Tech firms target pirate ad cash

16 July 2013 Last updated at 06:13 ET

Websites that profit from piracy are being targeted by an initiative that aims to cut off the cash they get from adverts.

The initiative could mean ads being withdrawn from sites pirating music and movies or selling fake goods.

Many such sites only survive because cash generated by ads helps them pay their high bandwidth bills.

Tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that pipe adverts to sites have signed up to the initiative.

Before now, many rights holders have tried to deal with sites that infringe copyright with take-down notices that seek to get copyrighted content removed from the web.

The new scheme gives them another avenue as they can now target adverts that run on webpages found to be offering counterfeit goods or pirated media. Under the scheme, they will be able to inform an ad network that their adverts are appearing on a pirate site. It will then be up to the ad network to investigate and pull the ads if they agree the site is engaged in copyright theft.

Sites accused of piracy are also allowed to file evidence in their defence if they believe the accusation is wrong.

The scheme takes the form of a series of "best practice guidelines" that those who supply ads have agreed to uphold. The initiative was brokered by the US government's Intellectual Property Enforcement Co-ordinator.

"Ultimately, we want to create and maintain a healthy online space, promote innovation, and protect intellectual property," said Linda Covington, Yahoo's IP policy head, in a statement.

Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, Google, 24/7 Media, Adtegrity, Conde Nast and SpotXchange have all pledged to back the guidelines.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was critical of the scheme and said it that it would not make much difference.

In a statement, Chris Dodd, head of the MPAA, said it was an "incremental step forward that addresses only a narrow subset of the problem and places a disproportionate amount of the burden on rights holders."

It is also not clear how much effect it will have on bigger sites that generally use ad networks that have not signed up to the initiative. None of the top 10 ad firms that supply the majority of adverts to illicit file-sharing sites is involved with the scheme.

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BBC to launch five new HD channels

16 July 2013 Last updated at 06:31 ET

The BBC has announced it plans to launch five new high definition channels by early 2014.

There will be HD versions of BBC News, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBeebies and CBBC.

They will be available over rooftop aerials via Freeview receivers as well as satellite and cable services.

The news coincides with regulator Ofcom's announcement that is making it possible to launch a total of 10 new HD channels using airwaves freed up by the switch off of analogue TV.

"BBC One HD and BBC Two HD have already proved to be highly valued by our audiences and I'm delighted that we're able to follow this with the launch of five new subscription-free BBC HD channels by early 2014," said the BBC's director general Tony Hall.

"These new channels will allow us to showcase more of our programming at its very best."

At present there are only four HD channels offered over Freeview, which launched its HD service in 2010.

They are BBC One HD, BBC Two HD, ITV HD and Channel 4 HD. These include variants of the BBC One HD service for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as the broadcaster's Red Button service.

BSkyB said it had no plans to launch an HD service on Freeview.

ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 had no statement at this time as to whether they intended to take advantage of Ofcom's move.

Temporary licence

Two of the BBC's new channels - BBC Three HD and CBBC HD - will utilise existing unused capacity, and CBeebies HD and BBC Four HD will share a channel since they will not be broadcast at the same time.

As a result there is still the potential for up to a further eight new HD channels to be offered over Freeview as a result of Ofcom's move.

Transmission company Arqiva will provide the infrastructure behind the new Freeview services, having being awarded a licence to do so by the regulator. It will handle other applications for the added capacity.

The company has indicated that up to 70% of the UK population should be able to receive the new channels over their aerials.

The 550-606MHz spectrum band being used was freed up as a result of the UK's digital TV switchover, which was completed last year.

Ofcom has said it reserves the right to take back the bandwidth from December 2018 if it needs to prevent a "capacity crunch" caused by the roll-out of future mobile broadband services.

The BBC has indicated it also wants to launch English regional variants of its existing BBC One HD service as well as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland editions of BBC Two HD. This would not need any of the new capacity. It would, however, need to be approved by the BBC Trust.

More than 50% of homes in the UK are already HD-enabled. The BBC said it expected that figure to grow to 90% by 2019.

