Australian ISPs will Have to Filter Web Content

Australian Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy says Australisan Internet Service Providers will be required to provide filtering of pornography and violent Web sites as the default option for schools and consumers. Senator Conroy says anyone wanting uncensored access to the internet will have to opt out of the service.

Firm Acquires 10 Percent of EarthLink

Steel Partners, a New York-based investment firm, has acquired nearly 10 percent of the shares of EarthLink Inc., or 11.9 million shares. Steel Partners said the total purchase price of the shares is $97.3 million.

Steel Partners is controlled by Warren G. Lichtenstein, a young corporate raider and associate of investor Carl Icahn. Steel Partners may now be EarthLink's largest shareholder.

Vonage, Nortel Settle Patent Dispute

Vonage Holdings Corp. and Nortel Networks Corp. have settled their intellectual property dispute by cross licensing their VoIP patents.

The settlement involves a limited cross-license to three Nortel and three Vonage patents, and dismisses claims relating to past damages and the remaining patents. The settlement is subject to final documentation.

The licensing concerns technology used to make emergency calls or dial 411. Neither company will pay the other anything for any alleged unauthorized use of its technology.

The settlement points up the increasing importance patent portfolios seem to be assuming in the service provider space, mirroring the enhanced importance such portfolios have assumed in the hardware and software space, where cross-licensing deals are a standard way suppliers settle such disputes.

This year Vonage has faced--and lost--several suits from other service providers over use of VoIP-related patents. At some level, one has to wonder whether any independent service providers using anything other than standard hardware and software sold by the largest providers is protected from similar threats. Vonage appears to have placed itself at greater risk precisely because it developed at least some of its own technology, instead of buying it.

In December Vonage agreed to pay AT&T Corp. $39 million as part of its settlement. Vonage has also agreed to pay Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. a total of $200 million to settle their respective lawsuits.

Vonage sued Nortel in August, claiming three patents Nortel held were mistakenly granted to the company. Nortel counter-sued, claiming Vonage is violating a total of 13 of Nortel's patents, and asked that Vonage be kept from using the technology.

Internet Access Big Library Attraction

Generation Y "Millenials" (age 18-30) are most likely to turn to libraries for problem-solving information of all generational groups, say researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Faced with a problem in the past two years that they needed to address, about one in eight adults (13 percent) say they turned to their local public library for help and information. And it appears computer availability is a reason.

Some 65 percent of adults who went to a library for problem-solving help said that access to computers, particularly the Internet, was key reason they go to the library for help.

Also, 62 percent of adults who went to the library for help actually used the computers at the library. At the same time, 58 percent of those with problems to solve said they used library reference books.

About 42 percent of those with problems to solve said they read library newspapers and magazines.

The problem most likely to be cited by those who went to libraries seeking information was an educational issue such as making a decision about a school, getting more training, or finding financial resources to do so. That reason was cited by 20 percent of the adults who went to libraries for help.

Asked whether they would go to a library in the future to help them solve problems, 40 percent of Gen Y respondents said it was likely they would go, compared with 20 percent of those over age 30.

About 53 percent of American adults report going to a local public library in the past 12 months. The profile of library users shows an economically upscale, information-hungry clientele who use the library to enhance their already-rich information world, Pew researchers say.

Public library patrons are generally younger adults, those with higher income and
education levels, and those who are Internet users. Parents with minor children living at home also are very likely to be patrons. There are no significant differences in library usage by race or ethnicity, Pew researchers say.

RIAA Suit: Not as Bad As First Thought

Engadget has done some digging and reports that the Recording Industry Associaton of America's lawsuit against Jeffery Howell is not for ripping CDs to an MP3 player, but to pedestrian illegal downloading. While we might disagree about the practice, RIAA is within its rights to pursue that sort of action.

So it appears the difference is the public assertion, as part of the suit, that MP3s ripped from legally owned CDs are "unauthorized copies." That remains the more critical issue. Is that sort of thing, done for personal use by the legal owner of a music CD, fair use or not?

New Rules for Li-Ion Batteries on Planes

Effective January 1, 2008 there are new rules on lithium-ion batteries used with PCs, iPods and mobile phones, particularly spare batteries.

The Transportation and Security Administration says the new rules apply only to spare batteries, not the installed batteries.

Spare lithium batteries cannot be packed in your checked baggage, but can be carried on board in carry-on luggage.

Battery size limitations also apply, expressed in grams of “equivalent lithium content.” (8 grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours; 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours).

Under the new rules, fliers can bring batteries with up to 8-gram equivalent lithium content. All lithium ion batteries in cell phones are below 8 gram equivalent lithium content. Nearly all laptop computers also are below this quantity threshold.

Users also can bring up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams.

For a lithium metal battery, whether installed in a device or carried as a spare, the limit on lithium content is 2 grams of lithium metal per battery.

Almost all consumer-type lithium metal batteries are below 2 grams of lithium metal.

Level 3 Sues Limelight Networks

Level 3 Communications has filed a patent infringement suit against Limelight Networks, alleging that Limelight's content delivery network infringes four Level 3 patents.

The filing cits patents 6,185,598; 6,473,405; 6,654,807 and 7,054,935, according to Dan Rayburn, streamingmedia.com EVP. Level 3 says it notified Limelight of the potential violations in February 2007, but that Limelight did not redesign its network to avoid infringing.

Given the notification by Level 3 and lack of response by Limelight, one has to assume Limelight thinks it is not infringing.

These days, it does not seem to be enough to have the right assets, people, channels, partners and technology. One often has to own intellectual property as well, if only to use as bargaining chips for cross licensing.

Hardware and software suppliers have known this for years. What is new is that service providers have to do the same.