Spam Fighters Throw Off The Gloves

ISPs have been urged in new guidelines from the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) to block port 25.Although, the idea of blocking port 25 is by no means new, take a look at Larry Seltzer's article 'Shutting down the Highway to Internet Hell’ from back in 2005.Many ISP’s already provide email filtering tools to protect their users and offer advice about limiting and reporting spam but according to the BBC "Even if the guidelines are taken up by a majority of ISPs, experts admit it is unlikely that people will see a drastic reduction in spam any time soon."

Spam Fighters Throw Off The Gloves

ISPs have been urged in new guidelines from the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) to block port 25.Although, the idea of blocking port 25 is by no means new, take a look at Larry Seltzer's article 'Shutting down the Highway to Internet Hell’ from back in 2005.Many ISP’s already provide email filtering tools to protect their users and offer advice about limiting and reporting spam but according to the BBC "Even if the guidelines are taken up by a majority of ISPs, experts admit it is unlikely that people will see a drastic reduction in spam any time soon."

Home Resales Decline to 10-Year Low in the US

Latest Bloomberg reports suggest that sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell to the lowest levels this June. This is the worst hit in the last ten years and due to plummeting real estate prices and buyers confidence the housing recession is now in its third year and there are no signals of things looking up. Full article

Caribbean beaches can look at $25 million worth of investment and 1.4 million cubic metres of sand

The Dominican Republic is spending $25 million improving its beaches to make them more attractive to visitors. It is part of a wider plan to boost tourism as officials are worried that cuts in flights from the US and other problems such as the recent power cuts could seriously hit the number of people interested in investing in the country, the second largest island in the Caribbean. Full article

£18,000 drop in property prices in the UK

Daily Mail, in its latest article about property prices in the UK discusses a new report from property website Rightmove. The report said that in the past two months the average asking price across England and Wales has dropped by £7,281 to £235,219. Just two per cent below the average in July last year, this is the first time Rightmove has recorded an annual drop since it began in 2002. Full article

Aparthotels: the safer property investment option

The latest trend in property investment: an Apartment + a Hotel = AparthotelAparthotels are typically a three-star or higher hotel property looked after by a management company that takes care of all the hassles of ownership, including maintenance and finding hotel users. They typically offer the investor the opportunity to own a plush hotel room that can provide a monthly income.While the natural choice for a lot of the property investors in the UK would be to invest in London, with the 2012 Olympics on its way, many investors are also looking abroad at holiday hot spots where hotels rooms are in demand all year long.This trend is still setting in but a few early adopters such as GuestInvest and HomesGoFast are already profiting from it. In their blog, HomesGoFast mention the surprising speed with which these properties sell out highlighting the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a 576-unit condo hotel, which was expected to sell out in two years but instead sold out in two months! The Platinum, a 255-unit property in Las Vegas, also sold out in just a matter of a couple months. The reason, they feel is that the armchair investor feels secure in this type of development and one that appears to look after itself.As for us, we think only time will tell. In the current property climate one has to tread with care. The lack of flexibility, the concept of selling a hotel room to another buyer, renovations, and most importantly chances that the hotel might not do very well might make Aparthotels a less exciting proposition than it seems at the moment.

Stars of the Little Screen Continue to Arrive on Your Monitor

It seems that everyone is jumping on the IPTV band wagon with the latest addition being Channel 5’s Demand FiveISPs are already questioning who’s going to pay for the large amounts of bandwidth being taken up by these new services and now another one appears on the scene.PlusNet has revealed that broadband streaming TV services now account for nearly a tenth of all evening downloaded traffic on their network and it looks like this is set to continue.Will BT’s £1.5bn investment into a fibre-optic network save the UK’s bandwidth woes or will Ofcom step in and stifle the project by not allowing them the return on investment they’re looking for?

