end it paid off. iPhone may still be in the lead overall, but one must take note of the underlying patent battle between the giants. As competition heats up, more court battles may become everyday news. Although Samsung has been delayed in the release of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 through the Apple court injunctions, with the ban on sales lifted just before Christmas, it has indeed come in their favour.

Although media attention focused on the Australian court battle, many markets around the world suffered the consequences of the ongoing Apple and Samsung patent battle, including the USA and Europe. Tyler McGee, who is the VP of Samsung telecommunications in Australia, has noted to news reporters that the whole patent infringement court battle between Apple and Samsung may have contributed to a loss of marketing sales drive because of the severe interruptions.

Mere curiosity can lead to consumers reading up on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and also to experiment more with Android tablets and smart phones in the upper price range.

Is it the End of the Apple vs. Samsung Patent Battle?

Maybe in Australia, Samsung has won the battle for now, but similar patent infringement battles are still in the pipeline in countries around the world. The prices of the two giants are similar and because the products fall within the same class, the competition is just starting to heat up.

Apple has failed to convince the High Court to give them a hearing. As a result the decision reached by the Federation Court was duly overturned in favour of Samsung. The battle has been going on for several months over two aspects only. Apple has accused Samsung of infringing on their intellectual property rights in terms of the multi-touch browser capacity as well as heuristic features.

It is not only in Australia where Samsung has been victorious, but also in California USA, where Apple’s request for a ban on sales of the Galaxy smart phones and tablet was rejected. Apple has indicated that they plan to appeal.

Retaliation by Samsung

If anyone has ever questioned the value of a patent, they should just follow the gigantic court battle between Apple and Samsung. Although Samsung has been on the receiving end of accusations, the company has also moved to take legal action against Apple for technologies used. In a similar manner, Samsung was defeated because their request for a ban on sales of Apple iPhone 4S in France was turned down.

With Samsung’s Galaxy SII being the direct competitor of the Apple iPhone 4S, the company went dirty in its fight with a pan indented ad about the capabilities of its smart phone pitted against the iPhone in a rather subtle manner.

The end of the Apple and Samsung patent court battle is not even near. With some 30 or more patent battles fought in numerous countries, it should be good reading for the next couple of months.