Telecom Providers and Piracy - After the Fox and the French Connection

One by one the sands are flowing

One by one the moments fall;

Some are coming, some are going;

Do not strive to grasp them all.

Adelaide A. Proctor, One by One

Seems I have found where the haunting child’s phrase “One by One” from the drama series Harper's Island (2010), now being broadcast on CVM TV, originated. Alas, while writing this article I fell asleep, thus this line is added for good effect.

In a previous blog article, I mentioned that Telecom Provider LIME is poised like a springing lynx to launch their LIME TV as stated in the article “LIME TV on the Horizon”, published Sunday, September 19, 2010 by ALICIA ROACHE Sunday Finance, The Jamaica Observer and Mobile TV as stated in the article “LIME goes Mobile TV”, published Saturday August 28^th by Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner platforms by Christmas of 2010.

Triple Play Provider FLOW is a bit nervous it seems as stated in the article “Internet penetration lagging broadband speed”, published Wednesday, September 22, 2010 by CAMILO THAME Business co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer, having recently bumped up the speed of their Cable Internet offering for FLOW Rave from 15 Mbps to 20 Mbps, effectively reaching the upper limit of DOCSIS 2.0, the QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) based protocol that powers their Internet as stated on Wikipedia.

Users, however, looking to use the extra speed to commit Copyright Infringement infractions may wish to think again, as prosecution against heavy volume downloaders is coming as stated in the article “France launches warning to web pirates”, published Monday October 4, 12:13 pm ET, AFP, Yahoo! News.

Triple Play Provider FLOW should be afraid, from a business point of view, especially with the announcement of the partnership between DC Digital, a local content aggregator and Telecom Provider LIME as stated in the article “LIME pumps US$100 million into DVB system”, published Sunday, August 29, 2010 By Alicia Roache Sunday Finance Reporter, The Jamaica Observer. The Big Three (3) Broadcasters RJR Communications Group, the CVM Communications Group and LOVE TV/Radio should be too, as after all, On-Demand television.

It would be provided by Mobile TV on your Mobile phone and Wireless Subscriber Television that is powered by Google TV as described in the article “Intel's Otellini: Google TV shipping this month”, published September 9, 2010 2:13 PM PDT by Tom Krazit, CNET News - Relevant Results and teased by Google CEO Eric Schmidt as stated in the article “For Google TV, a Sharp Turn Away from Apple TV”, published Tuesday September 7, 3:12 pm ET by Jared Newman, Yahoo! News is the future of television.

Indeed, Telecom Provider LIME’s confidence is showing with Chairman Christopher Dehring of Telecom Provider LIME having been quoted as saying: “This is more G; They [Digicel Broadband 4G] can't do this on their Mobile Network”.

This is indeed true, as Telecom Provider Digicel and Telecom Provider CLARO both have been skimping on the bandwidth and caps respectively that they allocate to streaming media content on their respective Networks, thus multiple streaming would create a traffic log-jam and crash their Network.

A scenario I know all too well when in the earlier days while employed at Telecom Provider LIME (back then C&W), when employed there as a Network Maintenance Technician (2001 -2004) and then at Telecom Provider CLARO as a RF Technician (2008 to 2008), I observed that fact that at Telecom Provider LIME (back then C&W) the DSLAM  (Digital subscriber Line Amplifier) for the ADSL (Asynchronous subscriber Line) Service at Pembroke North Exchange had problems due to overheating exposure to the sun under light traffic conditions.

This is in effect a simulation of what would happen under prolonged traffic under nominal s.t.p (Standard Temperature and Pressure) conditions and Telecom Provider CLARO MGW (Media Gateway) crashed often, mainly due to traffic overload from the 3G (HSDPA 7.2) Network. Telecom Provider AT&T in the United States of America did away with uncapped “all-you-can-eat” Data Plans, going the way of the dodo on Telecom Provider AT&T’s Broadband Wireless Network since Wednesday June 2^nd 2010 and have begun regulating online traffic.

Telecom Provider Verizon will soon follow suit as they ramp up for their LTE (Long Term Evolution) push along with Telecom Provider AT&T as stated in the article “AT&T, Verizon execs talk LTE expansion”, published September 16, 2010 11:05 PM PDT by Kent German, CNET News - Dialed In.

