Tom Young, Computing, Wednesday 28 January 2009 at 12:30:00

Train drivers should have digital communcations by 2013 as Network Rail programme moves ahead

Network Rail's much-delayed £1.2bn driver communication system moved a step closer today as the company announced that it will fit digital radios in most trains over the next three years.

The Global System for Mobile Communications – Railways (GSM-R) project was established in 2003 to create secure voice and data links between train drivers and signallers.

It was originally expected to be up and running by 2008, but budget constraints and technical issues have pushed the deadline back to 2013.

Extensive testing of the radios on railways near Strathclyde has proved successful over the past year, and the first batch of new radios will be delivered to Network Rail in July this year.

"This new system will be up and running within five years and will make our railway even safer," said Jon Wiseman, Network Rail's director for the communications programme.

"Extensive testing is also beginning to show real performance benefits that will improve train services for passengers and freight users."

DB Schenker, First Great Western, London Midland and Virgin Trains will be some of the first train operating companies to use the new technology.

"We welcome the large order for GSM-R train radios to a specification developed in close consultation with train operators," said Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies.

GSM-R relies on the GSM mobile phone network, a technology already seen as outdated in the consumer mobile phone market.

Gareth Morgan, Computing, Wednesday 28 January 2009 at 12:32:00

Nine-month prison sentence and £2.5m fine for illegal importer of Microsoft products

Manchester-based reseller ITAC has been fined £2.5m for infringing software giant Microsoft's intellectual property rights, and its owner sentenced to nine months in prison.

The High Court found ITAC owner Barry Omesuh in contempt of court, and he was given seven custodial sentences to run concurrently. The longest of these was for nine months.

He was also fined £2.5m, part of which will be recouped by the sale of his Spanish holiday home.

Microsoft has been pursuing ITAC since 2004, and has won several legal cases against the reseller for parallel importing – the importing of goods through channels not authorised by the manufacturer. In this instance, ITAC was importing software from a distributor in the Middle East.

"We want to make sure that retailers caught cheating the system are held accountable for their damaging actions," said Graham Arthur, anti-piracy attorney at Microsoft UK, in a statement.

Microsoft won its first case against ITAC in February 2006. It won further cases in September 2008. In March of that year, Microsoft obtained a Court Order freezing Omesuh's assets and ordering him to tell Microsoft where they were.

In the latest case, the High Court found that Omesuh had misled the court about the value of assets he owned, ruling that he was in contempt of court.

"The defendant was a wholly unreliable witness who on his own admission told a number of bare-faced lies about relevant matters over a period of time," said Mrs Justice Proudman, the presiding judge.

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