NTC to raise fines on spam text messages

By Darwin G. Amojelar, Manila Times

THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) plans to impose higher fines to eliminate spam text messages.

Spam messages are unsolicited and unwanted commercial and promotional advertisements and surveys.

Ruel V. Canobas, NTC chief, said from 2005 to 2007 the agency has received 256 and 823 written and phoned-in complaints, adding that 16 administrative cases had been filed.

The NTC chief said under existing laws, the regulator can only impose a maximum of P200 per day until the violation is corrected. “The fine is very low,” he said.

Last year, the regulator had penalized Globe Telecom Inc. and its content providers Information Gateway Inc. and Paysetter International Inc., as well as Smart Communications Inc. and Entrainment Gateway Group for violation of rules and regulations on spam, as provided for in Memorandum Circular 03-03-2005-A.

Under the circular, telecom companies and content providers with more than 50 violations shall be fined P200 for every violation and will suffer cancellation of their provisional authority or certificate of public convenience or registration.

Companies found with 20 to 50 violations shall be fined P200 for every violation, and their licenses and permits canceled.

Telcos with violations of 20 or less will pay P200 for every violation.

The rules also prohibit the broadcast of messages between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., except for paid subscription services.

The NTC also bars telcos from charging subscribers or recipients of broadcast or push messages

SBMA TELECOM & ICT LOCATORS

ADVANCED POWER COMPONENTS (PHILS.), INC.
ACES PHILIPPINES CELLULAR CORP.
ACTIVE ALLIANCE, INC.
CHAN SOONG INT’L (SUBIC), INC.
CNP WORLDWIDE, INC.
COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANCY GROUP, INC.
COMOSS ELECTRONICS PHILS. CORP.
COMTEQ COMPUTER & BUSINESS COLLEGE
EAGLE COMTRONICS (PHILS.), INC.
EASTERN TELECOMMUNICATION PHILS., INC.
E-SPIRIT SOLUTIONS, INC.
FREEPORT CABLE, INC.
INFOCOM TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
IDESS INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY, INC.
KOUSHIN MFG. PHILS., INC.
MABUHAY PHILS. SATELLITE CORP.
MICROSHOP SUBIC, INC.
MOMENTUM DATA EAST-PHILS., INC.
NICERA PJILS., INC.
NIDEC SUBIC PHILS. CORP.
PRINTING IMAGES COAST TO COAST., INC.
PHILIPPINE INTER ELECTRONICS CORP.
PIOL, INC.
PRISM LINK INTERNET Café
SOCIETE INTERNATIONALE DE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AERONAUTIQUES
SUBIC BAY SATELLITE SYSTEMS, INC.
SUBIC WORX, INC.
SANRITSU TECHNOLOGY SUBIC, INC.
SANYO DENKI PHILS., INC.
SINAG PRECISION FABRICATORS, INC.
SUBIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS CO., INC.
TOP MECHATRONICS CORP.
TAO HANG CORP.
WILLIAMS ADVANCED MATERIALS FAR EAST PTE. LTD. PHIL. BRANCH
WINCROSS INFORMTECH LIMITED
WISTRON INFOCOMM (PHILS.) CORP.
YI-PHONE, INC.

Open Source developer to bankroll ‘Pinoy’ startups

AN Open Source developer house put up by a “balikbayan” technopreneur shall bankroll this year 20 to 30 startups to be established by Filipinos seeking global markets for SaaS, or “software as a service” applications.

The company is called Morph Labs, with Winston Damarillo as its chairman. In 2005, IBM Corp. had purchased the Los Angeles-based Gluecode, also an Open Source applications vendor firm he had earlier founded.

Morph Labs currently does its R&D work in Cebu City through the Morph Application platform it had released only in February. Running on Open Source, this is a developer tool for SaaS applications that also maximize the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Damarillo announced their company’s planned entry into venture capital funding at a recent press briefing at the Shangri-La Manila Hotel in Makati City. He said the startups would receive $100,000 to $200,000 each in funding, with priority going to developers of e-health, e-learning and e-government programs running on the Morph Applications platform.