Telecom Provider Sprint and Telecom Provider Clearwire are ramp up their deployments for WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) as stated in the article “Clearwire brings limited 4G to New York and Los Angeles”, published September 13, 2010 2:15 PM PDT by Kent German, CNET News - Dialed In.

It seems that Triple Play Provider FLOW needs to read the research note of fifteen (15) year old Morgan Stanley Intern, Matthew Robson an article published in the Guardian Newspaper in England in 2009 entitled  “How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City”, printed by the Guardian Newspaper, Monday 13 July 2009 10.23 BST, The UK Guardian in which he pointed out the worrying trend of young people wanting Copyrighted Material for free, apparently blissfully unaware that this is tantamount to stealing.

In doing this action of increasing their speed to 20 MBps, as was with the case where Triple Play Provider FLOW were broadcasting the content of HBO without permission and were taken to court over said action in 2009 and later publishing the “private” phone numbers of so-called private Customers as stated in the article “Privacy Breached - FLOW clients railing against Directory Listings”, published January 31^st 2010, the Sunday Gleaner by Mark Titus, Business Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner they are attracting legal trouble.

This is because globally, there is a push towards legitimizing traffic on Wireless and Wired Broadband Internet so as to force consumers to pay for Copyright Infringing Content that unscrupulous Customers normally download so as to be able to collect taxes on behalf of the Government as well as legitimize Online and Mobile Gaming [gambling].

It all began, at least within the first decade of the 21^st Century, with Napster, Aimster, and TorrentSpy, as it’s ISP (Internet Service Provider), Black Internet, being threatened with heavy fines by a Swedish High Court in 2009 AD as stated in the article “File sharers vigil for Pirate Bay”, published August 25, 2009 4:00 AM PDT by Greg Sandoval, CNET News - Digital Media.

Then in 2010 in the United States of America, the RIAA (Recording Industry Artiste Association) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Artiste Association) persuaded Congress to effectively suspend Title IV Federal Aid to Universities and Colleges in the United States of America in breach of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

This is legislation lobbyist from the RIAA and the MPAA help to craft along with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which speaks more specifically to protecting copyright material from unauthorized usage or redistribution for profit as stated in the article “Federal News on campus file sharing kick in today”, published July 1, 2010 7:14 AM PDT by Greg Sandoval CNET News - Media Maverick which came into effect on Thursday July 1^st 2010 AD.

The day before this on Wednesday June 30^th 2010 AD, Senator Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States of America, a crackdown had been initiated against file sharers as stated in the article “Feds sieze cash, Web sites of alledged fim pirates”, published June 30, 2010 3:11 PM PDT by Greg Sandoval CNET News - Media Maverick.

Movies-Links.tv, Now-Movies.com, TVShack.net, Filespump.com, Planetmoviez.com, ZML.com, ThePirateCity.org, Ninjavideo.net and NinjaThis.net (John Public only uses The Pirate Bay file sharing website) with associated banks and their accounts being seized and closed down and search warrants being issued as stated by the crisp tones of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, (ICE), Mrs. Virginia Kice.

The U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator, Victoria Espinel, was in step with the prior statements of Senator Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States of America when she was quoted as saying with regards to the activities of people who host copyright infringing material on their websites: “We have committed to putting you out of business”.

Release the Kraken and the Harpies against the hapless students of the Colleges and Universities abroad, as this is related to taxes, as Government of the United States of America’s plan, similar to the Government of Jamaica’s plan based on the Matalon Report, is to raise additional taxes, this time from the taxing of business transactions on the Internet

This is an implementation of a State Sales Tax for Internet and mail-order purchases, similar to those already paid by Brick-and-mortar companies as stated in the article “Democrats push for new Internet sales taxes”, published July 2, 2010 12:28 PM PDT by Declan McCullagh, CNET News - Politics and Law. Throw in Gaming [Gambling] as stated in the article “Congress may roll dice, legalizing Net Gambling” published May 18, 2010 11:14 PM PDT by Declan McCullagh CNET News - Politics and Law into the mix.

Combined with the H.R. 2268, this measure would impose a 2% federal “Internet Gambling fee” and require that the IRS be notified of taxpayers' winnings and with H.R. 4976,  which would allow the State Government to impose a 6% Gambling tax, thus collecting nearly fifty eight billion (US$58,000,000,000) dollars in tax revenue by the year 2015 and create thirty two thousand (32,000) jobs in the process based on a study done by the H2 Gambling Capital, a gaming consultancy.

