This morning the Chinese government blocked access to the popular video sharing site YouTube after over 20 videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the site.
The protests, which occurred in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Friday, were against Chinese rule. The government has been blocking news broadcasts since the protests in an effort to control what the public knows about the events.
The videos were mainly of foreign news reports and montages of photos taken from the scene. The Chinese government has not yet officially confirmed that they have blocked the site, but Chinese citizens trying to access the site are met with a blank screen.
China has the second largest amount of Internet users at 210 million and is expected to soon surpass the US for largest population of internet users.
This news follows recent decisions by other countries to Block access to YouTube. Last month Pakistan blocked access because of “anti-Islamic” postings. Late last year Turkey made a similar move but the access was only blocked for a couple of days.
Result for: internet
A report by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper has said that Japanese companies are planning to block Internet access to anyone who downloads unauthorized files via P2P or other methods.
The newspaper said that Japan’s ISPs have been faced “with mounting complaints from the music, movie and video-game industries” and have agreed to take the drastic action. The ISPs will send e-mails to users who repeatedly download illegally and will then terminate their Internet connections if they do not cease and desist.
The ISPs will hold a panel next month with copyright holders to draft a set of guidelines. If this goes through, the actions will be the strictest measures ever taken to fight online piracy. The newspaper estimated that 1.75 million people in Japan use file-sharing software, mainly for unauthorized downloads.
A similar measure brought forth by a Japanese ISP two years ago was shot down when the government said it might violate the right to privacy.
We will keep you updated on any developments.
Result for: internet
One of the big advantages to IPTV is the capability to use what are traditionally thought of as computer applications. AT&T has added a new service to their U-verse IPTV offering that does just that. It’s called Weather On Demand and gives U-verse subscribers access to customized information from AccuWeather.com.
“Weather On Demand is another great example of the benefits of U-verse TV and our Internet Protocol (IP) platform,” said G.W. Shaw, AT&T executive director of U-verse marketing. “We’re making it easy for customers to check weather conditions and forecasts in their hometown or across the country, whenever they want. We know that AccuWeather.com’s content will be a great resource for our U-verse TV customers who want up-to-date and accurate weather information.”
Weather On Demand is accessed by tuning to a channel that has features similar to weather-related web pages. You can select a city and find out the current conditions, get a short or long term forecast, and even watch radar maps.
It’s currently only being offered to subscribers in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Indianapolis and San Diego, but will eventually become a standard feature for all U-verse customers.
