Business News

Court orders Pirate Bay Block

A UK court has ordered the country’s internet service providers (ISPs) to block the Pirate Bay website for copyright violations, using technology initially  intended to block illegal pornography sites.

Pirate Bay is a torrent search engine that allows users peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing links to files and although in the past it allowed users to download  copyright material such as films, music and programs. It also though provided quite legitimate file sharing of users own produced files.

The site itself does not host or have copyright file content so a ban would mean that those sharing legitimate files through torrents would no longer be able to in the UK audience due to a Internet ISP ban of the Pirate Bay torrent search engine in the UK – another example of growing online censorship.

Could a Ban work though?

A simple ban is unlikely to work due to the fact that the site could be copied or re-hosted elsewhere – just as when WikiLeaks was ‘mirrored’ elsewhere when it faced it’s ban by ISPs through US Government pressure; however anonymizing software could bypass simple a ISP block.

The only effective way to block such torrent search engines such as Pirate Bay would require software that would inspect internet traffic – “deep packet inspection” that also blocked the anonymizing software.

Such a task the James Ball commenting in the Guardian newspaper “would require apparatus as sophisticated as the great firewall of China.”

Related articles

• UK Pirate Bay block could be easily circumvented (newscientist.com)
• Court: Britain’s ISPs must block Pirate Bay (news.cnet.com)
• High Court: The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs (bbc.co.uk)

Darling, the man who saved the banks!

The Chancellor from the last Labour Government should be hailed as the man who saved the UK Banking system from financial collapse.  Alistair Darling (MP for Edinburgh South West). He should be known for the fact that he was he who was solely responsible for actually avoiding a complete UK financial and banking meltdown.Even the telegraph has described him as a person who would be best suited as forerunner for the position of leader of the Labour Party in the past

It was he who took the decision to save the Royal Bank of Scotland, Halifax (HBOS), and Northern Rock and doing so also prevented virtually every other major bank in the UK from closing. At the time he is famously known as the bad guy who predicted that the world economy had reached the lowest point in a “60 year financial period” and said it may take decades – as his prediction is now proving – to recover.

In an interview in The Guardian  published 30 August 2008, Alistair Darling warned, “The economic times we are facing… are arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years. And I think it’s going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought.” His  warning led to confusion within the LabourGovernment who were oblivious to the problem – Darling, insisting it was his duty to be “straight” with people

Unlike US Government who took the decision not to help the major investment institution Lehman Brothers deal with their mounting toxic assets thus causing greater economic disaster worldwide  – Alistair Darling avoided the UK going into a worse scenario in the UK – he took the decision without requiring legislation (as the US would require) to save Britain’s major banks.

Below is an address he made to the London School of Economics which describes the actions he needed to take whilst in his position as chancellor when in 2008 the emerging European (including UK and Ireland) institutions started to feel the effects of the US financial market collapse.

Related articles

• You: Fred Goodwin’s knighthood: Alistair Darling leads the backlash (guardian.co.uk)
• The Chancellor and RBS: Osborne’s failure to get a grip (telegraph.co.uk)

Checkers and Rally’s – Undercover Boss USA

Rick Silva CEO of a fast food company Checkers and Rally broke the rules of the normal “Undercover Boss USA”, when he on his first night closed one of his outlets down due to lack of training; lack of food quality and after witnessing a newly appointed un-trained manager over-pressuring his staff to the point of actually being  rude to them. The manager said he was merely following the company’s need for fast delivery in the restaurant and had only three weeks training himself. After witnessing this and the confession of a chef who said he’d trained himself and was hoping to go to a college to study a degree in catering – he closed the restaurant over food not being cooked at his correct standard and called for training of all staff on working politely as a team and  quality in his food over speed of food delivery.  The chef later was provided a college place to take his degree with the approval of the company and his degree course fully paid for by the company.  

The show is an insight into how good bosses really work well at analysing their company’s performance and is broadcast over here in the UK and the US.

