Fergus Cassidy

REALITY BYTES
REVIEW OF 2002: From the continuing fall-out of September 11 2001 to defamation rulings in Australia, this past year was a sobering one on the internet. 2002 was the year the sheriff arrived in town.
29 DECEMBER 2002

FORE!
The ongoing attempts to bring the rule of existing law to a global network system like the internet is fraught with geopolitical landmines. Will internet service providers now become border guards?
22 DECEMBER 2002

ONCE MORE INTO THE REACH
A defamation action by an Australian citizen against an American company has illustrated - once again - that the internet can not be easily shoe-horned into existing laws.
15 DECEMBER 2002

HOUSE OF CARDS
Handing over personal information details in return for reduction in prices or financial gain - such as store loyalty cards - may have a detrimental effect on privacy rights in the long run.
8 DECEMBER 2002

ACCESS DENIED
The blocking of an Irish website by an ISP was a fitting end to a week where Big Brother loomed large.
1 DECEMBER 2002

EBID.IE BLOCKED BY ISP
EXCLUSIVE This is the news story I wrote about the blocking of auction site ebid.ie by ISP UTVInternet.
1 DECEMBER 2002

WINDS OF CHANGE
An awful lot of people fear the consequences of the internet and other technologies. But if the experiences of previous generations are taken into account those fears, in time, will be overcome.
24 NOVEMBER 2002

VOX POPULI
The invention of motorised vehicles, electricity and telephones was always accompanied by convincing forecasts that there would be 'no demand' for such technologies. The loudest came from those whose future was threatened. Now broadband is in line for the same treatment.
17 NOVEMBER 2002

UNLICENSED TO THRILL
Because the telephone companies have turned their backs on broadband, the internet is using radio waves for delivery. Its future may soon depend on how the radio spectrum is regulated. Will the same mistakes be made all over again?
10 NOVEMBER 2002

SLOW TRAIN COMING
It may take ten or twenty years for network technologies to impact fully on society. But economists are already looking at ways in which information will influence and/or disrupt certain types of markets.
3 NOVEMBER 2002

POP, POP... POP MUSIC
Palladium, Microsoft's next-generation operating system, will be the software giant's solution to trustworthy computing. Will it also solve the copyright woes of the entertainment industry?
27 OCTOBER 2002

BROUGHT TO BOOK
Continuously extending copyright on books and other publications, means that fewer and fewer books are entering the public domain. Brewster Kahle's Bookmobile demonstrates why the public domain is so important.
20 OCTOBER 2002

BUYING MORE THAN TIME
Now that the network theories of the 'new' economists have collapsed, where does that leave the giants of network technology - the telecommunications' companies?
13 OCTOBER 2002

SOURCES
The unveiling of Google News recently was a quiet affair. Go back five years and the launch of such a service would also have launched predictions that newspapers would have to slug it out with the internet to survive. Round one to the newspapers?
6 OCTOBER 2002

THE BIG CELL
One of the great legacys of Ireland's biggest economic boom in the 1990s has been the mobile phone. The next generation phones hitting the shelves soon can now send images. The internet has a pretender.
29 SEPTEMBER 2002

CULTURE VULTURES
As popular culture gets subverted in order to sell everything to everyone, is the internet slipping into the background just because it doesn't 'entertain'?
22 SEPTEMBER 2002

NO COLUMN THIS WEEK
15 SEPTEMBER 2002

LOVE AT FIRST SITE
The relationship between old and new media began brightly, with both overcoming doubts about the other. Now that the brief fling has ended, those doubts and suspicions are back stronger than ever.
8 SEPTEMBER 2002

MAJORITY REPORT
The collecting and storing of data by government agencies, ISPs and others is surveillance of the many for the sins of the few. It now appears that hard won civil and human rights are to be quietly set aside when it comes to the internet.
1 SEPTEMBER 2002

END OF THE INNOCENCE
As the smoke clears from the battlefield, the old economy has emerged as the clear winner. The new economy has been absorbed and is no more. What happens to the internet now?
25 AUGUST 2002

THE HITS KEEP ON COMING
On the world wide web, Elvis is the king of dead entertainers. But he can count himself very lucky that he had such an original name.
18 AUGUST 2002

IT'S ONLY ROCK 'N' ROLL?
Musicians have legitimate rights over their work and have been quick to support technical measures in defence of their rights. Music buyers have rights too but artists had not bothered commenting on that. Until Janis Ian spoke up.
11 AUGUST 2002

WILL 'O THE WISP
She wanted to find a way to direct radio-controlled torpedos during WW2 and in between her day job as Hollywood film star she invented a new radio technology.
    Frequency hopping is now at the heart of the huge growth in wireless access to the internet. If the telecommunications carriers are going to get 'torpedoed' by a wireless alternative, then they can look back and salute Hedy Lamarr.
4 AUGUST 2002

A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
The continuing crisis in the stock markets has been called the bursting of the technology and internet bubble. Corporations spent vast amounts because they speculated on whether the net was a new addition to the media industry. Now they have their answer.
28 JULY 2002

NO WAY FOR ONE-WAY
The much-touted idea of convergence was to be the marriage of traditional media platforms with the internet. Alas, it might be a shotgun wedding.
14 JULY 2002

THE FUTURE IS STILL IN BITS
While Worldcom waited in vain for the internet goldrush, it fiddled the books. Big business invested heavily in the internet and got screwed. It's payback time and the gloves are officially off.
30 JUNE 2002

THE CROSSROADS HOTEL
The Internet Society is at a crossroads alright, but it was strange to witness signs of collective relief at that fact during its recent annual conference. Bringing out some pioneers added to the feeling of calm. The one before the storm?
23 JUNE 2002

AD NAUSEUM
The television industry in the US has announced that it's okay to go to the bathroom during commercial breaks. But anything else is "theft". Are viewers' rights being flushed down the toilet?
16 JUNE 2002

COMMON GOALS
It is remarkable that the World Cup, and the following it garners around the world, is based on just 17 Rules of the game. Is there a lesson here for global jurisdiction?
9 JUNE 2002

OPERATION AMETHYST
Changing the way the net works in order to make it a 'safer' place will not stop child pornography. This behaviour was going on long before the net appeared.
   Moving away from the unique one-to-one/many facility of the net, will bring it back to the broadcast media methods of the past. And the past was far from a safe place.  
2 JUNE 2002

ANIMAL RITES
If animals are depending on humans to uphold their privacy rights, they better not expect anything more than crocodile tears
26 MAY 2002

THE INTERNET IS FOR EVERYONE
Vint Cerf is known as 'the father of the internet' and in this Requests for Comment he sets out his vision of the future
12 MAY 2002

BACKBONE
A large antenna in the back of a garden in rural Ireland, indicates that another revolution has its origins in Wexford.
OCT 2001