Week in Review: Cerf on IPv6, Digital Economy Act wins review

Week in Review

Tax credits for IPv6?

The world is quickly running out of internet addresses. At an event this week, IT PRO was told the addresses available under IPv4 were likely to be allocated by Spring next year and run out by the summer.

This means IPv6 adoption is imperative and Vint Cerf, one of the key engineers in the invention of the internet and now vice president at Google, has joined the campaign to get people on board.

However, this week he didn't just campaign but offered a Government official advice on how to boost adoption, perhaps through the form of tax credits. The key, he claimed, was to offer business incentives' to get companies on board.

Will the Government listen to this tech legend?

ISPs win judicial review

The controversial Digital Economy Act has reared its ugly head again, but this time critics may be pleased to hear the legislation's name spoken.

This week saw a court not only listen to the complaints made by ISPs BT and TalkTalk around the flaws in the Act, but also grant a judicial review.

ISPs and privacy groups alike have celebrated the move as they claimed the original bill was pushed through too hastily in the "wash-up" period at the end of the last Government.

The battle is far from won yet though and to get the Act overturned will take further legislation.

Best of the rest

The ICO has been back in the news this week, as information commissioner Christopher Graham called for more post-legislative scrutiny' of privacy laws.

BT joined the business secretary Vince Cable on a trip to China in order to boost trade ties with between the UK and the Asian super power.

The first smartphone to be released by Palm since its acquisition by HP, the Palm Pre 2, launched in the UK this week.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.