Quotes of the Week - 26 November 2010

This week the ICO used its power to fine organisations for breaching the Data Protection Act, and SAP was ordered to pay Oracle $1.3bn

"These first monetary penalties send a strong message to all organisations handling personal information. Get it wrong and you do substantial harm to the reputation of your business. You could also be fined up to half a million pounds."

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham sends out a warning to organisations after using the ICO's new fining powers for the first time, charging Hertfordshire County Council £100,000 and employment services company A4e £60,000.

"The software industry is premised on IP, yet many software companies, even quite sophisticated ones, haven't tightened up the way that they treat other people's IP and how their own products are treated in the market."

Thomas Otter, lead analyst on SAP at research firm Gartner says that technology companies need to learn lessons from the Oracle/SAP US copyright infringement trial and prioritise intellectual property.

"The measures announced will do little to prevent employers from abusing the system, and manipulating tax and accommodation allowances to undercut UK resident workers."

Unite national officer Peter Skyte reacts angrily to the government's decision to insert an exemption to its immigration rules for skilled workers earning at least £40,000 who move to the UK through company transfers.

"This resolution is a political statement from the parliament, and is very worrying for advocates of civil liberties; MEPs needs to be made aware of how this legislation would limit innovation and put the rights of corporations above those of ordinary citizens [before the agreement is passed]. Now is the time to lobby your MEPs."

Jérémie Zimmermann, a member of La Quadrature du Net, warns of the dangers that ACTA legislation poses and urges businesses to take action immediately.

"Having achieved what I set out to achieve it is time for me to get out of the way and allow fresh thinking and impetus to drive forward the strategy."

A reflective John Suffolk looks back at his time as government CIO.

"How many films were made about IT in the past? None. But The Social Network has taken IT into Hollywood. Coupled with films where CGI graphics and 3D technology are relied on heavily, which require knowledge of IT, jobs in IT are being seen as more sexy."

Richard Nott, director of recruitment web site CWJobs, claims that Hollywood, along with high profile figures such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, are redefining society's perception of IT.

"Six hours' battery life under a mix of light and heavy workloads is pretty good, and the ability to put the system to sleep by just shutting the lid, and have it up and running on opening the lid in just five seconds is extremely useful."

Resident expert Dave Bailey gives his verdict on Apple's MacBook Air.

Reader comments

Matt Scott, solutions architect and Computing reader, supports Dale Vine's blog post about why mainframes are not utilised more broadly in large organisations that have them as part of their IT infrastructure.

"I agree with Dale [Vile], businesses do under-value and under-utilise their mainframe estates. As a "relatively" young IT professional I have observed many businesses are totally oblivious of the technical capabilities of the modern mainframe environment. I still visit customers that insist it is only a batch environment which must be taken down weekly for maintenance."

One angry reader, Karla, is vehemently opposed to the ACTA legislation and chose to vent his spleen in our comments section.

"Fact: China, where almost everything is being copied, is politely being asked to join because nobody has the guts to force them [to do] anything. President Obama, you little girl, where are thy now?"

Juliet_msc is not convinced that the ICO's first fines were proportionate and targeted at the right organisations.

"Whilst it is disappointing that Google was not fined as the offence occurred before the ICO could implement stronger penalties, to hear of local councils receiving large fines is also concerning for the public. A balance surely needs to be struck, potentially basing the fine not only on the size of the breach, but also of the organisation at fault. It remains to be seen how much these fines will act as a deterrent."

Two of our readers, Bill and Kevin Williams, are worried that reliance on staff brought in from overseas is doing damage to the UK's IT industry.

Bill says:
"They have now announced that the number of Tier 2 visas have actually been increased by 7,000 and so expect even greater downward pressure on IT salaries as Infosys, Wipro, Tata et al bring in even more workers."

Kevin Williams says:
"It appears that Cameron has done a deal with the Indian government. The simple fact of the matter is that the intra-company transfers are used to bring in low cost project managers, development leads and software programmers to the UK. The large system integrators (we all know who they are) business models depend on this and can charge clients lower fees. This unfairly competes with the small business and freelance contractor market in the UK."