Having worked for great companies and bosses in my time – I love this show personally, as it shows how good bosses are investors in people and the show highlights the bosses warmth and sensitivity towards their staff because they work hard in their own position either in starting their companies or getting to their position as directors of companies..

Rick Silva discusses the company and the show on Fox News

The show often clearly demonstrates that success and achievements requires not losing sight of original goals and objectives of their company and more importantly focus on the people in their company and  providing high level of customer satisfaction while maintaining a profit in each individual market. A hard balance in often economically and commercial austere times.

It’s refreshing to see how good bosses know how to step back and look at improving their companies and rewarding their staff appropriately.

• Checkers and Rally’s featured on CBS’ Undercover Boss Uses Drive-Thru Headset Systems from HME (prweb.com)
• Undercover boss shuts restaurant (news.ninemsn.com.au)

Viacom versus Youtube again!

The US court of appeal has agreed the decision to allow media giant Viacom to have another court hearing in their lawsuit against Google over it’s viral company Youtube over copyright infringement – accusing Youtube of  “massive intentional infringement”.

This action follows a previous court case In 2010, where a lower court dismissed Viacom’s $1bn (£630m) case against Google. The court of appeals said the dismissal was based on a mistake, as a jury could have reasonably found that YouTube knew of specific copyright infringements.

Viacom owns  MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. Viacom had claimed that “tens of thousands of videos” based on its copyrighted works had been posted on YouTube, and that both YouTube and its owner Google had known about it but had done nothing about it.

Google and YouTube had argued that they were entitled to “safe harbour” protection under digital copyright law because they had insufficient notice of particular alleged offences.

Related articles

• Viacom’s $1B YouTube lawsuit revived (mercurynews.com)
• Paramount to rent movies via YouTube, Google Play (news.cnet.com)

Mayor Tax Debate Rages

After last nights promice on Newsnight – the four main (Conservative, LibDem, Labour and Green Party) hopefuls for the London Mayor election have each produced details of their income and taxes. There now however is speculation over the transparency of the details produced and in particular the delay in Ken Livingstone producing his tax and income details.

GuidoFawkes.com has implied that the figures produced by the Labour candidate are only a partial summary of his income/taxes stating that it is based on personal tax/income and not his company’s tax details in full (Guido Fawkes) and that the figures were not produced by an accountant but by a former member of his team; his Climate Advisor, when he was Mayor of London.

It also raises concern over why he is paying himself through dividends rather than a salary and questioning whether Ken has been taking advantage of the National Insurance exemption in doing this.

LibDem hopeful Brian Paddick not only produced his full tax return over the last three years but in a slight oversight in his attempt to produce these figures neglected to shield the details of his personal National Insurance and home address for the public to view. Boris Johnson also had produced his tax details  showing he paid 45.1 per cent of his income in tax in 2010/2011, a rise from 36.8 per cent in 2009/10.

On the Ken4London site the following statement has been produced to cut fares has been produced and a letter from his team to the parties concerning the details of Ken’s income and tax posted as this article goes to press.

The spectator online magazine have accused the Ken and his Labour team of silence in the delay of the details accusing his team of not answering the why the details were not ealier forthcoming. The Labour team had put out the following statement

‘We believe household publication is necessary for full disclosure as the question of Ken’s income and his wife’s income and their tax has been central the coverage of this issue. Publication of Ken’s returns alone will not address many of the questions that have been raised. The only way to answer all the questions about this issue and to move the debate on the real issues facing London is for full household income disclosure. This should apply to all the candidates equally to avoid any further questions about the income and tax affairs that may or may not be applicable to them through their households. The same principles need to be applied to all the candidates if this process is to be seen as open and fair.”

Related articles

• Team Ken Send Out Tax Lines to Tweet Script (order-order.com)
• London elections: Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone issue tax details – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
• London mayoral candidates agree to publish tax details – The Guardian (guardian.co.uk)
• Boris and Ken in furious row in lift after radio debate (itv.com)

600 Million Jobs Required!

GENEVA (ILO News) – The world faces the “urgent challenge” of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to generate sustainable growth and maintain social cohesion, according to the annual report on global employment by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“After three years of continuous crisis conditions in global labour markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity, there is a backlog of global unemployment of 200 million,” says the ILO in its annual report titled “Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a deeper jobs crisis”. Moreover, the report says more than 400 million new jobs will be needed over the next decade to absorb the estimated 40 million growth of the labour force each year.

