conflux
The Globe and Mail
ISPs free from paying royalties
"The court decided 9-0 that companies providing access to the web, are merely "intermediaries" in the downloading process and are therefore not bound by federal copyright legislation.
"This sounds like a big victory for the ISPs, who had been arguing loudly not be held responsible for delivering content that is not their own," Michael Geist, a legal professor at Ottawa University and one of the country's top authorities on digital copyright issues, told globeandmail.com."
redux [05.25.04]
"A U.S. music industry group says it has sued 493 more people for copyright infringement as part of its campaign to stop consumers from copying music over the Internet.
The Recording Industry Association of America has now sued nearly 3,000 individuals since last September in an attempt to discourage people from copying songs through peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and LimeWire."
redux [04.29.04]
"The US recording industry has sued a further 477 people for online copyright infringement as part of its effort to stop music piracy."
"Wednesday's action was directed at file sharers using commercial internet service providers (ISPs) as well as people at universities such as Brown, Emory and Princeton."
redux [03.30.04]
"For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.
"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing.""
redux [08.19.03]
""RIAA is in no way targeting 'de minimis' users," wrote Cary Sherman, the group's president, in a letter the subcommittee released Monday. "RIAA is gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits only against individual computer users who are illegally distributing a substantial amount of copyrighted music.""
"Sherman said that in cases it brought last year against college students who were illegally distributing tens of thousands of songs, the RIAA settled cases for $12,500 to $17,000 each."
redux [08.11.03]
[requires 'free' registration]
"Arguing that the record industry is trying to force its members to become the "police of the Internet," a group representing over 100 Internet service providers plans to deliver a letter to the industry's trade association today. The letter asks a series of pointed questions about plans to sue people suspected of illegally trading music files online.
""There has to be a better answer than litigation," the letter says."
"A U.S. law professor has exposed the feeble backbone of Loyola University Chicago - an institution that handed its students' names over to the pigopolist mob's subpoena machine without so much as a grumble. The precedent set by the university's nonchalance toward privacy bodes poorly for students should the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) get its way and place the children before a court of law.
""A school or university should consider carefully whether it wants to be co-opted into the law enforcement business," D'Amato wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times."
"Next week, incoming students at UC Berkeley will receive more than just campus maps and classroom tours: They'll learn about the perils of sharing digital music and movies files online.
Specifically they'll be warned they can lose their Internet access or get slapped with a costly copyright infringement lawsuit if they aren't careful about uploading and downloading files using programs like Kazaa."
redux [07.28.03]
"Bob Barnes never dreamed that the long arm of the music industry would reach into his personal computer. Sure, the bus operator from Fresno, Calif., had used Napster to grab music files off the Internet. And when that file-swapping service was put out of business, he switched to its most popular successor, Kazaa. But he was careful not to leave a trace, transferring all his downloaded songs to separate discs. A visiting teenage grandson wasn't so careful, however, and last week Barnes, 50, was slapped with a subpoena from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It alleged that he had posted online -- for the world to steal -- digital copies of songs by Savage Garden, Marvin Gaye and the Eagles. "This is like shock and awe," says Barnes. "Blitz them until they submit."
Barnes may be a pirate, but he has plenty of company."
[requires 'free' registration]
"Those on alert include several college students, the parents of a 14-year-old boy in the Southwest, a 41-year-old Colorado health care worker and a Brooklyn woman who works in the fashion industry.
"They could have used some other way to inform people than scaring the bejiminy out of them," said a mother who received a copy of the subpoena last Wednesday, listing several songs that her 14-year-old son had made available for others to copy from his computer. "If someone had sent me a letter saying `this is wrong,' you can bet your sweet potatoes that would have gotten my attention. This just seems so drastic.""
