Technology

'Ensure IP rights for a knowledge based economy'

By Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Any country that aspires to become a knowledge based economy should ensure and respect Intellectual Property (IP) rights and set up a robust IP protection mechanism, said Senior Director, Marketing (Asia Pacific) of Business Software Alliance (BSA) Roland Chan.

In an interview with Sunday Observer, Chan said that a strong intellectual property regime is essential to promote innovation especially for the growth of the software industry in Sri Lanka. It should ensure the protection of knowledge assets developed in the country and only such an environment will encourage investment in R&D.

Roland Chan

Chan accepted that software piracy helped the expansion of the IT industry globally as it slashed the price of computers and was affordable to ordinary people. However, he said that to go to the next level of the knowledge economy, countries should respect IP rights. Since Sri Lanka has a goal to develop the software industry as a major economic sector this is very important.

It is important not only for the big global companies because all distributors, re-sellers and value added partners of software in any country are local businesses and therefore they are also benefitted. On the other hand it is important for local software developers as well, because they have to compete not only with big players but also with software pirates who in most cases are selling their software at a far cheaper price than the developers in the same markets.

To compete in the real world companies don't need pirated products.

Therefore not only government regulations, internal policies of the companies should also be adopted to use licensed software.

Businesses get a lot of benefits by using licensed software. It increases productivity and efficiency in companies. Software is a productivity tool and therefore companies should manage software well, similar to managing other productivity tools.

The purchasing decision of software should also be made rationally to get maximum benefits.

Chan said that software asset management of a company should be undertaken at four levels. Firstly, the company should identify its need a proper analysis. Secondly the company should identify what software it has. In most instances there are lot of unnecessary software in computers.

But the company does not know of the list of software they have.

There is unnecessary software down loaded from the internet.

Therefore at this level you should prepare a list of software you have in your computers.

Thirdly you should reconcile between the software you need and what you have. You should delete unnecessary software and purchase software according to your need.

Fourthly, companies should have strict policies and procedures in software usage and ensure that all are respect and follow them. This will help companies to optimally use computer assets and get maximum benefits from investment in IT.

iPhone at risk from security flaw

The PDF exploit currently only exists in theory, although experts say that could change. Security firms are warning of a vulnerability in Apple's iOS for iPhone, iPad and iPod.

Symantec said that it could be exploited by remote attackers to take complete control of a vulnerable device.

Experts said that the threat, at present, only exists on paper but that Apple need to issue a fix before it becomes a reality.

Apple said that the company was aware of the report and was investigating.

The problem lies in the way Apple's Mobile Safari handles Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.

As the browser automatically opens PDF files, a hacker could embed malicious code into this file.

Graham Cluley, a computer security expert with Sophos, told BBC News that the exploit used the same principle as Jailbreakme - a utility that lets iPhone 4 owners run non-Apple approved applications - although it uses the exploit in a benign way.

"It uses the same tricks as you do when jailbreaking," said Mr Cluley.

"We always thought that Apple's Mobile Safari would be the main vulnerability.

"At present, we have yet to see any of these exploits out in the wild, but it is only a matter of time," he warned.

Jailfixed In an ironic twist, the only way of preventing Mobile Safari from automatically opening PDF files is by jailbreaking a phone and installing an application, called PDF Loading Warner, that then asks for permission every time the browser tries to open a PDF file. US authorities declared it was legal for users to jailbreak their phones. "I personally wouldn't want to jailbreak my phone to get the fix," said Mr. Cluley.

He suggested that concerned users may want to switch to an alternative web browser, such as Opera, although he stressed that they had not yet checked these systems for exploits.

BBC News

ICTA grant scheme for startups

Startup companies with less than a two-year post-registration existence and with less than 10 employees could aspire to have 75 per cent of their total project cost reimbursed under an ICTA-initiated grant scheme aimed at promoting new technologies, .

This was revealed at a media briefing organised by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA ) and Intel at Hotel Taj Samudra for the launch of the grant scheme last week.

The program aims at encouraging entrepreneurs island-wide to launch new technology products and/or services.

This grant will cover 75% of the total project cost or a maximum of USD 5,000 whichever is lower. With the grant the new companies can subsidise infrastructure, capacity building, business development and any other third party costs. ICTA informs that up to 20 such companies may be supported under the program in stages.

