Internet Service Providers Liability in Spain

The article focuses on the current situation of Spanish case law on ISP liability. It starts by presenting the more salient peculiarities of the Spanish transposition of the safe harbours laid down in the E-Commerce Directive. These peculiarities relate to the knowledge requirement of the hosting safe harbour, and to the safe harbour for information location tools. The article then provides an overview of the cases decided so far with regard to each of the safe harbours. Very few cases have dealt with the mere conduit and the caching safe harbours, though the latter was discussed in an interesting case involving Google’s cache. Most cases relate to hosting and linking safe harbours. With regard to hosting, the article focuses particularly on the two judgments handed down by the Supreme Court that hold an open interpretation of actual knowledge, an issue where courts had so far been split. Cases involving the linking safe harbour have mainly dealt with websites offering P2P download links. Accordingly, the article explores the legal actions brought against these sites, which for the moment have been unsuccessful. The new legislative initiative to fight against digital piracy – the Sustainable Economy Bill – is also analyzed. After the conclusion, the article provides an Annex listing the cases that have dealt with ISP liability in Spain since the safe harbours scheme was transposed into Spanish law.

Spanish Supreme Court Rules in Favour of Google Search Engine... and a Flexible Reading of Copyright Statutes?

On 3 April 2012, the Spanish Supreme Court issued a major ruling in favour of the Google search engine, including its ‘cache copy’ service: Sentencia n.172/2012, of 3 April 2012, Supreme Court, Civil Chamber.* The importance of this ruling lies not so much in the circumstances of the case (the Supreme Court was clearly disgusted by the claimant’s ‘maximalist’ petitum to shut down the whole operation of the search engine), but rather on the court going beyond the text of the Copyright Act into the general principles of the law and case law, and especially on the reading of the three-step test (in Art. 40bis TRLPI) in a positive sense so as to include all these principles. After accepting that none of the limitations listed in the Spanish Copyright statute (TRLPI) exempted the unauthorized use of fragments of the contents of a personal website through the Google search engine and cache copy service, the Supreme Court concluded against infringement, based on the grounds that the three-step test (in Art. 40bis TRLPI) is to be read not only in a negative manner but also in a positive sense so as to take into account that intellectual property – as any other kind of property – is limited in nature and must endure any ius usus inocui (harmless uses by third parties) and must abide to the general principles of the law, such as good faith and prohibition of an abusive exercise of rights (Art. 7 Spanish Civil Code).The ruling is a major success in favour of a flexible interpretation and application of the copyright statutes, especially in the scenarios raised by new technologies and market agents, and in favour of using the three-step test as a key tool to allow for it.

La collecte de l'eau: directives pour de bonnes pratiques

La collecte de l’eau est réalisée avec succès depuis des millénaires dans les régions du monde entier – certaines interventions récentes ont également eu un impact local significatif. Pourtant, le potentiel de cette technique reste largement inconnu, non reconnu et non apprécié. Il est temps de transposer à plus grande échelle les « bonnes pratiques » de collecte de l’eau, celles qui ont survécu au temps ou qui ont émergé des nouvelles expériences, après des décennies de focalisation presque exclusive sur la maîtrise des flux d’eau douce dans les rivières et les lacs grâce à des investissements dans des infrastructures d’irrigation.La collecte de l’eau offre des opportunités sous-exploitées pour les systèmes principalement d’exploitation pluviale des zones arides dans le monde en développement. Celle-ci fonctionne mieux précisément dans les zones où la pauvreté rurale est la pire. Quand elle est bien réalisée, son impact est à la fois de réduire la faim et de lutter contre la pauvreté, tout en améliorant la résilience de l’environnement. Ces connaissances sur les technologies de collecte d’eau et sur les milieux dans lesquels elles ont tendance à donner de meilleurs résultats, représentent une véritable richesse cachée. Pour la première fois, ces connaissances sont traitées, rassemblées et rendues disponibles à travers un tel outil organisé, illustré et instructif reliant les technologies aux réseaux des connaissances, outil qui servira aux utilisateurs présumés de ces directives pratiques pour mieux comprendre et mettre en oeuvre leurs choix

Experiences with OpenMP in tmLQCD

An overview is given of the lessons learned from the introduction of multi-threading using OpenMP in tmLQCD. In particular, programming style, performance measurements, cache misses, scaling, thread distribution for hybrid codes, race conditions, the overlapping of communication and computation and the measurement and reduction of certain overheads are discussed. Performance measurements and sampling profiles are given for different implementations of the hopping matrix computational kernel.

