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Brendan O'Neill: The internet's traffic jam
Did it take your browser a little bit longer than normal to open this article? Have you found yourself twiddling your thumbs recently as you wait two or three seconds (rather than the usual millisecond) for an email to send? Perhaps you've even found yourself making a cup of tea while waiting for the homepage of a particularly image-heavy website to download. Using the web, do you sometimes feel like you're stuck in 1998 - all slow connections and snail-paced emails - rather than 2008? If so, it might be because somewhere else on the web, a few thousand people are watching last week's Question Time or downloading the new Coldplay album (though heaven knows why). Welcome to the internet crunch. As more web-surfers listen to music and watch TV shows and movies, there is great concern that the<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7336940.stm">broadband infrastructure</a>won't be able to cope, and that things will slow down and possibly even come to a standstill. New audio- and video-based sites have started to take up more and more bandwith, yet the networks - all those miles of fibre-optic cables that were laid in recent years - have not been properly upgraded. As a result, the infrastructure of the internet, the physical stuff it is built on, will potentially struggle to cope with increased demand for new, improved, snazzy online services. Some are concerned that<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/">BBC iPlayer</a>, which allows web-users to watch BBC TV content from the previous seven days, is putting the internet under severe strain. Though it's only been online for six months, already iPlayer accounts for<a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3716781.ece">3-5%</a>of all internet traffic in the UK. In April alone, there were 17.2m requests to watch programmes via iPlayer. Meanwhile, YouTube continues its rise as one of the most popular sites in Britain (and the world), more people are making phone calls via the web, and if you still buy CDs you are either over 25 or way behind the times technology-wise: everyone else does music online. All of these new services are putting an extraordinary strain on the infrastructure. For example, downloading a film in the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc">Blu-Ray format</a>(that's high definition)<a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5402/">takes up as much bandwith</a>as a whopping 2.5m emails or 100m webpage downloads. Fifteen years ago, people like me thought it was amazing that we could send an email to a friend; today's web-users think little of sending the equivalent of a couple of million emails as they download the latest Hollywood blockbuster. And when you consider that the first episode of<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/">The Apprentice</a>was watched 100,000 times via iPlayer - which must be the equivalent of someone sending millions and millions of emails, or visiting an ordinary website a few billion times - it is clear that the bandwith and infrastructure issue is one that needs to be resolved. So how bad is the problem - and who should fix it? My website<a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/">spiked</a>is hosting a public debate on the internet crunch next Tuesday evening, at which esteemed speakers and an audience of interested parties and the interested public will interrogate the "traffic jam crisis". One speaker - David Crow, the tech correspondent for<a href="http://www.cityam.com/">City AM</a>- says "our broadband network is completely unprepared for the extra strain as online video-streaming becomes more mainstream.""Laying new fibre-optic cables is expected to cost£15bn", he says, but it isn't clear who will pay for it: "It's highly unlikely that the BBC will ever have to foot the bill, not least because it can't; the£15bn projected cost is around three times the corporation's annual budget. Nor is the government likely to fund the new cabling through general taxation." Meanwhile, Rob Killick of<a href="http://www.cscape.com/">cScape</a>says there are elements of special pleading and scaremongering in the debate about the internet crunch. He argues: "What seems to be driving today's panic about an internet crunch is the needs of ISPs and media competitors, who have an interest in stoking up fear about the BBC and others causing an internet collapse, and also a general sense of cultural pessimism." Is there likely to be a collapse of the internet, or is than an exaggeration? Clearly the infrastructure needs to be improved, but who should fund that improvement? If we demand that the government stumps up the money, won't that mean increased government control - and therefore more government regulation and restriction - of the internet in general? Does anyone want that? These questions and more will be debated at Traffic Jam: Are We Heading for an Internet Crunch? at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in Parliament Square from 7pm on Tuesday 8 July. Click<a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/eventindex">here</a>to book a ticket. I hope to see you there.<img width='1' height='1' src='http://www.guardianfeeds.co.uk/c/288/f/7511/s/1609cf5/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Brendan O'Neill: The internet's traffic jam&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/03/bbc.internet?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Brendan O'Neill: The internet's traffic jam&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/03/bbc.internet?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div> <a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533068229/f/7511/c/288/s/23108853/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533068229/f/7511/c/288/s/23108853/a2.img" border="0"/></a>
Paparazzi boss Darryn Lyons offers cash for mobile phone pics of celebs
<div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><img src="http://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2008/07/03/DarrynLyons84.jpg" /></div>Celebrities, beware! There is nowhere left to hide. Darryn Lyons, the larger than life founder of the Big Pictures photo agency, is encouraging budding paparazzi with nimble fingers and a mobile-phone camera to start sending him celebrity shots.Lyons is getting in on the user-generated content boom by launching a new service allowing snap-happy punters to upload and sell celebrity shots directly from their mobile phones.He will be offering the new service via a mobile version of the website, MrPaparazzi.com, which he launched 18 months ago, combining celebrity news, photos and videos in a Perez Hilton-style blog.The new mobile version, built by mobile content specialists MoMac, makes all the content accessible by mobile, but also allows users to upload celebrity photos that, once approved, can be sold on by Big Pictures.Lyons' agency has previously sold on images sent in by nimble-fingered picture phone snappers to MrPaparazzi.com of Cameron Diaz surfing, which made£16,000, and pictures of Amy Winehouse, sold for£500.Contributors earn around 50% of licence fees Big Pictures gets from selling images sent in via the website.Lyons said the website, which claims 1.7 million unique users each week, is already profitable through a combination of selling material, a branded bingo service and advertising. He now wants to extend the reach of the site by expanding onto mobile."The difference [from Perez Hilton] is that we own and generate the content - he doesn't," he added.Lyons said contributors to the MrPaparazzi.com site had to agree to clear terms and conditions stating that submissions have not invaded the privacy or caused inconvenience to any subjects."Photos from the biggest news events are rarely taken by the media, like 9/11 and 7/7. The better quality, iconic images of the news are always by professionals, but often someone has exceptional access or is in the right place at the right time," he added.