The Global Employment Trends Report also said the world faces the additional challenge of creating decent jobs for the estimated 900 million workers living with their families below the US$ 2 a day poverty line, mostly in developing countries.

“Despite strenuous government efforts, the jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide – or an estimated 1.1 billion people – either unemployed or living in poverty”, said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “What is needed is that job creation in the real economy must become our number one priority”.

Source: International Labour Organisation

EU Imposes Oil Sanctions

In an attempt to deflect Tehran‘s nuclear development program the European Union has today joined the United States in a new round of measures and imposed sanctions on Iran‘s oil imports to Europe. It however has not imposed a complete ban on oil imports.

In response to this a Iranian politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, which is a oil export route vital to the global economy, and another said Tehran will cut off it’s crude shipments to the EU immediately which would greatly affect ailing European economies such as Greece, Italy, which depend heavily on Iranian oil.

All this follows after a U.S. aircraft carrier, accompanied by French and British warships, made a symbolically loaded voyage into the Gulf, defying Iranian hostility,

The expected EU sanctions are likely to prove angering to Iran in an already tense region.

It is believed by some political analysts and observers, that Iran, which denies accusations that it is seeking nuclear weapons could be in a position to make them next year.  Israel has also warned it could use force to prevent that Iran from any such development program

This row over Tehran’s plans is an increasingly pressing for world leaders, not least U.S. President Barack Obama as he is campaigning for a re-election in November. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has voiced skepticism about the chances of Iran being persuaded by non-military tactics, called the EU sanctions a “step in the right direction” but said Iran was still developing atomic weapons.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said of the new sanctions: “I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations … I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table … last year … or to come forward with its own ideas.”

Iran has said lately that it is willing to hold talks with Western powers, though there have been mixed signals on whether conditions imposed by either side make new negotiations likely.

Related articles

• EU Iran sanctions: Ministers adopt Iran oil imports ban (direcmood.wordpress.com)
• EU bans Iranian oil, Tehran responds with threats (business.financialpost.com)
• Iran ‘definitely’ closing Strait of Hormuz over EU oil embargo (thecommunicatorwv.wordpress.com)
• Tehran responds with threats EU bans on its oil (sayou.wordpress.com)

On Hold – the hated automated service!

Last night Channel 4′s Dispatches showed “Richard Wilson On Hold” (see #onhold at Twitter for comments) for myself it was one of the best and most accurate and even entertaining summary of the dreaded introduction of automated services that while modern companies believe enrich our lives and make our customer service better – Richard Wilson proved the complete reverse, showing beautifully how the modern consumer is fed up with these awful technological abominations!

In the programme Richard Wilson covered everything from automated telephone systems that allow the customer to not only listen to a voice recording but keep us listening interminably and at a call cost running into pounds – how they are not user-friendly and often confuse the elderly and vulnerable or the probably 99.9% of us who are either not so savvy with technology or quite simply don’t know or forget the option choices we are forced to press on our telephone keypads while listening to these awful machines!

He showed beautifully what most of us knew – that when we try to get cinema tickets we now can’t ask for them in person we have to try to talk to a voice recognition programme on an answer service that never works. When parking a car how trying to obtain a ticket via an automatic payment call service not only doesn’t work but is only there to save local Councils money through not having payment staff or wardens to help issuing tickets and checking meters.

And the dreaded service machine that keeps telling you ‘unexpected item in the bagging area‘ keeps telling you to ‘place item in the bagging area – please wait for assistance’! All again to save on cashier staff costs,  and cause the customer aggregation and the risk of early strokes.

