NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 11 August
11-08-2009
by Emmet Cole
Details of IRMA-Eircom deal leaked | Ireland stands out from the WEEE crowd
A document purportedly relating to Eircom's deal with the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) to assist in anti-piracy measures against its customers, has been leaked to the TorrentFreak website. Entitled 'Briefing Note on Arrangement Between Eircom and Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) with regard to Copyright Infringement March 2000', the document outlines the terms of the deal, which includes a three-strikes rule for alleged pirates. The document says that Eircom will not monitor its customers' activities or install equipment to achieve the same, and will not provide any customer details to any third party -- including record companies -- while adhering closely to laws concerning data protection. Instead, the document explains, IRMA will use anti-piracy tracking firm Dtecnet to monitor online copyright infringement and supply Eircom with IP addresses and evidence to prove alleged infringements. According to the document, at all stages in the process Eircom customers will have the right to complain if they feel they have been "inappropriately or incorrectly identified as infringing copyright". Disconnections will only be carried out when Eircom is "totally satisfied that there is clear evidence of sustained copyright infringement, that the alleged infringing person has had sufficient opportunity to explain its circumstances and that all possibilities that the person was a victim of accidental infringement have been eliminated."
A pan-European study conducted by the European Recycling Platform (ERP) has identified a number of shortcomings in the four-year old WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive. The report claims that the WEEE directive has failed to get a grip on all WEEE streams and is not doing enough to assure prevention of bad treatment and illegal exports. Ireland appears to be the exception: in 2008, Ireland collected 9.10kg of WEEE per head of population, double the European Union target of 4kg per head. Also, in Ireland, 100 percent of all e-waste collected goes directly to Collection and Recycling Organisations (CROs) and is handled in full accordance with the Directive and recycled in Europe. This is not the case across the EU, where inconsistencies are evident. Large amounts of WEEE, though collected, are not reported, not accounted for and may not be treated in an environmentally sound manner, according to the report. Only 30 percent of WEEE (non valuable) in Europe is given to CROs and handled in the correct manner, while 70 percent (valuable) is sold off by other participants leaving it unreported and untraced.
More than 89 percent of IT workers would recommend a career in IT to a friend -- even though a third of those polled had to take a pay cut this year -- according to a survey of the current state of the ICT industry in Ireland conducted by the Irish Computer Society (ICS). The survey also found that 45.3 percent of respondents are satisfied with their career while 29.4 percent are very satisfied with their career. The results of the survey also indicate that nearly half of organisations (46.7 percent of survey participants) anticipate maintaining current levels of IT staff over the next 12 months.
Dublin City University DCU and the Bank of Ireland have announced a discounted loan scheme for those who are recently unemployed and who wish to study engineering and computing at postgraduate level at DCU. The scheme is available for students who wish to enter DCU this September or in March 2010 and is aimed at graduates who have recently been made unemployed and who wish to upskill. The loan will provide up to EUR15,000 in funding to cover fees and living expenses and will also allow students to defer making any repayment on the loan for 18 months giving them financial freedom to concentrate on their studies. Applicants must be unemployed, but must not be longer than 12 months out of work.
Wi-fi service provider Bitbuzz has signed a deal with self-catering apartment supplier StayCity Group. The deal will see Bitbuzz becoming the single supplier of Wi-Fi to a network of apartments across Dublin, Liverpool, Birmingham and other Irish and UK cities. Bitbuzz already has contracts to provide Wi-Fi services to the Travelodge Hotel Group, The Fitzwilliam Hotels, The Mooney Hotel Group, The Templeton Hotel Antrim, The Radisson Hotel Galway and Dublin's Ibis Hotel. A value of the deal was not disclosed.
Banks need to prepare themselves today for the imminent wave of mobile adoption to avoid being left behind by competitors, according to a new report from market analysts IDC Financial Insights. The study, entitled 'Market Analysis: Retail Mobile Banking Vendor Survey Results -- Mobile Banking Will Have Its Day, Just Not Today', suggests that while current economic conditions may have curtailed both consumers' demand for mobile banking and banks' willingness to invest in it in the short term, the market is still moving forward. The authors recommend that suppliers develop partnerships with carriers and handset providers and prepare for enhanced log-in authentication schemes.
Dublin-based HostelWorld.com, the online reservations provider to the budget, independent and youth travel market, has announced a partnership with World Nomads to provide travel insurance to its customers. HostelWorld has links with more than 20,000 hostels and budget hotels in 170 countries worldwide, while WorldNomads.com provides global travel safety products in over 150 countries.
Google is asking web developers to provide feedback on a next-generation technology which it says will be able to help it produce faster, more accurate, web searches. Staff software engineer Sitaram Iyer, and Matt Cutts, principal engineer, made the call on Google's Webmaster Central blog, and revealed that the technology has been in secret development for the past few months. "The new infrastructure sits 'under the hood' of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback," they wrote.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 