Global IPv6 Deployment Now Passes 10%!

Global IPv6 deployment just passed a major milestone over the past few days when Google's IPv6 adoption statistics showed over 10% of users connecting to Google's sites coming in over IPv6. Considering that only two years ago I wrote here on CircleID about IPv6 passing the 3% adoption mark, this is a great amount of growth to see! If you look on the "per-country" tab of Google's stats you will see that in some countries deployment is much higher. For example, around 25% in the USA, Portugal and Germany, 31% in Switzerland and 44% in Belgium. more

Court OKs Private Seizure of Domain Names That Allegedly Sold Counterfeit Goods

Luxury brand Chanel has engaged in a fierce campaign against counterfeit websites in federal court in Nevada. It has seized approximately six hundred domain names in the last few months, reports Venkat Balasubramani. "I'm sympathetic to the "whack-a-mole" problem rights owners face, but this relief is just extraordinarily broad and is on shaky procedural grounds." more

Telling the Truth About 5G

I still run across articles that extol the supposed wonders of 5G. The most recent, published in Gizmodo asks "How 5G Could Replace Your Home Broadband Connection". I was surprised to see an article like this in a tech-oriented site because the article gets most of the facts wrong about 5G - facts that are not hard to verify. This article talks about 5G having "faster download speeds, faster upload speeds, more bandwidth, and lower latency" than landline broadband. more

Chuck Norris Botnet and Broadband Routers

Last week Czech researchers released information on a new worm which exploits CPE devices (broadband routers) by means such as default passwords, constructing a large DDoS botnet. Today this story hit international news... The spread of insecure broadband modems (DSL and Cable) is extremely wide-spread, with numerous ISPs, large and small, whose entire (read significant portions of) broadband population is vulnerable. more

Cord-Cutting on Continued Rise - New Findings Suggest Quarter of US Households Now Without Cable

One-Quarter of US Households Live Without Cable, Satellite TV Reception, according to new GfK Study: "New findings from GfK show that US TV households are embracing alternatives to cable and satellite reception. Levels of broadcast-only reception and Internet-only video subscriptions have both risen over the past year, with fully one-quarter (25%) of all US TV households now going without cable and satellite reception. more

Google Explains What They Mean by “Net Neutrality”

Google has launched a new Public Policy Blog focused on U.S. government legislation and regulation -- reported in the media as part of Google's efforts in setting up focus on the U.S. government since early 2005. In an entry posted over the weekend on the blog by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, key argument within the net neutrality debate is explained... more

The Pay-To-Play Reality of ICANN’s Inclusion Illusion

ICANN's chairman says meetings offer special "circumstantial opportunity"; recent estimates peg average annual expense for attending at $30,000 per person. Oops - he's done it again. The latest blog update from ICANN's current board chair needs - no, it demands - a spotlight on what is revealed in plain and unashamed language. Indeed, this communique - along with another recent blog post that I've previously commented on - captures in exquisite relief what has gone terribly, horribly wrong at ICANN. more

Software Defined Data Centre Needs DNS

During 2012, Software Defined Networking (SDN) seemed to be all the rage. The VMware acquisition of Nicira during the summer doldrums for US $1.26 billion validated the fact that the SDN paradigm is expected to have some serious legs over the coming years. I guess the same applies to virtualized network services in general, although the acquisitions in that space were not quite as high-profile as the ones in SDN. more

Is America Getting More Like China?

Since Obama became President -- and yes, I voted for him -- there has been a great deal of optimism and energy around the idea that the Internet can be used to improve or "reboot" our democracy. The Administration has hired some great people to work on making government more open and transparent. This is all great. But how much good will all of this nifty e-government do for American democracy if citizens' rights to privacy and free expression are not also fiercely defended? more

NTIA Asks for Input from Organizations That Have Implemented IPv6

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a stement today seeking input as part of its efforts to increase IPv6 adoption. more

New Type of DDoS Attack Targets Vulnerability in Universal Plug and Play Networking Protocol

A new type of DDoS attack takes advantage of an old vulnerability with the potential to put any company with an online presence at risk of attack warn researchers. more

Top Ten Internet Law Developments of 2012

I'm pleased to share my list of top 10 developments of 2012... I'm surprised whenever I read about a new European ruling that's adverse to a Silicon Valley company, because at this point I assume that everything Silicon Valley companies do in Europe is already illegal. Google, Facebook and other Silicon Valley players are under constant legal attack in Europe on countless fronts. Everyone might be happier if the Silicon Valley players just got out of Europe altogether. more

ICANN.WTF? FTC & OCA Asked Whether .SUCKS is a Law Breaker (Part II)

The first part of this article reviewed the actions taken by ICANN in response to a March 27th letter from the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) alleging that the pricing of Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) registered terms by the .Sucks registry were "predatory, exploitative and coercive" and requesting that ICANN halt the registry's rollout. This second part explores additional ramifications of ICANN's decision to request two national regulators to review the legality of the registry's operation. more

Spam Volumes In 2010

I started hearing various people comment about lower spam volumes sometime in mid December. This isn't that unusual, spam volumes are highly variable and someone is always noticing that their spam load is going up or going down. The problem is extrapolating larger trends from a small selection of email addresses. more

Why You Should Demand ‘Net Morality’ Instead of ‘Net Neutrality’

I have come to the conclusion that "net neutrality" is an ethical issue at heart, one about the appropriate constraint of unfair ISP power. Some people are (I pray unintentionally) on the wrong side of a now-clear moral divide. They are claiming to prevent harmful abuse of power, when in reality their actions create fresh harm. A central issue is one of technical competence to comment. If your beliefs are disconnected from how the world works, you cannot evaluate whether you are espousing something sensible or silly. more