·To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email<a href="mailto:editor@mediaguardian.co.uk">editor@mediaguardian.co.uk</a>or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.·If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".<img width='1' height='1' src='http://www.guardianfeeds.co.uk/c/288/f/7511/s/160859e/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Paparazzi boss Darryn Lyons offers cash for mobile phone pics of celebs&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/03/darryn.lyons?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Paparazzi boss Darryn Lyons offers cash for mobile phone pics of celebs&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/03/darryn.lyons?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div> <a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533066804/f/7511/c/288/s/23102878/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533066804/f/7511/c/288/s/23102878/a2.img" border="0"/></a>
Filesharing: The letters sent to Virgin Media customers
Virgin Media and the BPI have sent warning letters to people whose IP addresses have been identified as having been used for file-sharing. Both letters are reprinted below.<h2>The text of Virgin Media's letter to customers</h2>We're writing to you about downloading and sharing of copyrighted files on the internet. That's because we've received a report that copyrighted music has been shared using a computer linked to your Virgin Media internet account. Please allow us to explain. As we're sure you'll know, many files that can be saved on your computer (like music and videos) are protected by copyright. While it may be okay to store them for personal use, it's unlawful to download or share them without the permission of the copyright owner - for example, the record company or film studio that released them. Otherwise it's a "copyright infringement", which can lead to legal action being taken against the person responsible. It's one of the jobs of the<a href="http://www.bpi.co.uk">BPI</a>, which represents British record labels, to make sure that copyrighted music files aren't unlawfully shared over the internet. They wrote to let us know that they believe your internet connection is being used to share files. We understand you may be concerned about this, and you might be unsure how it happened. One possible answer is that other people in your household have used your computer and/or Internet connection, and they might have shared these files with others by using unauthorised "peer-to-peer/P2P" filesharing networks like "BitTorrent" or "Limewire". However, you need to make sure that these files aren't downloaded or shared from your Virgin Media internet connection in future - for example, making sure they're not being made available through the use of file sharing networks, and securing any wireless router that you have. We encourage all our customers to use appropriate security solutions to safeguard their computers whilst online, and therefore we recommend that you use<a href="http://www.virginmedia.com/pcguard">PCGuard</a>, our suite of security services.This can also help to prevent the spread of computer viruses which are sometimes disguised as illegal music files. All this will help make sure that no further steps are taken against you. We've included a summary of the BPI report below, we hope that this and the enclosed BPI letter helps explain how to prevent unauthorised downloading and filesharing and how to enjoy music safely online. If you'd like details of any further technical information supplied to us by the BPI or if there's anything else you'd like to know, just call our internet security team on 0845 454 1098. Please note we have not shared any of your account or personal information with the BPI as part of this communication.<h2>Text of the BPI's letter to filesharers</h2>Dear Virgin Media Customer Enjoying Music On The Internet& Illegal Filesharing We're writing to you about enjoying music on the internet and about illegal downloading and filesharing. It's an issue which affects you, so it's very important that you read this letter carefully. We're exceptionally lucky in Britain to have a world-beating music-making community, with a strong and sophisticated fan base. But we can only keep it that way if we all work together to ensure that the musicians who create this great music are rewarded for doing so. That's where copyright comes in - copyright applies just as much to online music as it does to physical CDs. That means that you can't upload or download files on your computer without the authorisation of the copyright owner. Legal download services such as iTunes and 7digital authorise you to download music and make a few copies for your own personal use. But it's illegal to download from unauthorised peer-to-peer/P2P networks such as BitTorrent. It's also illegal to share music files with other people, unless you have specific permission from the copyright owner. Otherwise musicians won't be paid and record labels won't be able to invest in the kind of new music that you might want to enjoy in the future. That's why the BPI team carries out regular checks online. We have information that someone - and it may not be you - is using your Virgin Media internet account to access music illegally. However it happened, it is illegal. We therefore need you to take steps to stop it from happening again. The steps you can take are set out in the enclosed "What To Do Next" section. You should know that if you don't do this and the problem happens again, then you could face legal action. We don't want you to face legal action or risk losing your internet service - we want you to enjoy music legally. The good news is that there is plenty of online music for you to download legally. Take a look at<a href="http://www.pro-music.org">pro-music.org</a>for a list - there are millions of tracks available of all types and genres.If you'd like to discuss any concerns you have in relation to this letter, then please don't hesitate to get in touch. Our contact details are set out in the "What To Do Next" section. We're ready to help. Thanks for your time. Yours sincerely Geoff Taylor Chief Executive, BPI<img width='1' height='1' src='http://www.guardianfeeds.co.uk/c/288/f/7511/s/1606e2e/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Filesharing: The letters sent to Virgin Media customers&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/letters.filesharers?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Filesharing: The letters sent to Virgin Media customers&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/letters.filesharers?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div> <a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533065220/f/7511/c/288/s/23096878/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533065220/f/7511/c/288/s/23096878/a2.img" border="0"/></a>
Internet: We won't cut off filesharers, says Virgin Media
Virgin Media customers who illegally share copyrighted files online will not face having their internet connection cut off, the company said today.Last month the country's second-largest internet service provider started sending letters to a number of identified filesharers, outlining the nature of illegal downloading and pointing to internet services that offer music and videos within the scope of the law.Following<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7486743.stm">reports today</a>regarding the letters, however, a Virgin Media spokesman told the Guardian that this was not a prelude to a "three strikes" policy which could see persistent offenders lose their internet access."As part of this we don't make any kind of accusation about the user - it could be somebody else in their house, their block of flats or they might have an open Wi-Fi connection," said the spokesman."We can't point the finger at the account holder, but we can point out what's happening with their connection. Often it's a lack of education that's causing the problem."The letters are the latest move in a plan being pushed by British music industry body the BPI, which is waging a long campaign against filesharing. The BPI is advocating a system similar to one proposed by French politicians, in which those who share files illegally are given a series of warnings before having their internet connection closed down.That idea, mooted by French president Nicholas Sarkozy, has yet to be passed into law and has provoked controversy both at home and abroad. The approach taken by Virgin means that any potential prosecutions of filesharers would have to be put in process by copyright holders themselves, or the organisations which represent them - as is currently the case.Earlier this year the BPI warned ISPS that they must take action against filesharers or it would seek an injunction against the companies. Some reacted angrily to such threats - including Charles Dunstone, the chief executive of Carphone Warehouse."Our position is very clear," he told the BBC<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7329801.stm">at the time</a>. "We are the conduit that gives users access to the internet. We do not control the internet, nor do we control what our users do on the internet.""I cannot foresee any circumstances in which we would voluntarily disconnect a customer's account on the basis of a third party alleging a wrongdoing."Virgin already employs so-called throttling measures to prevent heavy downloaders from using the full scope of their internet service - regardless of whether they are acting within the law or not - as a way to maintain the level of service for its other customers.<img width='1' height='1' src='http://www.guardianfeeds.co.uk/c/288/f/7511/s/160572a/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Internet: We won't cut off filesharers, says Virgin Media&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/virgin.filesharers?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Internet: We won't cut off filesharers, says Virgin Media&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/virgin.filesharers?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div> <a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533063850/f/7511/c/288/s/23090986/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533063850/f/7511/c/288/s/23090986/a2.img" border="0"/></a>
Relief for Torbay as Facebook rave is called off
A beach rave party advertised on a social networking site was cancelled as organisers urged people not to go to Torquay after a police chief said last night the event would not be allowed to go ahead.More than 4,000 people confirmed on a Facebook site that they would attend the event, touted by organisers as the "biggest open party Torbay has ever seen" and planned for this Friday night, continuing until Sunday lunchtime.But organisers put up a message on the site they had originally used to advertise the party last night, saying: "This event is now cancelled."Torbay police commander Superintendent Chris Singer said he was "delighted" that the organisers have "seen common sense and taken the responsible step."He said there would be public safety issues if the party went ahead with the possibility of people getting cut off by the weekend's high tides.While he admitted police did not know where exactly the event was planned to take place, he warned that police would still have resources in place. His message to potential revellers was: "There is no point in coming down to Torbay if you are looking to attend an alcohol-fuelled event."The Facebook site explained that due to the unexpectedly high number of people planning attend, it would require a licence to go ahead "legally and safely"."An application for such a licence is a lengthy process and cannot be completed within the given time constraints," it read, saying that factors such as "traffic management, waste disposal and sanitary conditions" had to be carefully planned.It went on to emphasise that anyone who turned up would be arrested or asked to leave: "Do not travel to Torbay - there will still be a high police presence around the coast." Having originally promised a weekend with "lots of people and lots of alcohol", the organisers were now urging people to spread the word that the party is longer going ahead. "Sorry for any inconvenience" they apologised.<img width='1' height='1' src='http://www.guardianfeeds.co.uk/c/288/f/7511/s/15f83d3/mf.gif' border='0'/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Relief for Torbay as Facebook rave is called off&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/facebook.facebook?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Relief for Torbay as Facebook rave is called off&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/facebook.facebook?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull" target="_blank"><img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></div> <a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533050642/f/7511/c/288/s/23036883/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/12533050642/f/7511/c/288/s/23036883/a2.img" border="0"/></a>

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