Persistent Caching in Information-Centric Networks

Information-centric networking (ICN) is a new communication paradigm that aims at increasing security and efficiency of content delivery in communication networks. In recent years, many research efforts in ICN have focused on caching strategies to reduce traffic and increase overall performance by decreasing download times. Since caches need to operate at line speed, they have only a limited size and content can only be stored for a short time. However, if content needs to be available for a longer time, e.g., for delay-tolerant networking or to provide high content availability similar to content delivery networks (CDNs), persistent caching is required. We base our work on the Content-Centric Networking (CCN) architecture and investigate persistent caching by extending the current repository implementation in CCNx. We show by extensive evaluations in a YouTube and webserver traffic scenario that repositories can be efficiently used to increase content availability by significantly increasing cache hit rates.

Persistent Caching in Information-Centric Networking

Information-centric networking (ICN) is a new communication paradigm that aims at increasing security and efficiency of content delivery in communication networks. In recent years, many research efforts in ICN have focused on caching strategies to reduce traffic and increase overall performance by decreasing download times. Since caches need to operate at line-speed, they have only a limited size and content can only be stored for a short time. However, if content needs to be available for a longer time, e.g., for delay-tolerant networking or to provide high content availability similar to content delivery networks (CDNs), persistent caching is required. We base our work on the Content-Centric Networking (CCN) architecture and investigate persistent caching by extending the current repository implementation in CCNx. We show by extensive evaluations in a YouTube and webserver traffic scenario that repositories can be efficiently used to increase content availability by significantly increasing the cache hit rates.

Removing superfluous versions in polyvariant specialization of prolog programs.

Polyvariant specialization allows generating múltiple versions of a procedure, which can then be separately optimized for different uses. Since allowing a high degree of polyvariance often results in more optimized code, polyvariant specializers, such as most partial evaluators, can genérate a large number of versions. This can produce unnecessarily large residual programs. Also, large programs can be slower due to cache miss effects. A possible solution to this problem is to introduce a minimization step which identifies sets of equivalent versions, and replace all occurrences of such versions by a single one. In this work we present a unifying view of the problem of superfluous polyvariance. It includes both partial deduction and abstract múltiple specialization. As regards partial deduction, we extend existing approaches in several ways. First, previous work has dealt with puré logic programs and a very limited class of builtins. Herein we propose an extensión to traditional characteristic trees which can be used in the presence of calis to external predicates. This includes all builtins, librarles, other user modules, etc. Second, we propose the possibility of collapsing versions which are not strictly equivalent. This allows trading time for space and can be useful in the context of embedded and pervasive systems. This is done by residualizing certain computations for external predicates which would otherwise be performed at specialization time. Third, we provide an experimental evaluation of the potential gains achievable using minimization which leads to interesting conclusions.

Memory performance of and-parallel prolog on shared-memory architectures

The goal of the RAP-WAM AND-parallel Prolog abstract architecture is to provide inference speeds significantly beyond those of sequential systems, while supporting Prolog semantics and preserving sequential performance and storage efficiency. This paper presents simulation results supporting these claims with special emphasis on memory performance on a two-level sharedmemory multiprocessor organization. Several solutions to the cache coherency problem are analyzed. It is shown that RAP-WAM offers good locality and storage efficiency and that it can effectively take advantage of broadcast caches. It is argued that speeds in excess of 2 ML IPS on real applications exhibiting medium parallelism can be attained with current technology.

Mesh traversal and sorting for efficient memory usage in scientific codes

Applications that operate on meshes are very popular in High Performance Computing (HPC) environments. In the past, many techniques have been developed in order to optimize the memory accesses for these datasets. Different loop transformations and domain decompositions are com- monly used for structured meshes. However, unstructured grids are more challenging. The memory accesses, based on the mesh connectivity, do not map well to the usual lin- ear memory model. This work presents a method to improve the memory performance which is suitable for HPC codes that operate on meshes. We develop a method to adjust the sequence in which the data are used inside the algorithm, by means of traversing and sorting the mesh. This sorted mesh can be transferred sequentially to the lower memory levels and allows for minimum data transfer requirements. The method also reduces the lower memory requirements dra- matically: up to 63% of the L1 cache misses are removed in a traditional cache system. We have obtained speedups of up to 2.58 on memory operations as measured in a general- purpose CPU. An improvement is also observed with se- quential access memories, where we have observed reduc- tions of up to 99% in the required low-level memory size.

Sistemas web con alta disponibilidad en cloud

Este trabajo contiene el estudio de las tecnologías que se están usando actualmente en web, tratando de explicar cuáles son sus principales componentes, su objetivo y funcionamiento. En base a un supuesto teórico de un montaje para un servicio web con un número muy alto de usuarios, y basándose en las tecnologías estudiadas, se propone un posible montaje completo de un sistema, que sería capaz de gestionar correctamente todas las peticiones, evitando fallos y tiempos de indisponibilidad. Se a~nade un análisis teórico de los costes deribados de la implantación del sistema, comparándolo con un sistema web convencional, y otro análisis con el funcionamiento de una caché y los benéficos, en carga, derivados de su uso.---ABSTRACT---This work contains a study about new web technologies. Its objective is to explain the web technologies componentes with their particular usage and performance. Based on a theorical postulation about a preparation of a web service with a large number of users, and working with the studied technologies, a complete system assembling is proposed. This system will be able to attend all the incoming requests, without failures nor downtimes. It is attached a theorical study of the derivative costs associated to the system implementation, compared to a traditional one. In addition, another study is included with the work ow of a cache and the benefits derived of its usage in work terms.