Responding to a question by Tech Times, Damarillo said bankrolling of the startups would not be acts of philantrophy. Instead, they would be acts of enlightened self-interest and investments into the creation of future opportunities as done today by many vendors in the global IT community such as Intel Corp.

According to him, bankrolling the startups would jumpstart the building of a Morph Applications ecosystem in Asia with the Philippines as base area. This ecosystem would consist of developers, users and other venture capitalists, as well as other possible stakeholders.

The intent to build this ecosystem is the reason behind its launch of the Morph Code Challenge, a series of events starting this March 29 and ending May 3, according to Damarillo.

Phase One would be a one-day workshop to be conducted by experts on how to establish and manage a startup. This happens on March 29 at the Ateneo de Manila University and would be free to all who are interested.

Phase Two would be the pitching by interested workshop attendees of technology venture proposals using the Morph Applications platform. These proposals would be “elevator pitches,” three- to four-minute presentations before a panel of technology business experts.

The second phase would take place on April 5 also at the Ateneo.

Phase Three, a “by invitation only” event would be on May 3 at the Shangri-La Manila Hotel in Makati City with many of the invitees having good chances to receive Morph Labs venture capital funding. Damarillo said that the very best among the presenters, as chosen by a panel of judges, would definitely be bankrolled for two years’ operations and
also mentored by their company.

Damarillo told reporters that only proposals for “disruptive technologies,” revolutionary applications that radically change the ways individuals and organizations conduct their activities would be considered for venture capital funding.
SaaS is a technology concept that offers use of software to users in a manner similar to that by electrical power and utility companies offering their services to their customers. This concept is done through the Internet with pricing on a per use basis.

On the other hand, Web 2.0 refers to the online social networks spawned by the Internet along with the social, economic, political, and other cultural changes brought about in their wake. The changes have been brought about by the fact that these networks enable all participants to simultaneously be sharers, users, and creators of information.

Some examples of the Web 2.0 phenomenon would be Friendster, Amazon.com, and Wikipedia.

The IT market research firm, Gartner Corp. has projected the global SaaS applications market to be worth $12 billion in 2012 as against its estimate of $6.5 billion in 2007. By Ike Suarez - Manila Times

Japan to strip Internet for illegal downloaders--report

Agence France-Presse

TOKYO -- Japanese companies plan to cut off the Internet connection of anyone who illegally downloads files in one of the world's toughest measures against online piracy, a report said Saturday.

Faced with mounting complaints from the music, movie and video-game industries, four associations representing Japan's Internet service providers have agreed to take drastic action, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said service providers would send e-mails to people who repeatedly made illegal copies and terminate their connections if they did not stop.

The Internet companies will set up a panel next month involving groups representing copyright holders to draft the new guidelines, the report said.

Company and government officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the report Saturday.

The actions would be among the strictest in fighting online piracy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy late last year outlined similar measures to disconnect Internet users who flagrantly violated copyright laws.

But for the most part, illegal downloading is being addressed through litigation against individuals.

The music industry won a first-of-a-kind victory in a US court in October when a single mother in Minnesota was ordered to pay more than $220,000 for sharing 24 songs online.

The Yomiuri Shimbun estimated that 1.75 million people in Japan use file-sharing software, mostly to swap illegal copies.

One Internet service provider considered two years ago a plan to disconnect people who swap illegal files but dropped the plan after the government said it may violate the right to privacy, the Yomiuri said.

The best-known Japanese file-sharing software is called Winny, which allows users to swap games, movies and music online. It was developed by Isamu Kaneko, a young research assistant at the prestigious University of Tokyo who has become an Internet icon.

But in 2006 he was fined 1.5 million yen ($15,000), although he was spared jail.