Youtube are watching YOU

You know you should, but how often do you really read the terms and conditions when you visit a website? Whether it’s a personal email account, an online auction house or a gambling website, few people take the trouble to trawl through the often extensive T&Cs when they sign up. After all, if it’s a legitimate site, well-known and with a good reputation, there should be nothing to worry about, right?Wrong. In a pre-trial ruling last week, The Register reports, a federal judge ordered Google to hand over all its existing records of every video viewed on YouTube. This information includes user account names and IP addresses.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/03/google_to_turn_over_youtube_database/The case centres around a $1bn lawsuit brought by Viacom, the US media conglomerate, against Youtube. Viacom alleges that the popular video-sharing website has allowed users to upload massive amounts copyrighted material onto its site, thereby hitting Viacom’s revenue while earning advertising revenue for YouTube.One of the most interesting aspects of this case is what it reveals about Internet users’ privacy and anonymity. It turns out that YouTube keeps extensive records of all its users’ viewing histories, including individual IP addresses. Internet (IP) addresses are generally considered to be personally identifiable information, given that they can be linked to a particular household and, potentially, with an individual person. So, in theory, anyone in possession of the 12TB of YouTube user data could identify all the videos you’ve ever watched on the site. Isn’t this illegal? Unethical?Self-proclaimed “privacy advocates” may turn puce with rage at the thought, but YouTube’s retention of this data is perfectly legitimate. Their privacy policy clearly states that the company “may record information about your usage,” and adds: “If you are logged in, we may associate that information with your account.” By giving users clear notification of the terms of service, YouTube have remained within both the letter and the spirit of privacy law.Of course, YouTube isn’t the only company that holds records of user data. Internet Services Providers (ISPs), search engines and e-commerce sites together hold huge amounts of often sensitive personal information, including our names, addresses, phone numbers and even credit card numbers.The really frightening thing is that companies can be forced by law to hand over the data they hold to government agencies. Under Title V of the Patriot Act, for example, the United States government can force companies, including Internet Services Providers, to hand over data pertaining to individuals to aid investigation against suspected terrorists in The War Against Terror (T.W.A.T.).The YouTube case is instructive for anyone concerned about their online privacy. Last week’s ruling highlights the fact that any company that holds your data – no matter how responsible they may be – can be forced to relinquish that data by the courts.

UK Property news round up for the week:

Gloom and doom in JuneUK house prices fell by 2% in June, according to the UK's biggest mortgage lender, the Halifax. However the latest survey conducted by Nationwide shows that house prices fell by 0.9% on average in June. Contradictory, as always.The average price of a home is now £180,344, nearly 10 per cent lower than when house prices peaked in August last year. Homeowners who bought a home last year with little or no deposit are now facing negative equity. However, average UK house price remains 2 per cent higher than in June two years ago and more than 10 per cent higher than in June 2005, according to Halifax. A pretty clear indication that the British housing sector still has some way to go before it reaches an all time low.(Graph Source: BBC News, 1 July 2008)Several job cuts in house building sectorThe latest of the UK House Builders to announce job cuts is Barratt Developments. After a tough couple of months and an even more challenging period ahead, they’re looking at cutting 1,200 jobs by closing two divisions and merging other parts of their business. Earlier in the week, well-known home builder Persimmon announced that the company will reduce its full-time headcount by 1,100 and its flexible workers by 900, cutting its total staff from 5,000 to 3,000. They admitted that profit margins had fallen from 20.8 per cent in the first half of last year to just 14 per cent in 2008. The sector's jobless toll is touching 4,500 so far this year.Banks set 5% mortgageBorrowing costs remain unchanged for the third month in a row by Bank of England. Following their latest meeting, Bank of England has decided to keep the interest static at 5%. . Homeowners and businesses hoping for an interest rate cut as economic crunch bites are unlikely to get any joy from the policymakers.
More Falls?Another recent forecast by Halifax predicts that UK house prices are set to fall by 9% this year - having revised their views from February that the market would be "flat" in 2008. Things seem to be going from bad to worse in the UK property market but some people are still optimistic. A list of the ten most recession-proof UK counties was published by the Times earlier yesterday. The top three resilient counties which didn’t get affected by the economic hit were Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Isle of Wight. City of Westminster house prices were up by a whopping 26.4%. The list was based on the asking prices of homes on Rightmove.co.uk, which displays details of around 90 per cent of all property sales across England and Wales. Looks like the housing market might not be so bleak after all!