As Richard Wilson himself commenting on the programme ” ..automation has become a ubiquitous part of modern life – be it at the supermarket, when booking the cinema or trying to park your car. Retailers and service providers say that these systems offer us more choice, improve service and free-up staff to focus on helping us customers in other ways. But I want to know if this is really the case.”

“Like the rest of the UK, I welcome technology that makes my life easier – I would hate to have to give up shopping online and I love being able to make bank transfers over the phone. But not all automated systems are time-savers. In fact, many of them seem to make my life considerably more difficult, costing me time and money.”

The full programme link can be seen on the right of this page on my Vodpod videos, below is an except from the programme

Related Articles:

• Last night’s viewing – Richard Wilson On Hold, BBC2; Coppers, Channel 4 (independent.co.uk)

• AutomatedCalls Launches Easy To Use Automated Calling Service (prweb.com)

Willetts science plan a Pipe Dream?

Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts announced on Friday an ambition to make Britain the best place in the world to do science.

In a speech at Policy Exchange, Universities and Science Minister David Willetts argued that Britain’s  our universities, science facilities and researchers – are the best single hope for making our way in the high-tech world of the future, creating jobs and opportunities and boosting high-tech economic growth.

He said that  “If properly nurtured they can ensure that Britain will be up there as a leading location for research in the physical and life sciences. Britain can be the preferred location for companies’ R&D.” Also adding that “We can have world-class industries using cutting-edge technologies. We can have a prosperous future with a role in the world.”

However like most of the ambitious projects the government are keen to launch the downside to this is  there will absolutely no extra Government financial support for its abitious plans, he said: “There will be no additional Government funding. This time we will be looking to private finance and perhaps sponsorship from some of the businesses that are keen to recruit more British graduates”.

Let’s hope that there is private financial investment and sponsorship – but in these financial times when  companies like Pfizer closed with 2,400 jobs in Kent last year, Unilever laying over a thousand staff in December and BAE lost 3000 jobs in early 2011 – I  wonder who will invest and where he optimistically thinks money will actually be found to ensure Universities are helped with his ambitious plans?

Video courtesy of Policy Exchange website

HM Treasury announce Banking Reforms

The Government is today publishing its response to the report by the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), which sets out plans to fundamentally reform the structure of banking in the UK. This response agrees with the ICB’s recommendations and outlines how the Government will legislate to create a stable banking sector that supports lending to businesses and families, and removes the implicit taxpayer guarantee in the event of a bank failure.

The Government will implement the ICB’s advice in stages with the full package of reforms completed by 2019. All necessary legislation will therefore be put in place by the end of this Parliament. The Government will publish a White Paper in spring 2012 setting out further detail on how the recommendations will be implemented; in advance of that, the Government is open to views on how to implement these plans.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne, said:

“The Independent Commission on Banking was set up last year to look at what I have called the ‘British Dilemma’: how Britain can be home to one of the world’s leading financial centres without exposing British taxpayers to the massive costs of those banks failing.

The Government is preparing the most far reaching reforms of British banking in our modern history – our objective is to make sure what happened in Britain never happens again.”

Italian President to hold talks

Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano is presently holding  discussions with senior politicians to find a successor and interim government after PM Silvio Berlusconi resigned yesterday.

Italy’s government is hoped to be in place before the world’s financial markets re-open on Monday. Mr Berlusconi left office among boos from members of the public and is still expected to face further scrutiny over his broken  election promises to sell off his company assets avoiding  conflicts of interest m corruption and infamous sex parties that brought shame on his far-right government and condemnation from his party’s  opposition and the  Catholic Church.

Berlusconi Leaves as Prime Minister

Silvio Berlusconi was Italy’s longest-serving post-war prime minister – and is still one Italy’s richest men. The man known as ‘the knight’, due to receiving the prestigious Italian Order of Merit  for Labour decoration in 1997;  the businessman and AC Milan chairman served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011.