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UK to road test driverless cars

16 July 2013 Last updated at 11:24 ET

Driverless cars will be tested on public roads by the end of 2013, says the UK government.

So far, UK trials of the autonomous vehicles have taken place only on private land.

Driverless cars are guided by a system of sensors and cameras and are seen as potentially safer and more efficient than regular vehicles.

As a safety measure, a back-up driver will ride along during tests who can take over in case of emergency.

Test track

The plans have been unveiled in a blueprint by the Department for Transport, as part of a £28bn investment in British roads to reduce congestion. The report says driverless vehicles are capable of driving on their own "using knowledge of the environment in which they are driving".

"They maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front at a set speed and without deviating from their lane - all without the driver's input," said the report.

For now, the cars will be driven on lightly-used rural and suburban roads in a "semi-autonomous" mode which gives human passengers the choice to intervene.

Continue reading the main story

It's early days and driverless cars won't be mainstream for a long time.""

End Quote Paul Watters The AA

They will be tested by the same team of Oxford University researchers who have been developing and testing autonomous car technology on an adapted Nissan Leaf around Oxford Science Park.

The technology uses lasers and small cameras to memorise regular journeys like the commute or the school run.

Prof Paul Newman, who leads the Oxford team, told the BBC he was excited by the public trials in the UK. "It's a great area to be working in because it's IT and computers and that's what changes things. The British government sees that engineering is important."

The UK announcement follows public trials in other parts of the world. The US is leading the way, with three states - Nevada, Florida and California - all passing legislation around autonomous cars.

"Far fetched"

Google has led efforts in the private sector, with its fleet of prototypes of a converted Toyota Prius covering more than 300,000 miles on public roads.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he believed the self-driving car would "dramatically improve the quality of life for everyone", and that it would be commercially available within the decade.

Prof Newman acknowledged that Google were "trailblazers" but added: "They're not the only game in town."

Although initiatives so far have focused on adapting existing cars, many leading car makers including Ford, Audi and Volvo have also expressed their interest in developing the technology as the cost comes down, potentially paving the way for widespread use in mid-range vehicles.

They link an array of technologies inside the vehicle such as lane keep assist, advanced intelligent cruise control and advanced emergency braking in a so-called "sensor fusion".

Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, urged caution.

"In the past our members have expressed concern about fully autonomous cars, preferring human interaction," he told the BBC.

"The notion of reading the newspapers and drinking a cup of coffee is a bit far-fetched. It's early days and driverless cars won't be mainstream for a long time."

"But we have a variety of in-car technologies already, including guided parking and adaptive cruise control, so fully driverless cars will be the culmination of a gradual evolution, not an overnight revolution."

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Yahoo revenue falls on slow ad sales

16 July 2013 Last updated at 17:27 ET

Internet giant Yahoo continues to struggle, reporting declining ad revenue in the second quarter of 2013.

The results were the first since the company acquired blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1bn (£723m) in June.

Profits were $331m, up 46% from the same time last year. The rise was due mostly to the company's investment in Chinese ecommerce site Alibaba.

Display advertising revenue fell 13% in the quarter, while search revenue was down 9%.

Chief executive Marissa Mayer, who celebrated one year at the company on Tuesday, chose to ignore the continued revenue slide. Instead, she hailed the company's relentless release of new mobile offerings.

"We reached a pace of launching a new product almost every week," said Ms Mayer during a webcast to discuss the company's earnings.

"As you can tell, we've been busy."

Reaction on Wall Street was muted, with shares falling 1.7% on the news.

Problems remain

Although the company's stock has risen more than 70% since Ms Mayer took over, fundamental issues of revenue generation remain.

While digital ad sales are expected to grow overall this year, it is unclear whether Yahoo will be able to get in on the game.

According to research firm eMarketer, Yahoo's share of global digital ad spending is expected to decline to 3.1% in 2013 from 3.37% last year.

In the US, eMarketer estimates that Yahoo's share of US digital ad revenues will decline to 8% from 8.6% in 2012.

Mayer magic?

But Yahoo's turnaround is expected to take longer than one year and Yahoo's board is said to have promised Ms Mayer several years to help revamp the company's fortunes.

