Topic: Valve, Duke, UDK updates and UK Law(lessness)

[kat]

Valve has released the results of a recent hardware survey which show nVidia by far the most popular graphics card being used on Intel systems running largely Windows XP. Obviously this is relative to PCs connected to the Steam Network but it should still provide an interesting insight in the wider sense of what PC owners have inside their boxes.

All of which will be moot by the time Duke Nukem is released. Yawn. But may be useful in playing Modern Warfare 2, providing it isn't one of the estimated four million pirated copies downloaded from various bit-torrent networks - don't ask how they know these numbers without 'tracking' traffic and 'seeding' files to do so.

Speaking of 'networks', the UK Government finally set the ball in motion on what's been euphemistically called the "Broadband Poll Tax". As a result of that deplorable bit of legislation called the "Digital Economy Bill" ^[1] (link may change as the status of the bill updated), CGHQ want to 'tax' all phone lines, apparently irrespective as to whether they either have broadband or are even capable of getting broadband, a 'nominal' rate of 50 pence a month (£0.50).. for now that is. The move is being seen as a exceptional example of "disproportionate taxation" as a result.

There was also news this past week that the UK Government finally closed a (the?) loophole left open in the Video Recordings Act 1984 whereby it turns out it was not illegal to sell material to any one under age. As mentioned previously, the Act should have meant it was illegal to do that but in an ironic twist of bureaucratic fate, the Government has been prosecuting for offences meted out under the provisions of unratified legislation, illegally I might add.

What was that about UDK? Oh, Epic have released a new Beta of the dev kit with a couple of improvements and fixes. You can find out more and download the app from UDK Network site.

[ratty redemption]

kat, very interesting news. and I personally would like to see duke released oneday. although I understand why a lot of people are tired of hearing about it.

[kat]

Labour 'broadband tax' to hit three million offline homes. What I find really funny, in a none-funny way, is how many people naively think this is to raise funds to pay for this so-called "super-fast" broadband. It's not. Just like any other 'tax' it's used to pay off the dept we're currently in and not to pay for services being developed. I wouldn't be surprised to find that £175 million expected to be raised from this going into so politico's back pocket by way of stakeholder investment in the firm that gets the contract (don't think it's BT).

[ratty redemption]

@ kat, typical politicians and agreed I don't believe we'll benefit from this.

[kat]

A couple of interesting follow-ups on this one from PCPro; Government "doesn't know what 2 meg promise means", Government won't disconnect file-sharers, MPs: Government should scrap broadband tax.

[kat]

Looks like the UK Gov finally went ahead with taxing broadband connections. The cynic in my says the following "right so they know they can't control the web and Internet itself, so what they do is control your access to it". Can you tax what the European Courts regard as a human right? - the "right" to unfettered access to the Internet; the subscription you pay for access is the cost associated with using an ISP's *services*, a 'tax' isn't, it's just an arbitrary revenue generation scheme that has nothing to do with service provision itself. It may not seem like much right now but this does set a worrying president.

It's 50p/month at initial introduction (about £6 per year) but you watch, over the coming year or two it'll increase. What doesn't seem to understand is that this isn't money that will go into a kitty (bank account) for investment into the broadband infrastructure as it's being pimped, but instead the influx of cash will be used for something else *now* with some other tax offset being used *later* for the actual implementation of the so called upgrades to the network.

[ratty redemption]

@ kat, I whole heartedly agree with your concerns regarding this stealth tax

[kat]

Apparently the UK Gov didn't do it's homework when putting together the legislation behind the Digital Economy Bill

"The UK Government has amazingly admitted that it made no attempt to gather its own evidence when formulating its anti-piracy plans that were included in the controversial Digital Economy Bill.

Instead, the decision to implement a “three strikes” rule and demand that ISPs play a role in internet censorship was based only on information supplied by copyright holder lobbyists"

What's astonishing is the blatant passing of the buck (by Adrian Brazier) to the rights holders, if the DEA team knew the data was 'compromised' at the time they were given it why then continue to make policy based on it without seeking a wider consultation or doing broader research into a subject that has far-reaching consequences?

Resources

• Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property