In total Mr Berlusconi spent 10 years in office and has vowed to return following the austerity packages. Mr Berlusconi is an opponent of the austerity measures required to bring Italy back from financial collapse

Mr Berlusconi had a ‘different’ approach to political diplomacy,  as the now famous ‘snub’ footage of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and other delegates who awaited is arrival at the 2009 Nato Summit demonstate – he chose to keep her waiting while taking a mobile phone call.

Mr Napolitano is holding 17 meetings throughout Sunday with the last set for 5pm today and Italy’s new Prime Minister is expected to be the Ex-EU commissioner  Mario Monti , who will face a tough time implementing the new austerity measures to bring Italy into financial stability.  Last week it’s borrowing levels rose record levels as the country has been struggling among other hard hit Eurozone countries such as Spain and Greece.

Preston VAT cheats sentenced to 34 years

The two men, Adam Umerji, 33 and Addullah Yusaf Allad, 32 were originally charged in January 2009, but absconded before they stood trial. Three others involved in the fraud who pleaded guilty prior to trial were also jailed for 15 years at Liverpool Crown Court.

The gang operated a number of companies in trading in mobile phones in the Preston area. They submitted fraudulent VAT claims to reclaim millions of pounds in VAT paid by them on the purchase of large quantities of stock. They then transferred their criminal proceeds out of the UK to Dubai in an effort to conceal their illegal activities.

Source:COI News Distribution Service

Adam Umerji

Abdullah Yusuf Allad

I.P.O.and C.P.S together on Intellectual Property

IP crime is the counterfeiting of trade-marked goods such as clothes, pharmaceuticals, car parts and electrical goods and the piracy of copyrighted material such as CDs, DVDs, software and games.

More than 350 prosecutors from the CPS are being specially trained to build successful cases against counterfeiters and pirates.

The move is in line with the recently published Hargreaves review of intellectual property and growth and the Government’s IP crime strategy, which highlighted a need for a more integrated approach with partners to enforce IP rights.

Minister for Intellectual Property Baroness Wilcox said:

“The initiative will give prosecutors the most up to date information so they can successfully deal with intellectual property criminals. These offences are not victimless crimes. They have a detrimental effect on consumers, businesses, the economy and growth. Consumers are likely to receive poor quality or even unsafe products that simply aren’t worth the price.

“There are huge events coming up in the UK such as the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. There will no doubt be people looking to sell counterfeit goods using trade marks associated with the games.”

Merchandise with an unauthorised London 2012 Olympic logo is already believed to be in the UK supply chain. Counterfeit cigarette lighters have been discovered at a car boot sale in the Coventry area and their source is being tracked down by Trading Standards.

Source:News :COI  NDS.

UK and Swiss agreement on tax evasion

The Government is today initiating a historic agreement with Switzerland to tackle offshore tax evasion in an effort to resolve the long-standing abuse of Swiss banking secrecy by those who seek to conceal the proceeds of tax evasion,  this measure is expected to secure billions of pounds of unpaid tax for the UK exchequer starting from 2013.

Under the terms of the agreement, existing funds held by UK taxpayers in Switzerland will be subject to a significant one-off deduction of between 19% and 34% to settle past tax liabilities, leaving those who have already paid their taxes unaffected. As a gesture of good faith Swiss banks will make an up-front payment from Switzerland to Britain of CHF 500m.

From 2013, a new withholding tax of 48% on investment income and 27% on gains will ensure the effective future taxation of UK residents with funds in Swiss bank accounts. This will be accompanied by a new information sharing provision which will make it easier for HM Revenue and Customs to find out about Swiss accounts held by UK taxpayers. The new charges will not apply if the taxpayer authorises a full disclosure of their affairs to HMRC.
Source : http://nds.coi.gov.uk

LulzSec & Anonymous after Murdoch!

“After having hacked Rupert Murdoch’s flagship news website, thesun.co.uk, and redirecting its readers to a spoof front page and pilfering its email servers, Anonymous’ unofficial mouthpiece, Sabu, has revealed that the group is ‘sitting on [the sun's & NOTW's] emails’ with a press release from Anonymous & possibly more coming in a few hours. While that website has already been taken down, the email bounty is likely to be potentially more damaging with Sabu releasing details of two of the Sun’s top three employees, Rebekah Wade and Bill Akass, the former editors of the Sun and News of the World respectively as well as Lee Wells & Danny Rogers, Editorial Support Manager at News International and Sun Online Editorial Manager respectively, as a taster of what’s coming next.”