She herself has said that her focus at the company would be on its mobile offerings. The earnings release proclaimed the many mobile revamps to its products, such as photo-sharing site Flickr and Yahoo News, conducted under her tenure.

Yahoo has also bought nine technology start-ups in the past quarter, including Tumblr and Summly, bringing the total to 17 acquisitions under her watch.

Yahoo hopes this will diversify its base, attract engineering talent and boost company morale.

Ms Mayer touted the improved environment at the company, noting that in the second quarter, the rate of employees leaving the company declined by 59%.

She also noted that more than 12% of new hires in the past year were boomerangs - that is, people who left Yahoo only to come back.

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Samsung denies Jay-Z app claims

By Amelia Butterly
Newsbeat reporter

Samsung is denying claims that it has invaded the privacy of customers who downloaded the free Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail app.

US civil liberties group the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (Epic) claims the app collects "massive amounts of personal information from users, including location data".

Samsung says the complaint is baseless and it takes privacy seriously.

Continue reading the main story

We spent four days arguing about those records. I was explaining to him why it wasn't right and I had an idea for making this album called Magna Carta Holy Grail

Jay-Z on his row with Kanye West

Jay-Z and Samsung teamed up to offer one million people the album for free.

According to Epic, the "Magna Carta app also includes hidden spam techniques" that makes users promote Magna Carta Holy Grail to their friends.

They say it also pulls in data from other accounts and other apps on the user's phone.

The privacy group has asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which protects consumers in the US, to suspend distribution of the app.

'Standard permissions'

In a statement, Samsung said: "We are aware of the complaint filed with the FTC and believe it is baseless. Samsung takes customer privacy and the protection of personal information very seriously.

"Any information obtained through the application download process was purely for customer verification purposes, app functionality purposes and for marketing communications, but only if the customer requests to receive those marketing communications.

"Our permissions are in line with other apps' standard permissions. Samsung is in no way inappropriately using or selling any information obtained from users through the download process."

Previously Epic has complained about Snapchat, the publisher of a mobile app that deletes pictures and videos after they have been viewed, for "falsely" claiming they could be removed "forever".

Jay-Z tour

The Magna Carta Holy Grail app was released on 4 July with Samsung paying £3.2m for digital copies for its customers.

Cloned versions of the app were created by hackers. Available via unofficial sites, they contained code that unlocked anti-Obama messages.

Magna Carta Holy Grail is topping the Official Album Chart giving Jay-Z his first UK number one album.

Jay-Z has also announced details of his next European tour to support the album, with dates in Manchester, Birmingham and London.

Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter

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Chinese internet use surges ahead

17 July 2013 Last updated at 07:07 ET

China now has 591 million internet users, according to the latest official figures from the country.

The China Internet Network Information Centre added that 464 million citizens accessed the net via smartphones or other wireless devices.

The headline figure marks a 10% rise on last year and indicates 44% of the country's population uses the web and other net services.

The rapid growth is reflected in the valuations of some local tech firms.

Earlier this week the country's most popular search engine Baidu announced it would pay $1.9bn (£1.3bn) to buy 91 Wireless Websoft, a firm that runs two app stores in the country.

A forthcoming flotation of Alibaba, the Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant, is also expected to value the firm at $62.5bn, according to research by Bloomberg.

Western brands have also been keen to target the market, as was highlighted by football team Manchester United's decision to launch a Sina Weibo account earlier this month.

The Twitter-like micro-blogging service reported in February that it had more than 500 million registered users, with about 46 million people using the product on any given day.

Another Chinese firm, Tencent, has said its QQ instant messaging service had an even high number - 798.2 million registered users - at the end of last year.

That is more than China's entire net population, but can be explained by the app's popularity in Indonesia and other parts of Asia as well as the fact that some mainland-based netizens would have registered multiple accounts.

The China Internet Network Information Centre's data on internet use goes back to June 2009 when it says there were 338 million people using the net on the mainland, 320 million of whom were doing so via a mobile device.

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First tests of '130mph' lawnmower

17 July 2013 Last updated at 07:29 ET

The first test runs of a lawnmower that could reach speeds of more than 130mph have taken place.

