Tag: House of Lords

House of Lords pushes for drone registration

Posted on March 5, 2015 by - News

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 14.50.27A European Union committee of the House of Lords is recommending that the EU make an online register of people who own drones.

It wants the EU to have a database aimed first at businesses and then individuals who own drones.

The committee wants drones to include software to prevent drones from certain areas using GPS coordinates to prevent them from flying near airports and the like.

But at the same time the committee doesn’t want drones to be over regulated, particularly as the industry will be responsible for over 150,000 jobs by the middle of the century.

There are already rules about flying drones in the UK. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rules that drones can’t be flown above 400 feet, and should be flown at least 164 feet away from vehicles, buildings and people. It’s also a rule that they can’t be used within 492 feet of a places where there are lots of people, such as a concert.

The committee also recommends that drone flights should be traceable.

 

Lords want end to online anonymity

Posted on August 1, 2014 by - News

house of lordsThe British House of Lords is gearing up for a campaign to remove online anonymity.

The Communications Committee of the House of Lords has now issued a report concerning “social media and criminal offenses” in which they basically recommend scrapping anonymity online.

What it wants is for web services to be required to collect real names at signup, but then could allow those users to do things pseudonymously or anonymously.

It means that their actions could then easily be traced back to a real person if the “powers that be” deemed it necessary.

The Lord’s report said it would be reasonable to require the operators of websites first to establish the identity of people opening accounts.

However it is also reasonable to allow people thereafter to use websites using pseudonyms or anonymously.

“There is little point in criminalising certain behaviour and at the same time legitimately making that same behaviour impossible to detect,” the Lord’s report said.

The report notes that the findings are “tentative” and that these recommendations might possibly “be an undesirably chilling step towards tyranny.” but they do not seem that concerned about it, or they would not have made the general recommendation in the first place.

If the scheme goes ahead it will mean that most people will be anonymous, but armed with a court order, or a warrant, the authorities, or libel lawyers can find out who you are.

Birt gets hosting job

Posted on December 2, 2013 by - News

BBC HQHost Europe Group said it has appointed Lord Birt of the BBC as its non-executive chairman.

Birt said that Host Europe, which has over a million customers, and offers cloud hosting  and managed hosting, is in a good position to act fast to the needs of its customers. “I am honoured to be invited to join such an industry leading team.”

Euro private equity firm Cinven bought the Group in July and wants to grow it to be the number one in Europe.  It has already bought two companies, Telefonica Germany Online Service and domainFactory.

Birt was the director general of the BBC between 1992 and 2000, and has held a number of other positions including chairman of Paypal Europe.

He is a cross bencher in the House of Lords.

Cinven partner David Barker said that his appointment chimes with rapid growth in the European hosting market. Barker claimed the Group is in a strong position to capitalise on the growth.