A senior ICTA official said "This initiative called 'Technology Startups Spiralation' aptly holds in its nomenclature the term 'spiralation' denoting the 'spiral' model concept that is specifically significant in this grant scheme.

The concept indicates an upward spiral model that grows with innovation and the term 'Spiralation' encompasses the spiral of innovation, which is the true nature of the program. The partner 'ecosystem' laid out by ICTA for the program consists of more than 20 partner organisations to give high exposure to the selected applicants in various domains".

The selected applicants will also be mentored through the program's partner ecosystem in areas of expertise they should acquire in order to develop businesses into successful enterprises.

The line up of partners includes the University of Moratuwa, the University of Colombo School of Computing, the Indian Institute of Technology's Rural Technology Business Incubator, Boston University, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, the Sri Lanka Association of Software Service Companies (SLASSCOM), the Federation of IT Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS), British Computer Society (BCS), Project Management Institute (PMI), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants UK (CIMA), the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), CCC Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), Standard Chartered Bank, National Development Bank (NDB), CIO Forum and the Knowledge Factory.

ICTA has extended invitations to organisations who can contribute to join hands in the program.

Director/Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando, said "the ICTA as part of its role of catalysing the growth of the ICT Industry is pleased to announce the launch of this program for technology startups.

It will be the foundation towards creating a new culture of entrepreneurship within the Industry which will help accomplish the objectives of the e- Sri Lanka program".

The ICTA invites organisations who are interested and capable of enriching the program to contact ICTA for discussions on partnering.

UAE decision to ban BlackBerry services 'final'

The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that a decision to cut some BlackBerry smartphone services was final, as users in Saudi Arabia expressed shock at their telecom regulator's decision to suspend services.

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority's (TRA) decision to suspend certain Blackberry services from October 11th is final," the official WAM news agency quoted a statement by TRA Director-General Mohammed al-Ghanem as saying.

The UAE announced on Sunday that BlackBerry services including messenger, web browsing and email will be suspended because they "allow individuals to commit violations" that the country cannot monitor.

However, Ghanem added on Wednesday that "we remain open to discussions 50 that an acceptable, regulatory-compliant solution might be developed and applied," WAM reported.

In Saudi Arabia, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) announced early last week that it had ordered the kingdom's three mobile phone providers to block BlackBerry services from Friday for failing to conform with regulations.

If they fail to comply with CITC order, the companies will face a fine of 1.3 m dollars, one company official told AFP.

"We will also comply for security reasons," he added.

"There are big hopes in convincing" BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) "to provide Saudi Arabia with a local server," he said, adding the three companies met RIM and that more meetings would follow.

However, each of the three has its own alternative plan in case negotiations with the Canadian BlackBerry manufacturer fail, he said, without elaborating.

The CITC said it had given the providers a notice period to get RIM to "meet the regulatory demands," and that it had warned those companies over a year ago about the need to address the issue.

The services will be banned until its demands are met, the commission added, without specifying conditions.

Du, one of the UAE's two major telecom providers, announced options for BlackBerry users who had subscribed on or before August 1, including signing a contract for a year and receiving a new, non-BlackBerry smartphone.

The country's main provider, Etisalat, announced similar options.

BlackBerry's encrypted emails and data are stored on servers in Canada, which means that third parties such as security agencies cannot monitor communications sent and received on the handset.

Courtesy AFP

Google drops Wave due to lack of users

Silicon Valley Cannot play media. You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version Rory Cellan-Jones talks to the developers of Google Wave in 2009 Google is waving goodbye to Wave, a product which the company said would transform the way people communicate online.It blamed poor take-up by users of the service, which was launched to great fanfare just one year ago.

At the time Google described the tool as "how e-mail would look if it were invented today".

It combined e-mail, instant messaging and features that allowed people to collaborate on documents in real-time. Users could see edits and comments written by other "Wavers" as they were typed. Related stories * Google invites users to join Wave * Google unveils new social network "Wave has not seen the adoption we would have liked," said Urs Holzle of the firm in a blog post."We don't plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects." The product was created by two brothers Jens and Lars Rasmussen, who were also behind Google Maps. 'Clever product' Last year Lars Rasmussen acknowledged to BBC News that the success of the platform depended on how many people were willing to join and use the too. BBC News,