Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday that the company expects an outcome in its dispute with the Chinese government soon. Schmidt made the comments on Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. “I’m going to use the word ’soon’, which I will not define otherwise,” he said.
“There is no specific timetable. Something will happen soon.” In Washington, Nicole Wong, the firm’s vice president and deputy general counsel, told the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that the company stands by its decision to stop censorship in China.
“(if) the option is that we will shutter our .cn property and leave the country, we are prepared to do that,” she said. At the same time, it was revealed that the United States is mulling a possible legal challenge to China’s Internet censorship and related policies which it claims hurt U.S. companies that invest in the Chinese market.
The recent spat between Google and China started in January when the search giant announced that it would stop censoring search results in the country and would leave the market if it had no other choice. The announcement followed a hack targeted at Google’s intellectual property and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
Google said that more than 20 companies were targeted in the attack which originated in the country. Chinese officials said they were working with Google to resolve the dispute.
Result for: internet
In a letter to the Financial Times, BT Group Chief Executive Ian Livingston suggested that persistent file sharers caught breaking copyright laws should face fines instead of technical sanctions proposed by the UK government. He said that suspending service for persistent infringers as spelled out in the Digital Economy Bill could deny a fair hearing for the accused.
Instead of the technical sanctions outlined in the DEB, Livingston said people could choose to pay a penalty or fight the accusation. Those who dispute accusations could take their case to a new tribunal instead of the courts. The suggestion brings BT in line with the Open Rights Group, which believes such a system would be fairer and less risky than the proposed suspensions and other sanctions.
In the letter - which was also signed by the bosses of TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Orange, as well as Facebook, Google, eBay and Yahoo! - a recent amendment to the Digital Economy Bill faced considerable criticism. The amendment made last week would allow copyright holders to injunct ISPs and force the blocking of specific web addresses.
The measure would be used to fight against files posted on “locker services”, such as Rapidshare. “Endorsing a policy that would encourage the blocking of websites by UK broadband providers or other internet companies is a very serious step for the UK to take,” the letter reads.
“Put simply, blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended.”
[More]>>
Result for: internet
Just one day after Apple unveiled their first iPad commercial during the Academy Awards, HP is fighting back, releasing a few videos that show off the powerful features of the upcoming Slate tablet.
The Windows 7-based tablet was first shown off at the CES event earlier this year, and should be Apple’s biggest rival when it is released.
“With this Slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand,” says Phil McKinney, vice president and CTO for HP’s personal systems group (PSG). “No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices.”
The Slate runs Flash no problem, unlike the iPad, which is looking like it will never have Flash support.