Thus one can see why the earlier decisions were being championed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in a bill titled H.R. 2267, which would allow Internet casinos to obtain licenses from and be regulated by the Federal Government. A similar decision was taken by the French to open up their Gaming and Lottery Industry to Online Gambling as stated in the article “France opens its markets to online gaming”, published Tuesday June 8, 12:03 pm ET by, Paris AFP, Yahoo! News.

Locally here in Jamaica, the Government of Jamaica is just beginning to see the financial windfall that the increased spread of broadband could yield for the Government coffers as earlier in 2010, as Prime Minister Bruce Golding of the Government of Jamaica recently passed a CyberCrime Bill aimed at making the Internet a safer place for Jamaicans to do business as stated in the article “Move to Tackle CyberCrime - Hacker got Golding”, published Sunday  February 14, 2010 by Philip Hamilton, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The Government of Jamaica had also begun work on the Credit Reporting Bill that Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Mr. Brian Wynter, hinted at as being relevant to growth as stated in the article “Credit Rating Bureau needed quickly - Wynter”, published Friday January 22 2010, by Alicia Roache, The Jamaica Observer.

Increased Online Security is a must, in light of the poor level of security online, the main impediment to the development of eCommerce, as we already have an Electronic Transactions Act and Mobile Banking is now on the radar. The Big Three (3) in Banking, namely BNS (Bank of Nova Scotia), NCB (National Commercial Bank) and RBTT (Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago) are pushing Mobile Banking using Telecom Provider’s and their smart phones as the Platform upon which Customers of these banking institutions can conduct their financial transactions.

This is stating that it is Customer interest that is driving the push towards Mobile banking as stated in the article “Customers spur bank competition online”, published Friday, June 25, 2010 By Alicia Roache, The Jamaica Observer.

A crackdown on the use of the increasing prevalence of the Internet to download Movies and Music is coming, as Digital and Music Piracy may potentially be fuelling Crime in Jamaica as stated in the article “BE WARNED! If you buy a pirated DVD, CD you can be arrested”, published Wednesday, August 26, 2009 by KARYL WALKER, Crime/Court co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer.

Self-regulation is not enough, as the cooperation of local Telecom Providers is needed to curtail this practice on behalf of Local Reggae and Dancehall Artiste and all holders of Copyright Intellectual Property, both locally and internationally.

A potent cocktail would be the combination of crackdown on illegal downloading worldwide, 3-D HDTV Technology and the coming of the free “White” Space Frequencies as stated in the article “FCC to open up vacant TV airwaves for broadband”, published Monday September 13, 12:35 am ET By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo! News and now officially confirmed in the article “FCC officially frees TV white space spectrum”, published Thursday September 23 2010, CNET News

These “White” Space Frequencies, which can be utilized in Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) to allow Remote Access by Blu-Ray players and Set Top boxes to check the authenticity of any Blu-Ray disc or content on a Customer’s playback device.

Reggae and Dancehall Artiste may soon begin to reap the benefits of their hard hours of labouring in the studio once again, as it cannot be the case where Reggae and Dancehall Artiste spent so much of their financial capital to produce a body of works for promotional purposes only and intend to depend on touring to make up the bulk of their financial earnings, especially as they are under pressure from Europe and the United States of America to clean up their act.

Thus I, John Public, would recommend the actions of the French and High Authority for Dissemination of Works and Protection of Rights on the Internet (Hadopi) in this case to the Government of Jamaica, who send warnings to high volume downloaders of Copyright Infringing Intellectual Property with the permanent disconnection on the third infraction and a fine as stated in the article “France launches warning to web pirates”, published Monday October 4, 12:13 pm ET, AFP, Yahoo! News.

Triple Play Provider FLOW, before the Government of Jamaica decides to eventually take this action if they are advised, should consider this option. This as legal action from the RIAA (Recording Industry Artiste Association) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Artiste Association) using just the Copyright Act, the Property Right Act and International Treaties as it relates to the protection of International Copyrights of intellectual property is not a farfetched proposition.

A Tax Goldmine for the United States of America, may not be far behind, not to mention a litigation nightmare for Triple Play Provider FLOW.