National Security, Mediaset and RAI Way Tower

Today the RAI (Radio Televisione Italiana, the public broadcasting company) Radio News Program asked me to provide an opinion about the risks for the national security in case the broadcasting towers belonging to RAI WAY (public-owned company) be purchased by a Mediaset-controlled company. The importance of these broadcasting towers relies upon the fact that they work both for “ordinary” TV programs and for the law-enforcement and other security-related agencies masts.

Here is the link to the interview that starts at 3:00 min. and, for the non-italian speaking people, here is the summary of what I said: privatizing the national security is an ongoing process started years ago with the “online piracy-child pornography excuse”. Regulations have been passed that turned over the ISP and Telcos’s shoulder the task to perform wiretapping, eavesdropping and geolocalization so this RAYWAY issue is just another brick in the wall. By going ahead with this privatization process, nevertheless, there is a ? risk to jeopardize serious crimes investigations since the information about a criminal proceeding will be known by a much too big number of people. So I wander if this “National Security Frenziness” is for real, or it is just a way to spread the usuale FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.)

Monetizing Your Internet Self. The Uros Baric Case

At the beginning of the Internet-Era marketing “experts” led people into thinking that the simple fact of having a website would have made them “rich”. To some extent this legalized scam (turned out into the infamous Internet-bubble) has worked efficiently luring the greed-part of our “self” and still preserves its momentum. ? Time passed but the song remains the same ( ?Led Zeppelin :)) “Make Internet-monies fast!” the “marketers” shout, “go blogging-tweeting-socialnetworking and get rich!” (yes, websites and e-mails aren’t mainstream anymore.) The (booby)trap of this new scam is – again – the focus on empty technologies rather than on ideas, contents and experiences. It worth nothing to have a fancy Facebook page, a zillion of (purchased) “like” or “+1” ? if you ain’t nothing to share. That’s the triumph of Aristophane’s Inferior Argument over the Superior.

Introducing Uros Baric, a young, talented classical guitarist from Slovenja. Baric runs a blog plenty of useful, firts-hand information about playing, (video)recording, digital audio and video workstations, blogging, classical music self promotion, and runs his own recording label too.

What makes Baric’s Internet presence unique is that instead of re-posting someone else’s re-post of something, he shares his own experience. He explores ideas, tries ?it into the wild and ? shares the results: in one sentence, he builds knowledge.

Thanks to his experience, just to provide a couple of examples, I spared a lot of time and money not purchasing a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera and, on the contrary, I discovered the brilliant MuseScore notation software. That’s definitely turned me into a “customer”.

So, unless you’re a big company whose drive is, for instance, the price (and maybe even if you are), monetizing the Internet-Self implies time and effort to “give” people your experience and establish “confidence” to create a business relationship. This is nothing new, as Giancarlo Livraghi wrote back in 1997 is his “Price, Service, Trust” quoting Jonatha Moules:

Many of the virtual shop windows highlight massive discounts in colored flashes, apparently in the belief that cut-price offers are a key factor in successful selling …..

Massive discounting is certainly viable online ….. And since only a small proportion of Internet surfers currently use the medium to shop, low prices appear to be a good strategy for drumming up business.

But the assumption that electronic commerce requires less marketing spending, or is only viable through pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap strategies, is to misunderstand the new medium. One of the most important characteristics of electronic commerce is that it re-writes the rules of selling, but not necessarily in the way you expect.

Werner Knetsch, managing director of the German arm of the consultancy Arthur D. Little, argues that many assumptions about selling online have proved wrong.  ?The real challenge is creating a clear value proposition for customers. In marketing, being first and attracting customer “hits” on the web site have not proved as important as being well prepared for your new market. Remember, only 6% of visitors will buy something. ?

Think of it, when you will assess the ? “digital marketing strategy proposal” from the next “Internet Marketing Guru” knocking at your door.

What the US FCC Ruling on Net Neutrality Actually Means

The US FCC Ruling favouring Net Neutrality is a definitive step toward the shift of ? Internet-regulation-power from the Parliament to the Government.

It is of little importance whether the FCC endorsed or rejected the (notably wrong and unjust 1) idea of Net Neutrality. What actually counts is that somebody else than a Parliament self-advocated a ruling power affecting fundamental rights that should have remained under the legislative assembly shield.

The US case is not the first and is not alone. Italian Autorità garante per le comunicazioni (a sort of FCC-like independent body) has since longtime passed regulations and opinions about issues that should be a prerogative of the Parliament.The most notably case is the anti online piracy regulation that superimpose a due-process infringing, parallel investigation and trial system to the actual, court-led criminal trials.

  1. The idea of an equal, non discriminated access to the Internet is not bad as such. But if a State wants to provide this opportunity, it shouldn’t be done at the ISPs and Telcos expenses. In other words: traffic shaping and – in general – the techniques that make possible to prioritize the packet’s transit – allow small companies to compete with bigger ones without the need of huge infrastructural investments. Why smaller companies should be banned by the competition “just” because somebody “wants” a free access? This “need” ought to be satisfied by the State itself with a Net-Neutral, publicly-owned and managed network leaving the private sector free to compete. I understand, of course, that this “socialist” approach is out-of-history and is not backed by an economic rationale. And this is exactly the reason why Net-Neutrality is wrong or – at least – non sustainable if its burden is on the private-sector only.

Luddite or Illiterate in the Digital Age?

During a reportage about the lawyers’ daily life (in my parallel life I am a photojournalist) I met a lot of colleagues whose age spawned between mid thirties and mid-fifties. During the sessions, many celebrated the fact that I was using a film camera instead of that “modern” digital crap.

Initially this reaction made me think of these people as a Luddites, scared by technology and modernity. And then I realized I was wrong: they’re not Luddites, they just are ignorant (in the Latin meaning of the word: to not know.) Although these people carry on important assignments requiring training, dedication and high-level personal qualities, they’re just powerless toward the digital age because they refuse to understand it.

Of course they’re able to use a computer, surf the Internet and send emails, but that’s all: to them a computer is like a fridge: a tool do perform some task with no particular need of further analysis.

This is why we – as a society – are the loser in the technology evolution race.

Apple Patent on File Sharing to Infringe EU Copyright Law?

After having obtained a patent on a system to control the sales of “used” digital goods, according to ZDNet.com Apple

has been awarded a patent that would allow users to share music, video, and pictures directly with each other – without having to worry about piracy.

This patent is based on the idea that a user should be allowed to download an encrypted song from a legitimate owner and purchase a less costly license by Apple thus “squaring the circle” of the file-sharing legalization.

This patent, nevertheless, could hardly be enforceable within the EU.

The royalties of copying a digital copyrighted work are covered by the levy imposed on the blank media and storage (including those that aren’t destined to contain copyrighted stuff.) This means that once the user has purchased a USB dongle, a DVD or whatever the support, he has already paid for the right to use the digital content.

By imposing a further, though less costly, license, Apple is saving bandwidth and IT infrastructure costs turning these costs on the ISP’s shoulders and getting paid two times for the very same thing.

True, one can say that as soon as the user agrees with the license there wouldn’t be a problem. Nevertheless it is a fact that this patent clashes with the “first sale” doctrine that leaves to the user the right of re-sell, (legally) copy and (legally) lend a copyrighted work.