AS INOVAÇÕES TECNOLÓGICAS E OS INTERMEDIÁRIOS DA PRODUÇÃO E DO ACESSO À INFORMAÇÃO JORNALÍSTICA

O jornalismo é um dos principais meios de oferta de temas para a discussão e formação da opinião pública, porém depende de um sistema técnico para ser transmitido. Durante mais de cem anos as informações produzidas pela imprensa foram emitidas, armazenadas, transmitidas e recebidas pelos chamados veículos de comunicação de massa que utilizam a rede centralizada cujas características estão na escassez material, produção em série e massificação. Esse sistema separa no tempo e no espaço emissores e receptores criando uma relação desigual de força em que as grandes empresas controlaram o fluxo informativo, definindo quais fatos seriam veiculados como notícia. Em 1995, a internet cuja informação circula sob a tecnologia da rede distribuída, foi apropriada pela sociedade, alterando a forma de produção, armazenamento e transmissão de informação. A tecnologia despertou a esperança de que esta ferramenta poderia proporcionar uma comunicação mais dialógica e democrática. Mas aos poucos pode-se perceber novas empresas se apropriando da tecnologia da rede distribuída sob a qual circula a internet, gerando um novo controle do fluxo informativo. Realizou-se nessa pesquisa um levantamento bibliográfico para estabelecer uma reflexão crítica dos diferentes intermediários entre fato e a notícia tanto da rede centralizada como na rede distribuída, objetivando despertar uma discussão que possa oferecer novas ideias para políticas, bem como alternativas para uma comunicação mais democrática e mais libertária.

Um método de otimização da relação desempenho/consumo de energia para arquiteturas multi-cores heterogêneas em FPGA

Devido às tendências de crescimento da quantidade de dados processados e a crescente necessidade por computação de alto desempenho, mudanças significativas estão acontecendo no projeto de arquiteturas de computadores. Com isso, tem-se migrado do paradigma sequencial para o paralelo, com centenas ou milhares de núcleos de processamento em um mesmo chip. Dentro desse contexto, o gerenciamento de energia torna-se cada vez mais importante, principalmente em sistemas embarcados, que geralmente são alimentados por baterias. De acordo com a Lei de Moore, o desempenho de um processador dobra a cada 18 meses, porém a capacidade das baterias dobra somente a cada 10 anos. Esta situação provoca uma enorme lacuna, que pode ser amenizada com a utilização de arquiteturas multi-cores heterogêneas. Um desafio fundamental que permanece em aberto para estas arquiteturas é realizar a integração entre desenvolvimento de código embarcado, escalonamento e hardware para gerenciamento de energia. O objetivo geral deste trabalho de doutorado é investigar técnicas para otimização da relação desempenho/consumo de energia em arquiteturas multi-cores heterogêneas single-ISA implementadas em FPGA. Nesse sentido, buscou-se por soluções que obtivessem o melhor desempenho possível a um consumo de energia ótimo. Isto foi feito por meio da combinação de mineração de dados para a análise de softwares baseados em threads aliadas às técnicas tradicionais para gerenciamento de energia, como way-shutdown dinâmico, e uma nova política de escalonamento heterogeneity-aware. Como principais contribuições pode-se citar a combinação de técnicas de gerenciamento de energia em diversos níveis como o nível do hardware, do escalonamento e da compilação; e uma política de escalonamento integrada com uma arquitetura multi-core heterogênea em relação ao tamanho da memória cache L1.

Herramienta de gestión de contadores hardware para Android

PMCTrack es una herramienta de código abierto para Linux que permite monitorizar el rendimiento de las aplicaciones haciendo uso de los contadores hardware del procesador. Esta herramienta soporta la captura de métricas como el número de instrucciones por ciclo o la tasa de fallos de cache. El objetivo de este proyecto es portar PMCTrack al sistema operativo Android sobre plataformas que integran procesadores de ARM. Esto conlleva la realización de las siguientes tareas: (1) modificación de la variante del kernel Linux propia de Android para incluir las extensiones requeridas por el módulo del kernel de PMCTrack, (2) adaptación de las herramientas de modo usuario de PMCTrack, y (3) desarrollo de una aplicación Android que permita visualizar en tiempo real las medidas de los contadores recabadas para las distintas aplicaciones que están siendo monitorizadas. Para poner a prueba la adaptación de la herramienta PMCTrack al sistema operativo Android y mostrar la utilidad de nuestras aportaciones, se han llevado a cabo diversos casos de estudio empleando la placa de desarrollo Odroid XU4.