German Court Orders YouTube to Filter Content, Remove Videos

A German court on Friday ordered Google to install filtering software on its YouTube service in Germany to prevent users from uploading copyrighted material.
Hamburg's state court sided with German copyright organization GEMA, which had sued Google's YouTube unit two years ago to have 12 music videos for which it holds copyrights be taken down, the Associated Press reported Friday. GEMA, which represents about 64,000 German writers and musicians, argued that its members were losing money when their music was displayed on YouTube.
YouTube, meanwhile, maintained that it bears no legal responsibility for uploaded content, but checks and blocks clips that are flagged as possible copyright violations. YouTube also offers copyright-holders software to help them flag content that infringes on their rights.
The Hamburg court ordered YouTube to take down 7 of the 12 contested clips, but said the popular site does not have to monitor all the content that is uploaded.
"The platform operator only has the obligation to block the video ... and take appropriate measures to hinder further rights violations after being notified about the copyright violation," the court said, according to the AP. "There is no obligation to control all videos already uploaded to the platform."
Google is expected to appeal the ruling, The New York Times reported. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company called the decision a partial victory, however.
"Today's ruling confirms that YouTube as a hosting platform cannot be obliged to control the content of all videos uploaded to the site," a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. "We remain committed to finding a solution to the music licensing issue in Germany that will benefit artists, composers, authors, publishers and record labels, as well as the wider YouTube community."
The court case began in 2010, after talks between YouTube and Gema over royalties reached a stalemate. Copyrighted material controlled by GEMA has not been available on YouTube since 2009, when the previous agreement expired. Google said it would resume negotiations, The New York Times reported.

Facebook in Punjabi a hit among youngsters

Ludhiana, April 11
The announcement that Facebook for mobile phones is going to be launched in eight Indian languages, including Punjabi and Hindi, has brought cheer amongst the youth in and around the city.

There is a sizeable and growing community of people in the region using Punjabi as the language for surfing websites. Youngsters from both rural and urban areas in and around the city are connected on Facebook.

Sarabjit Singh, a BA student, said that he used to write in Punjabi using English alphabets. But the introduction in Punjabi on mobile phones would ease things up. "Regional language written using the English alphabet seems funny and frivolous," he says.

According to the noted Punjabi poet Jaswant Zafar, who is a regular user of the popular social networking website in Punjabi, “There is a vast community of Facebook users in Punjabi, but there was always a constraint of using it on computers. Mobile platform may propel the online use of Punjabi."

Padam Shri awardee Surjit Patar said, "Mobile phones these days are very popular with the youth and so is Facebook. It is good that even while using Facebook on phones, there would be no constraint for people to use the Roman script for sharing and writing Punjabi poetry."

“Such initiatives are aimed at increasing the footprint of social networking sites, but they are also facilitate the growth of the languages as a byproduct,” he said.

Bharti Airtel launches the country’s first 4G service in India

New Delhi, April 10
The country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel launched India’s first 4G service in Kolkata today. Airtel’s 4G (TD-LTE) network was launched by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal.

Airtel, which is a leading global telecom services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has launched the service on a state-of-the-art network based on TD-LTE, making India one of the first countries in the world to commercially deploy the cutting-edge technology.

With this launch, India joins the most advanced telecom markets in the world and marks the beginning of a new chapter in the country’s telecom success story.

The launch will trigger a new phase of accelerated equitable and inclusive economic growth through proliferation of broadband services as envisioned in the draft National Telecom Policy. It provides for download speeds as high as 40 Mbps and the upload speed of 20 Mbps.

Incidentally, ZTE has built 4G network capable of offering speed of 100 Mbps. Today’s launch is the first in a series of launches planned across the country by Bharti Airtel. It has chalked out its 4G rollout strategy where it will launch 4G services in Bangalore in the next 30 days and has selected Huawei as the network supplier for the Karnataka circle.

In the next phase, the company will launch LTE services in Pune and Chandigarh. Airtel will focus on both individuals and enterprises.

The company has selected Nokia Siemens for Maharashtra, while it is yet to decide the network partner for Chandigarh.

Commenting on the launch, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of the company said, “Today’s launch is a major milestone for India and Airtel. Over the past 15 years, Airtel has been at the forefront of India’s telecom revolution and has set the technology trends in India by aligning with the global standards.”

“We are delighted to now provide leadership in setting the technology standard for 4G services in India by introducing the cutting edge TD-LTE. We are confident that others will follow in this direction and participate in our pioneering effort of making TD-LTE the de facto 4G standard in India,” he added.

The service will allow superfast access to high definition (HD) video streaming, multiple chatting, instant uploading of photos and much more. Airtel claims that charges for Airtel 4G services are comparable with other leading operators offering broadband services in the country.

Bharti Airtel is one of the founding members of the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) which was launched at the Mobile World Congress 2011. Other key founding members of the global initiative include China Mobile and Softbank Mobile.

lightning fast

NETWORK: Airtel 4G (TD-LTE)

SPEED: 40 Mbps for download and 20 Mbps for upload

BENEFIT: Allows superfast access to high-definition video streaming, multiple chatting, instant uploading of photos etc

CHARGES: Comparable with other operators offering broadband services in the country

NEXT DESTINATIONS: After Kolkata, the company plans to launch 4G services in Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh