yes - that volvo story is interesting.=20
i phoned a number of big car and defence companies and they all seemed surp=
rised but intrigued by the prospect of camera phones being used for espiona=
ge and confirmed they would have to ban them
also ... at an MMS conference I attended yesterday most of the networks are=
now encouraging manufacturers to build embedded camera phones rather than =
attachable ones as they've found that the latter don't stimulate MMS at all
so it would seem there's a potential conflict.=20
Here's something I wrote on this for the newsletter Mobile Media
Camera-phone use clashes with
industrial espionage worries
Camera phones
The recent decision by Swedish car manufacturer Volvo to ban camera phones =
might be followed by many similar decisions. Fears of industrial espionage =
could force vendors to realign their handset strategies for the corporate m=
arket and might even affect the consumer market in some regions.
The ban is effective across all of the more secure zones across the Volvo =
automobile corporation, which em-ploys nearly 28,000 people. The se-cure zo=
nes cover the company's assembly plants and offices, effec-tively prohibiti=
ng all advanced phones in the major part of the com-pany. "
We don't have anything against the technology," says Volvo spokesman Christ=
er Gustafsson. "It's very nice technology, but it creates a little bit of a=
problem. For many, many years there has been a ban to bring cameras inside=
security areas. From the assembly line to the safety center to the design =
rooms - this in-cludes a large part of the company. Cameras are forbidden .=
.. so we had to ban the camera phones."=20
Volvo's owner, Ford, says the decision applies to Sweden alone, but it isn'=
t ruling out the possibility that the decision could extend to the entire g=
roup. Several other engineering and de-fense firms have confirmed to MM tha=
t, though not yet an issue, they will have to address camera phones.=20
Martin Brody, a spokesman for the defense arm of Rolls-Royce, reveals that =
the company hadn't considered the issue but would likely follow Vol-vo. "Ca=
meras are not allowed on our site, that's for sure," he says. "That's been =
company policy for many years. The assumption would be that if cameras are =
banned, then camera phones must be too."=20
Richard Coltart, a spokesman for UK defence giant BAE systems, concurs. "Th=
is will become an issue," he says. "Cameras are forbidden." Car manufacture=
rs MG Rover in the UK and BMW in Germany both ban the use of cameras and co=
nfirm they will by definition also look at banning camera phones. "There is=
not an official position, but if we in-stall a certain rule then we will a=
pply this also to the camera phone or video phone," says a BMW spokesman. "=
It's not enough to say you can have a camera phone but you can't use it."=
=20
Although the problem is not yet cause for serious concern for handset vendo=
rs, it appears to have at least reached the radar of Sony Ericsson. Peter B=
odor, the company's global PR manager, is aware of the Volvo decision and i=
s sensitive to enterprise requirements. "As a vendor, you have to accept an=
d respect their regulations," he says. "When we look at segmentation [of th=
e product market], we see there are customers who don't want to have the ca=
mera built into the phone."=20
Nokia, however, says enterprises will have to adapt. "We are fully aware th=
at there is some limited con-cern, but these things happen quite often with=
new technology," claims Mika Setala, Nokia imaging phones' marketing manag=
er. Setala claims that companies will have to accept that camera function-a=
lity is an inevitable part of handset development. Similarly, operators are=
unper-turbed. "This is definitely not an is-sue," says Orange spokesman Be=
n Rosier. "We have a policy on respon-sible use. ... That is enough."=20
Yet at Volvo, the message is clear. "We don't allow anyone in the com-pany =
to have a camera phone," says Gustafsson. "If a phone becomes available wit=
h a camera, we cannot have it in the company." The com-pany would not consi=
der taking on a corporate contract for a handset that included a camera.=20
Although Volvo's decision on its own is not disastrous, if more com-panies =
follow its lead, operators and vendors will have to adapt their cor-porate =
strategies. T-Mobile, for ex-ample, has a number of core handset models for=
the enterprise sector. Many of Nokia Series 60 handsets and the Sony Erics=
son P800 have cameras embedded in them.=20
According to Peter Bancroft, Sym-bian's vice president of communica-tions, =
there will have to be a considerable amount of resistance to cameras in pho=
nes before any will be removed, however. "The imaging functionality is a pa=
rt of the operat-ing system," he explains. "[Creating] advanced phones requ=
ires a substan-tial investment of millions. The like-lihood is that the man=
ufacturer will build in the [camera] capability rather than build it out on=
the off chance that companies might not like it until they have prima faci=
e ev-idence to the contrary."=20
That certainly seems to be Nokia's view. "In the near future, cameras will =
be by default a feature of all mo-bile phones - like SMS," Setala says. He =
says companies will drop their objections to the camera functional-ity once=
they realize what else the phone can do. "Access to e-mail, web browsing, =
access to the company database - these are all things that companies want,"=
he claims. "The benefits of these will override [any objection to] the cam=
era feature."=20
Sony Ericsson appears to be mak-ing some concessions to user re-quirements.=
"The camera is a private thing," Bodor says. "We're just start-ing to see =
how it's being used in the business market." He says that many corporate us=
ers might prefer to have Bluetooth functionality without the built-in camer=
a. "The P800 is not going to suffer," he says. "We defi-nitely don't regret=
embedding a cam-era." He concedes, however, that there will be reason to c=
onsider vari-eties in the future. "Going forward, there will be a demand fo=
r phones without the camera," he says.
steve.mayall@informa.com
> ----------
> From: Bastian Colpaert
> Reply To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
> Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2003 16:43 PM
> To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
> Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Digital Shoplifting
>=20
>=20
> Hello,
>=20
> let us not forget that phones equiped with a camera are an easy way to st=
eal
> company secrets.
>=20
> I read in a dutch newspaper, that employees of Volvo are not allowed to h=
ave
> phones equiped with a camera. Volvo is affraid that it's personel will st=
eal
> dellicate production processes.
>=20
> Bastian
>=20
> ----- Original Message -----=20
> From: "EGIS Tokyo" <hoffmann@egis.co.jp>
> To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 2:57 PM
> Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Digigal Shoplifting
>=20
>=20
> >
> > Mika,
> >
> > I find it funny too. On the other hand, some of the practices they
> describe
> > in the article are certainly a problem for publishers who live from
> selling
> > their print products (and are often doing poor already).
> >
> > Its a difference (commercially) whether a girl takes a pictures at a
> bakery
> > store to send it to her boyfriend to decide which bread to buy (=3D
> potential
> > increased sales plus free promo for the bakery) or if a girl takes a
> picture
> > from a magazine page promoting a restaurant where she wants to go with =
her
> > hubby (the magazine publisher/book store has lost the potential sale of
> the
> > magazine copy).
> >
> > Not too far in the future, book stores and convenience stores may charge
> > consumers some kind of a flat "all you can shoot" fee upon entering the=
ir
> > premises ;-) On the other side, bakery stores may give you a discount if
> you
> > send a nice picture of their merchandise to your friends ("Refer a frie=
nd>=20
> > campaign").
> >
> > Another trend I heard about last summer is that schoolgirls love to take
> > pictures of their favorite singer/band/celebrity from magazine pages (or
> > where ever they find them I guess) and then share the pic among friends=
by
> > email as their keitai wallpaper. One girl said this is one of her favor=
ite
> > usages of the camera function on her phone, and also the main item she
> sends
> > to her friends by mobile email.
> >
> > Now, isn't this similar to someone copying pictures from someone else's
> > website and putting them on their own site without paying anything and
> > without telling the owner? On the other side, in some creative areas ma=
ybe
> > copying and quoting other artists is not only allowed but also encourag=
ed
> > within accepted rules (techno DJ culture?). After all, only the good on=
es
> > get copied ;-)
> >
> > Generally, there is a blurry line between creative usage and quotation =
of
> > existing artistic achievements, and plagiates or "shoplifting" other
> > people's work. Of course, the best option is always to simply ask the
> > creator for permission to use their work. In most cases this works fine
> for
> > non-commercial usage at least.
> >
> > Back to the girl with her bakery shop and the restaurant promo. She will
> > probably use both for private means only, and not try to resell those
> > pictures (or does somebody know of successful digital shoplifting with
> > mobile phone cameras for commecrial purposes?). Therefore, as the artic=
le
> > indicates, it might be difficult to restrict people from taking and usi=
ng
> > pictures of the merchandise they see.
> >
> > Andrea
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mika Tuupola" <tuupola@appelsiini.net>
> > To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
> > Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 9:27 PM
> > Subject: (keitai-l) Digigal Shoplifting
> >
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3031716.stm
> > >
> > > "Japanese bookstores are set to launch a national campaign to
> > > stop so-called "digital shoplifting" by customers using the
> > > lastest camera-equipped mobile phones.
> > >
> > > The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association says the practice
> > > is "information theft" and it wants it stopped."
> > >
> > >
> > > In a way. Quite funny. Then again it might be a cultural
> > > difference that I fing this funny :)
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Mika Tuupola http://www.appelsiini.net/~tuupola/
> > >
> > >
> > > This mail was sent to address anima@gmx.de
> > > Need archives? How to unsubscribe? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/
> >
> >
> > This mail was sent to address bcolpaert@chello.nl
> > Need archives? How to unsubscribe? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/
> >
>=20
>=20
>=20
> This mail was sent to address Steve.Mayall@informa.com
> Need archives? How to unsubscribe? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
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Received on Thu Jul 3 20:09:15 2003