Archive for December, 2006
Friday, December 29th, 2006
After months in front of a deadlocked FCC, AT&T has a green light to swallow BellSouth (pdf). The new company will control "more than half the telephone and Internet access lines in the U.S."
The merger likely would have sailed through on the strength of the FCC's 3-2 Republican majority, but ...
Posted in Antitrust, FCC, Internet policy, Media consolidation, Network neutrality, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »
Thursday, December 21st, 2006
The FCC is intent on making it easier to get into the cable television business.
The Commission has ordered franchising authorities at the state and local level to lower the requirements placed on new franchisees. Additionally, the Commission served notice on a new rulemaking to decide how these new rules apply ...
Posted in FCC, Network neutrality, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »
Thursday, December 21st, 2006
The company has already settled and begun paying in Texas and California, but Sony still has other legal problems ahead.
The company has agreed to $1.5 million in fines and cash settlements with customers in the two biggest states. A consortium of 13 other states are looking for a similar deal. ...
Posted in Copyright, DRM, Technological Protection Measures | No Comments »
Sunday, December 17th, 2006
In a potential win-win, T-Mobile is in the trial phase of a service that allows users to make cell calls from wifi hotspots. As with dual mode digital/analog phones, users could mooch wifi where available and use cell towers when there's no wifi connection--all during the same call.
This would substantially ...
Posted in Telecommunications | No Comments »
Sunday, December 17th, 2006
A Japanese district court has convicted a programmer of "enabling copyright infringement" merely for developing and releasing free peer-to-peer software.
Isamu Kaneko, the 36-year programmer, developed Winny, P2P software that helps preserve the online anonymity of its users. He didn't charge for the software or profit from it (ala Grokster), but ...
Posted in Copyright, Internet policy | No Comments »
Friday, December 15th, 2006
As reported by CNet, the Justice Department on Thursday denied allegations that it gave approval after a stacked-deck hearing.
Posted in Antitrust, Media consolidation | No Comments »
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
The Future of Music Coalition has released a report damning the social and economic impact of consolidation in the radio industry. Key findings include:
Just fifteen formats make up three-quarters of all commercial programming. Moreover, radio formats with different names can overlap up to 80% in terms of the songs ...
Posted in Media consolidation | No Comments »
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
Senator Patrick Leahy, the (presumptive) incoming chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is promising reforms that will increase privacy and reform patents.
Among key privacy reforms, he is seeking tighter supervision of government databanks, action on data leaks and identity theft, and (the shock!) warrants as a prerequisite to surveillance of ...
Posted in Congress, Privacy, Surveillance | No Comments »
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
Federal prosecutors have issued a grand jury subpoena to the ACLU that demands "any and all copies" of a classified document emailed to the group in September.
This represents an unprecedented attempt to use a subpoena as a prior restraint on publication of the information. Subpoenas are an investigatory tool, not ...
Posted in Constitutional | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 12th, 2006
At MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium Weblog, Jason Mittell and Joel Greenberg have an interesting conversation going about copyright and Fair Use. With regard to media industries' resistance to allow educators to teach about Fair Use, Mittell asks: "Why would the industry want to restrict educational practices that primarily teach students ...
Posted in Copyright | No Comments »