Stay Tuned For Red Underpants

22nd October, 2012 – Occasionally, usually by accident (sometimes if they think nobody is listening) politicians say what they really believe.

”I have unfettered legal power,” Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told an obscure conference in New York in September. ”If I say to everyone in this room, ‘If you want to bid in our spectrum auction you’d better wear red underpants on your head’, I’ve got some news for you. You’ll be wearing them on your head.”

Conroy was clearly having a bit of fun. But he’s right. He has complete, arbitrary and absolute control over who broadcasts on the airwaves and the circumstances in which they broadcast, and that control has been disastrous for television consumers.

Read more at the Institute of Public Affairs

18 October 2012: Standard advertisement guidelines will be drawn up to protect consumers from misleading advertisements and announced on Monday.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said since there were no guidelines in the past, the introduction of the new guidelines would streamline all advertisement in the country, including television, radio and billboards.

“We will work with the relevant ministries like Health Ministry for food and medicine, Information, Communications and Culture Ministry for radio and TV advertisements to be carried out accordingly,” he told reporters after closing the Gerakan Pengguna Malaysia 2012 Symposium at Institut Latihan Keselamatan Sosial KWSP (ESSET) here today. 

Ismail Sabri said his ministry would also announce a refund policy this year to enable consumers to return products that did not meet specifications after purchase.

Pic: SM AminKAJANG

http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/36-local2/141271-standard-guidelines-for-ads-on-tv-radio-billboards-to-be-announced-monday-ismail-sabri-.html

October 19, 2012: The Pirate Bay has moved its servers to the cloud to hinder authorities’ attempts to take it offline. The website will now operate from cloud-hosting providers around the world. It says the move will save money and make it harder for law-enforcement agencies to shut it down.

In 2006, police in Sweden raided The Pirate Bay, shutting down its servers. The Pirate Bay says its new cloud-based servers, do not have to be hosted with the same provider, or even on the same continent – making it impervious to attempts to close it down. The Pirate Bay said: “The site that you’re at will still be here, for as long as we want it to. Only in a higher form of being. A reality to us. A ghost to those who wish to harm us.”

Talking to the TorrentFreak website they said: “Moving to the cloud lets us move from country to country, crossing borders seamlessly without downtime. The hosting providers have no idea that they’re hosting The Pirate Bay, and even in the event they found out it would be impossible for them to gather data on the users.”

http://advanced-television.com/2012/10/18/pirate-bay-moves-to-the-cloud/

10/16/12: AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and other major Internet service providers are set to implement a copyright alert system aimed at cutting down on illegal peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted material “over the next several weeks,” according to the head of the organization overseeing the new anti-piracy program.

“There are [implementation] dates in draft materials that are not set in stone and we don’t want to create any expectations we can’t meet, but we’re really close and we’ll start seeing alerts over the next several weeks,” said Jill Lesser, the executive director of the Center for Copyright Information (CCI).

Under the new copyright alert system, Internet service providers (ISPs) will send a series of alerts to subscribers whose accounts may have been used to illegally distribute music, movies or other entertainment content via file-sharing. If the subscriber does not respond to the first set of alerts, which will include educational material on protecting copyrights and the consequences of illegal file-sharing, the Internet service provider may temporarily slow down their Internet speeds, direct them to an online tutorial when they try to access popular websites or implement other penalties–called “mitigation measures.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/262315-internet-providers-set-to-crack-down-on-illegal-file-sharing

New Delhi | Wednesday, Oct 17 2012: Television Audience Measurement (TAM) data has been suspended across the country till a switch-over to the digital from the analogue TV service is complete. The decision has been reached with consensus among the TAM & Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India, (AAAI) and ISA (Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA).

The IBF said here today that the Broadcasting Industry was of the view that during the transition process from analogue signals to digital environment, there could have been discrepancies in TAM’s reporting of data, which could have had serious implications, particularly for the broadcasters, not only in terms of finance but also in terms of credibility. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has ordered the cable TV operators to suspend signals to all those consumers who do not install set top boxes by October 31 to get digitised signals. The deferment of release of data during the ‘switchover’ will ensure that TAM and all stakeholders have provided extended time for the on ground situation to stabilise into a digital phase. This will help in ensuring the users take a longer-term view of data for decision-making, the broadcasters body said. TAM will now release its data on December 19 and will include data measured from December 9, 2012.

http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20121017/2084666.html

October 15, 2012, NEW YORK: YOU On Demand has secured the VOD rights in China for a range of current, library and upcoming feature films from NBCUniversal International Television Distribution.

The offerings will be available to subscribers of YOU On Demand’s TVOD and SVOD platforms. Through the agreement, customers gain access to movies such as Despicable Me, It’s Complicated, Wanted, Public Enemies, Couples Retreat, Snow White and the Huntsman and more. “NBCUniversal’s diverse and quality films demonstrate YOU On Demand’s commitment to delivering the best premium content to our customers,” said Shane McMahon, the chairman and CEO of YOU On Demand. “We are excited to have NBCUniversal’s titles appear on the YOU On Demand platforms.”

http://worldscreen.com/articles/display/2012-10-15-you-on-demand-nbcuniversal