The vehicle, made by Honda for Top Gear magazine, goes from 0-60mph (95km/h) in roughly four seconds.

The team behind it may attempt to have an official go at the lawnmower speed record, which stands at 96.5mph.

In a test run, Top Gear magazine clocked "just over 100mph" on the back straight of the Circuit de Charade testing course in France.

The lawnmower was also put through its paces by Top Gear's "the Stig".

Honda said it was working on the project to increase its "sporty" credentials.

"The main engineering challenge stems from the need to retain the look of the lawnmower on which it is based, and the ability to still cut grass while achieving the speed and the handling characteristics required for this type of vehicle," said Peter Crolla, team manager at Team Dynamics - Honda's UK motor racing team partner - which is overseeing the project.

"To our knowledge, this has never been done before, certainly using this mower and engineer combination, and as such there are no previous learnings to draw upon."

Flaming roar

The current lawnmower speed record was set by fuel additive firm Gold Eagle in September 2010.

However, there are strict guidelines over the point at which a modified lawnmower "isn't really a mower anymore", a spokesman for the British Lawnmower Racing Association told the BBC.

While the Top Gear magazine mower does mow grass, the original cutting mechanism has been replaced to accommodate the engine modifications necessary to make it reach the top speeds.

"Honda has fitted two 4,000rpm electric motors with metal brake cables attached to flail the green stuff into submission," writes Piers Ward, the magazine's senior road tester, in the latest issue.

But to get up to the 100mph mark, the improvised cutting mechanism needs to be removed "because with the cutting deck attached, the ground clearance is about 1cm [0.4in]".

The high-powered motorbike engine gives the mower a 130 decibel roar - and creates flames from the exhaust.

"Hearing it for the first time, and seeing flames spitting out of the exhaust, didn't exactly help make me feel relaxed before I drove it," added Mr Ward.

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Premier League wins piracy block

17 July 2013 Last updated at 07:56 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

The Premier League has won a court order forcing UK internet service providers to block a popular football streaming website.

FirstRow1.eu, operated from Sweden, links to various video streams showing football from around the world - a breach of copyright, the High Court ruled.

It will be blocked ahead of the new season, which begins next month.

It is the first time a sport-related website has been blocked in the UK.

It follows a raft of site blocks put in place by the music industry, which is increasingly using ISP-level filtering to cut off access to popular sites offering free downloads illegally.

However, this case marks the first time a site simply facilitating access to streaming sites - rather than hosting streams itself - has been blocked.

'£10m a year'

"It is absolutely imperative that content industries are afforded protection under the law if they are to continue investing in the sort of quality talent and facilities that has made them successful and of interest in the first place," a spokesman for the Premier League said.

"The judgement recognises the parasitic nature of the enterprise; this was an out and out commercial operation with estimated revenues of up to £10m a year, whilst giving nothing back to the sport."

FirstRow1.eu told the BBC the block would be ineffective, as it would not remove the streams from the web.

"The average user is a kid or a person that doesn't have the means to see it any other way," a spokesman wrote in an email.

The comments echo the sentiment of open internet campaigners who disagree with blocking, arguing that content owners should instead concentrate on providing more legal methods to access content online.

Securing the rights to show Premier League football is huge business.

BT Sport, a newcomer in the market, is paying £246m per season for its broadcast rights, while BSkyB is paying £760m a year.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Microsoft calls for NSA transparency

17 July 2013 Last updated at 09:02 ET

The US attorney general is reviewing a letter from Microsoft asking that it be allowed to publish more detail about US National Security Agency requests for user data.

The software giant suggests a gagging order is unconstitutional.

Leaked documents indicate the company has provided access to emails, Skype video calls and uploaded documents.

Microsoft has said that it only provides "specific data" after checking the legality of the requests.

It added that: "Numerous documents are now in the public domain.

"As a result, there is no longer a compelling government interest in stopping those of us with knowledge from sharing more information, especially when this information is likely to help allay public concerns."

Constitution at risk

The letter marks Microsoft's latest effort to make secret security requests more open.