"No, junk mail please"

Last week a survey revealed the "Top 5 most spammed UK customers"I think we should spare a thought for poor old Colin Wells, a Workshop Foreman for Stagecoach buses who prior to introducing spam blocking software spent the best part of 2 hours every day deleting spam from his account. Without his blocking software it was revealed that he would receive over 40,000 spam emails a day equating to 16,000,000 a year (and you thought you had problems clearing your inbox on a Monday morning after the weekend).This highlights how important it is to have ‘the right tools for the job’ with users looking at the full package provided by their Internet Service Provider before choosing an ISP.

"Houston, we have a problem"

Motion Picture Association of America sends formal legal notices to three laser printersIf rightsholders are so keen to issue illegal downloading notices on the basis of IP addresses then they'd better take note.Recently researchers at the University of Washington managed to setup printers in their network to fake relevant internet addresses. Software used by the MPAA was unable to spot this and accused the three printers of illegally downloading copies of Iron Man and Indiana Jones.So where do ISPs stand in this? Virgin Media have taken the bold move of working with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) to post letters to their users who allegedly have illegal file-sharing (P2P) activity on their accounts.Currently the letter only warns uses about their activity and does not threaten account suspension but with the 10 week "educational" campaign being reviewed in mid-August is this a sign of rightsholders muscling in and the slippery slope to disconnection for alleged illegal activity?

"Houston, we have a problem" Motion Picture Association of America sends formal legal notices to three laser printers

If rightsholders are so keen to issue illegal downloading notices on the basis of IP addresses then they'd better take note.Recently researchers at the University of Washington managed to setup printers in their network to fake relevant internet addresses. Software used by the MPAA was unable to spot this and accused the three printers of illegally downloading copies of Iron Man and Indiana Jones.So where do ISPs stand in this? Virgin Media have taken the bold move of working with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) to post letters to their users who allegedly have illegal file-sharing (P2P) activity on their accounts.Currently the letter only warns uses about their activity and does not threaten account suspension but with the 10 week "educational" campaign being reviewed in mid-August is this a sign of rightsholders muscling in and the slippery slope to disconnection for alleged illegal activity.

New Data Laws are Looming

On the 14th May Gordon Brown's draft Queen's Speech outlined his proposals for the Communications Data Bill, which includes plans to implement the EU Directive on the retention of communications data into UK law (2006/24/EC). It will also modify the procedures for acquiring communications data and allow this data to be retained.The details so far are pretty sketchy and with consultation currently taking place The House of Lords is questioning 'how the government intends to make it law for UK ISPs to track and store their customers online activity for up to two years (data retention)' ISP ReviewThere are a number of potential problems for ISPs which include legal, technical and cost issues.The legislation aims to support the prevention and detection of crime and protect national security by allowing law enforcement agencies to make use of the enormous amounts of communications data passing over the 'net but how useful is this data? The phrase 'needle in a haystack' springs to mind.

Dubai with a twist

With this new swirling building in the making in Dubai, UK property investors can add something unique to their property portfolio. The spinning skyscraper, the Dynamic Tower, is being designed by architect David Fisher. The 420-metre tower, offering a hotel, offices and flats, is permanently on rotation.Fisher told The Times: “The idea came when I was in Miami. A friend told me that one apartment, which overlooked the ocean, was worth $3million but another, which, didn't was worth $1.8million. I started thinking about this dynamic tower.” Full article(Image source: The Times, 27th June 2008)