Half The UK Registered on Facebook!

Experian Hitwise’s latest report claim that social networks are the UK’s favourite online destinations. Facebook and Twitter registered 2.4bn Internet visits in the UK in January and Facebook claim that it now has 30 million registered users in the UK alone which equates to half the population!

This comes at the same time that the BBC released its latest stats for the iPlayer, which reveal that more people than ever, some 125 million hits, were streaming live content through over the service. They also claim 2.1 million requests were delivered to the iPad alone in February. The total hits in the month was down from 162 million to 148 million but interestingly some 23 million of these were from Virgin Media iPlayer TV requests.The BBC also claim that there are proportionally more daytime and late-peak users of the service and the majority of users are under 55.

The blurring of the entertainment and social services is seen as one of the main drivers in UK traffic. Sites such as Facebook are increasingly hosting content from entertainment sites and this is driving more social interaction and stimulating more take-up. This in term attracts more businesses to advertise, promote and generally position them on the social map.

There are still strong calls, especially in the EU to tighten security on the social networks and EU law and directives. The main EU thrust today remains focused on "the right to be forgotten", letting users "withdraw their consent" to their data being held. It is felt that service providers should prove that they need to keep the data, rather than individuals having to prove that collecting their data is not necessary.

So we are now clearly seeing a step change from the vertical web services of email, blogs, flikr, youtube etc to one which overlays these within a social network construct that is wider in its appeal and deeper in its richness. Mobile technology such as tablets and smart phones are enablers that now are increasingly permanently connected. It doesn’t mean that the verticals disappear it merely means that these become the feeds that are consolidated through the likes of Facebook.

With half the UK population apparently signed up it clearly now says that we are starting to socially communicate, interact with media, express ourselves and collect and share content and opinions.

The Google Charm Offensive Moves to Europe

European Union regulators are looking to mediate a discussion between European publishers and authors and Google over Google’s Book Settlement. European Commission officials will meet with copyright holders on September 7 to discuss the search giant's $125 million proposed settlement with U.S. publishers and authors. The US court will decide in October, whether to grant what some believe will be a monopoly on ‘orphan works’ and effectively change copyright not only in the US but globally. Google is currently on a charm offensive trying to persuade all plus the US Department of Justice that they are really the grandmother and not merely a wolf in her clothing.

The one thing that is certain is that the charm offensive will incease as the decision date draws closer but the question and doubts remain on the table. Some would say that fear of the alternative is driving some to support what many have exposed as wanting. It will be interesting to see which associations stand up to question the settlement and who finds themselves sitting on a fence torn between conflicts in their member interests.

Patent Moves

The European Commission has reiterated its demand for the creation of a single European patent stating that the absence of such a protection is hindering the growth of technology companies in the European Union. The Commission state that though, they have announced increased funding for technology research this was only part of the its plan to create more economic value from EU research.

Patents operated by the European Patent Office (EPO), can cover most of Europe but the office is not part of EU government. EPO can approval patent applications but these are granted only in the countries specified and not automatically in all the countries signed up to its governing principles, the European Patent Convention.
The Commission has recommended to the Parliament and Council that a single EU patent would help to create more economic value from research.

As if on cue, Discovery, known for the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, filed suit today against Amazon in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement of a patent filed by the company in September of 1999. Describing an "Electronic Book Security and Copyright Protection System," the patent was awarded in 2007.

The suit claims, "Amazon's infringing activities...include the operation of the Amazon.com website and the provision of services related to the Kindle and Kindle 2 through and by the website, including but not limited to the sale of electronic books."

The patent describes a system that "provides for secure distribution of electronic text and graphics to subscribers and secure storage." This covers distribution to bookstores, public libraries, and schools as well as consumers equipped with a "home subsystem." "The home subsystem connects to a secure video distribution system or variety of alternative secure distribution systems, generates menus and stores text, and transacts through communicating mechanisms," The patent continues, "A portable book-shaped viewer is used for secure viewing of the text. A billing system performs the transaction, management, authorization, collection and payments utilizing the telephone system or a variety of alternative communication systems using secure techniques."

On a different note we also read about Andrew Harsley, who appeared on the popular UK TV program ‘Dragons Den’ and not only caught the attention of millions of television viewers, but also secured an investment of £150K for the Rapstrap plastic cable tie on the show. Harsley has since won a £35 million contract for up to a billion units of his cable ties and secured patents in Mexico and China.