Anonymous Leak Zimbabwean Government Data

Anonymous leaks new batch of government and company data.

Anonymous has leaked more date including the data from the Zimbabwean Government and Viacom

Rebekah Brooks Arrested

Rebekah Brooks is thought to have been arrested by police today follwing nvestigions of phone hacking by the News of the World and allegations of bribary of police officers.

The Metropolitan police have confirmed that a 43-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday by appointment at a London police station.

Rebekah Brooks resigned last Friday as News International’s chief executive.She was a former editor of News of the World when the allegations of phone-hacking took place and is very close friends of Rupert Murdoch the papers proprietor and head of News Corporation; and the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Brooks is due to give evidence before MPs on the culture select committee on Tuesday.

In a statement the Met said: “The MPS [Metropolitan police service] has this afternoon, Sunday 17 July, arrested a female in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.

“At approximately 12.00 a 43-year-old woman was arrested by appointment at a London police station by officers from Operation Weeting [phone hacking investigation] together with officers from Operation Elveden [bribing of police officers investigation]. She is currently in custody.

“She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.

“The Operation Weeting team is conducting the new investigation into phone hacking.

“Operation Elveden is the investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police. This investigation is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

“It would be inappropriate to discuss any further details regarding these cases at this time.

Intergration of Tax & NI Systems

The two systems are currently operated entirely separately and the Government believes that greater integration of the two has the potential to remove economic distortions, reduce burdens on business, and improve fairness for individual earners.

The call for evidence document poses 14 questions, the majority of which focus on the burdens employers and payroll professionals face in paying income tax and NICs through the Pay As You Earn system. For example, how much staff time and other resource is required to manage the systems, which aspects of the process currently work well and how often problems are encountered when calculating payments.

Source : Central Office of Information – News Distribution Service

Parliamentary debate on News Corp. BSkyB bid and News International

Below is a transcript of the House of Commons debate over News International and the News of the World phone hacking scandal in the House of Commons today from 12pm-7pm. This follows news that it’s then editor – Rebekah Brooks and the former PMs communication’s officer and asst. editor of the News of the World  Andy Coulson are now to be called to face a parliamentary select committee and the news today of News Corporation’s decision to withdraw its bid for BSkyB until a full police investigation parliamentary enquiry concludes over the phone hacking and the re-examination of allegations of ‘money for inside information’ between News International and the Metropolitan Police .

Todays Parliamentary transcript in full to be found here:
https://skydrive.live.com/?sc=documents&cid=e853ab142560c964#cid=E853AB142560C964&id=E853AB142560C964!259&sc=documents

The News of The World Last Edition

 When Rupert Murdoch, his media empire under fire over a phone-hacking scandal, swept into his London headquarters on Sunday from the United States, the message was clear.

Murdoch, sporting a white panama-style hat, sat in the front passenger seat of a red Range Rover intently reading a copy of the final edition of the best-selling newspaper he had closed only hours earlier to try to contain the spreading crisis.

“The World’s greatest newspaper 1843-2011,” said the front page, held up for all to see. “Thank you and goodbye.”

Newspaper staff had departed, amid scenes of cheering and emotion at the same London complex, in the early hours. Many employees saw themselves as having been sacrificed by Murdoch to save his broader business interests.

But Murdoch was signaling he was not bowed. He has already made clear he has no intention of yielding to criticism and removing senior executives, nor of giving up his proposed multi-billion-dollar buyout of British broadcaster BSkyB.

The newspaper he held high had a particular symbolic significance for Murdoch. It was the first British newspaper he bought, in 1969, and the cornerstone of what became a huge media empire with political influence that, with the hacking scandal, has become the subject of much soul-searching in Britain.

source : London, Reuters