In it, the company's general counsel, Bradford Smith, asks US Attorney General Eric Holder to intervene because it believes "the constitution itself is suffering".

The company says government agencies are taking too long to agree how much information it can release.

In the meantime, it says, media reports have "misinterpreted" its disclosure practices.

Continue reading the main story

It will take the personal involvement of you or the President to set things right."

End Quote Bradford Smith Microsoft general counsel

"In my opinion, these issues are languishing amidst discussions among multiple parts of the government, the constitution itself is suffering, and it will take the personal involvement of you or the president to set things right," Mr Smith added.

Currently, Microsoft - along with other tech giants such as Google and Facebook - is limited in what it can say publicly about requests for information from the National Security Agency (NSA).

It is unable to provide a breakout figure for how many requests it receives from the agency, and can only aggregate the number with requests from other law enforcement agencies.

Strong denials

In June Microsoft said it had received between 6,000 and 7,000 such requests over the last six months of 2012.

Last month it filed a motion in a secret court asking for permission to release detail as to where the different requests came from. It says it is still waiting for a response.

Earlier this week Microsoft also strongly denied claims it provided the NSA special access to customers' unencrypted emails and Skype video calls under the agency's Prism surveillance scheme.

The company said it did not give the US government "unfettered" access to its servers, only handing over information about specific accounts after reviewing the legality of requests.

The Prism system was exposed last month in documents supplied by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

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Google competition plan 'not enough'

17 July 2013 Last updated at 12:19 ET

Google has not done enough to address concerns it is unfairly stifling competition, an EU official has said.

Google stands accused of using its 90% market share of internet search in Europe to promote its own services.

The company has offered to change the way it displays some results to address the worries.

But European Commission competition chief Joaquin Almunia said Google must rethink its response and "present better proposals".

"I concluded that proposals that Google sent to us months ago are not enough to overcome our concerns," Mr Almunia said on Wednesday.

In response, Google spokesman Al Verney said the search giant remained committed to settling the case, and that its offer "clearly addresses" the four areas of concern highlighted by the EU.

Huge fine

Those areas of concern, first highlighted in 2010, were:

• how Google favours its own services in its search results
• how it displays content from other websites
• how it manages adverts appearing next to search results
• how its actions affect marketers' ability to buy adverts through rival networks

On advertising, competitors have complained that it is too difficult to place ads on Google's Ad service using third-party software.

Continue reading the main story

Google's offer made rather surprising reading"

End Quote David Wood Icomp

Both sides of the dispute have said they are eager to reach a settlement, but if necessary, the commission could formally file a case - leaving Google open to the prospect of being fined 10% of its annual revenue.

Google submitted in April its proposal to solve the problem. It agreed to display links to rivals close to where it displayed its own services on its results page.

It also offered to more clearly label results from YouTube, Google Maps and its other sites.

But lobby groups from other companies, including Microsoft, disputed the effectiveness of the changes.

"It is clear that mere labelling is not any kind of solution to the competition concerns that have been identified. Google should implement the same ranking policy to all websites," Microsoft said in April.

Google had also been subject to an earlier US Federal Trade Commission probe into competition issues - which ruled there were no concerns.

Rival-backed study

After receiving Google's proposals in April, the EU submitted the offer to the complainants - Google's rivals - for their consideration.

The interested third parties include Microsoft, Expedia and Trip Advisor - who form part of Fairsearch, a group of businesses looking to increase competition in the search industry.

A study of UK web users commissioned by the group, conducted by a pair of US academics, suggested that, even under the new proposals, Google-owned services enjoyed "better placement, richer graphics and better visuals" than competitors.

It said that as many as one in five of the 1,888 people studied clicked on Google's commercial web services, compared to one in 200 clicking on its rivals.

Another group, the Microsoft-backed Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (Icomp), called for a "tight deadline" for Google's revised offer.

"It is reassuring that the commission has recognised, as had been argued by many, that Google's offer of proposed remedies was inadequate," said Icomp's legal counsel David Wood.

"Frankly, Google's offer made rather surprising reading and clearly fell far short of meeting the key requirement."

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