Patents are clearly big business and infringement can be even bigger years later.

EU votes for e-books VAT cut

The fact that VAT is payable on digital books and audiobooks but not raised on physical ones has always been one of those seemingly silly taxation rules. Same content and it terms of ebooks the experience is exactly the same but in this case the device and the content are taxed. It often also made more difficult when physical and digital content is bundled and even if the digital rendition is ‘free’ VAT is due albeit at a reduced rate.

The Bookseller brought us some great news last week regarding the potential reduction of VAT on audio books and e-books. European Union ministers voted to allow all member states to charge the low rate VAT on books that have a "physical means of support" and now the UK Publishers Association has picked up the challenge to make it happen.
VAT rates fluctuate across the EU states with the UK making physical books zero rated but ebooks full rate at 15% whereas other countries such as Holland charge a low rate for physical books and a whooping great 19% on ebooks. Under the directive UK rates could be reduced to 5%.

A reduction in VAT rates is not an obligation; merely an option and it will be interesting to see governmental reaction across Europe.

We would like to see VAT taken off books full stop but that is highly unlikely.

EU News

The European Parliament is one of those governmental bodies who you either love or hate and often at the same time!
Last week appears to be a good one for them in that they firstly voted to prevent EU member states from imposing a "three strikes" rule on unauthorised file sharers. This is the second time around and although the majority was reduced common sense prevailed and the law to compel ISPs to disconnect file sharers who are caught sharing or downloading copyrighted material online three times was again defeated. However the French government has already implemented its own three strikes law – nothing new there then!

In response to the rapid growth of broadband has led the European Commission to bring forward a review of Europeans telecoms services. Currently around 36% of EU households have high-speed net access and although this is growing annually at a rate of 20%, the Commission want broadband availability to be a basic right for all EU citizens by 2010.

The big issue is the disparity between states with nations such as Denmark, Luxembourg and Belgium, offering 100% broadband availability against only 60% availability in Romania. Even in Germany and Italy, around 12% of the population is not covered by high-speed access.

The Commission is now inviting submissions from telecoms firms and, governments with the aim of producing a directive in 2009 and potentially legislation in 2010.

Free to Roam

Today European travellers have to unlock their mobiles and carry a number of different service Sim cards, subscribe to a more expensive option that covers multiple countries, or await the shock when the bill itemises those calls made and received outside their home country..
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A European Commission survey of 27,000 homes across the EU found that 24% of homes surveyed were only using their mobile phones and 5% were now using the Internet to make calls. This still means that the majority still use there land lines but the survey also found that the trend away from land lines had significant variance between countries. The figure was as high as 39% in the ex communist countries as governments there found it cheaper to move to mobile than upgrade old networks.
Understandably, in Finland, the home of Nokia and mobile technology, the survey found 61% were mobile only.

The survey also found that although around 50% of household have Internet access only 36% are broadband.

A separate Commission survey cited the roaming tariff charges outside of a household’s home state as being the factor that was holding back the wider adoption and switch to mobile. In July the Commission will decide on whether to impose caps on the price of roamed texts. Regulation on roaming charges looks inevitable but there is also recognition that there is a difference between text at one end and data at the other.

So if the World Goes Broadband What Does it Mean?

Broadband subscriptions in eight European countries are now above the levels in the United States and Japan. The EU stated this week that the EU has added 19 mill broadband lines in 2007, the equivalent of more than 50,000 households per day.

According to the commission 4 countries lead the world; Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland, and another 8 have higher penetration rates than the U.S. and Japan. Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and France also surpassed the US in 2007 and this year Germany joined them. The European telecommunications market is now worth 300 billion euros.

As the bandwidth increases so does the opportunities. The mobile broadband market is also exploding and now driving new services and offers.

As we experience this shift in connectivity we have to question whether the current download paradigm is going to continue to be the dominant one in the near future. If we can access broadband bandwidth from anywhere at anytime why do we need ‘fat clients’ or devices that are expensive to buy are complex to run and consume storage and power? It make more sense to harness the power across the network and from ‘fat servers’. In a bookworld this could mean that the whole format and reader debate becomes a non issue and everything simply goes online. After all if the Kindle can download a book wirelessly anywhere why not just stream it anywhere and forget all the download hassle and the storage of up to 200 titles?

We all too often design solution based on yesterday and what we know and that is alas why they don’t last long.