"As the war over P2P downloading heats up, and the record companies launch the novel marketing technique of suing their customers, I think it is an appropriate time to settle some of the pervasive myths about U.S. copyright law which fuel both sides of the debate."
redux [07.10.03]
"The survey's findings oppose the music industry's long-standing argument that internet downloading is responsible for a slump in CD sales, with album sales falling 5% in the last year.
Market research company Music Programming Ltd (MPL) said 87% of its respondents who downloaded music admitted they bought albums after hearing tracks through the internet."
redux [06.25.03]
"A recording-industry trade group said Wednesday it plans to sue hundreds of individuals who illegally distribute copyright songs over the Internet, expanding its antipiracy fight into millions of homes."
""The RIAA, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to not only alienate their own customers but attempt to drive them into bankruptcy through litigation. So therefore they probably won't be able to afford to buy any music even if they want to," said Grokster President Wayne Rosso, who added he does not support copyright infringement."
redux [03.18.02]
"Everyone with a computer I know uses them, rips them from their CDs, and shares them with others. Napster (and later on, Kazaa) built massive worldwide networks based on the sharing of these files, spreading terabytes of files to millions of users. And yet, you can't walk into a store anywhere in America and buy a physical form of media embedded with mp3s."
"Given the ubiquity of mp3s among consumers, the continued rise in popularity of the format despite anything that's been put in place to stop them, and the millions of dollars being spent on mp3 encoding/decoding software and hardware, I no longer think the RIAA operates solely on fear. At this point, they're simply running on stupidity."
redux [05.02.00]
""The Recording Industry Association of America wants to educate consumers with the message, "Artists deserve to be compensated -- artists won't make music if they can't make money." I can only imagine the public service announcements with multimillionaire artists pleading for their right to a seventh Porsche in the driveway.
There's no rationalization for piracy; it is what it is. However, rampant music piracy online indicates that the music industry's distribution and pricing model is out of whack with what people want. The problem isn't the piracy; the problem is unhappy customers.
And the music industry had better do something about it. This is a dinosaur moment -- with the big rock looming overhead -- where the music industry needs to ask itself how it will adapt."
9:17 PM 0 comments
Washinton Post
New FCC media rules blocked
""The Commission has not sufficiently justified its particular chosen numerical limits for local television ownership, local radio ownership, and cross-ownership of media within local markets," said the 218-page opinion by the appellate court in Philadelphia."
"FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the ruling was "deeply troubling" and would make it harder for the agency to limit greater media consolidation.
"This has created a clouded and confused state of media law," Powell said in a statement."
redux [09.16.03]
"The Senate voted 55 to 40 today to wipe out all of the Federal Communication Commission's controversial new media rules, employing a little used legislative tool for overturning agency regulations."
"Dorgan's resolution is the most sweeping of several challenges to the FCC's rules, which make it easier for media corporations to buy more newspapers and television stations but tighten radio ownership rules."
redux [09.05.03]
"Checks and balances work.
That constitutional concept has been put to the test this summer, after the Federal Communications Commission -- part of the executive branch -- passed controversial new rules allowing big media companies to get even bigger. The rules were put on hold Wednesday by a federal court and ought to be booted back to the FCC by Congress, which is pursuing a rare exercise of its power to override executive branch decisions."
"When does a community have enough independent media outlets in this age of increasing consolidation? How many different ways should consumers be able to access news? When does competition exist?"
"Powell's belief that consumers have enough diverse forms of access to news and information to warrant loosening the media ownership rules stems in no small measure from his own use of technology and media. The admitted techno-geek thrives on technology, weaving it throughout his personal and professional worlds."
redux [08.21.03]
"Powell said yesterday the FCC would form a task force to determine whether broadcasters -- some of whom have been denounced for airing generic newscasts that originate in centralized studios -- should be compelled to produce more local news and other programming.
Powell said the agency would begin a formal inquiry into rules that would promote "localism" at TV and radio stations."
"Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell on Monday asked U.S. lawmakers to draft new media ownership rules, instead of simply undoing recent rules that relaxed restrictions on ownership.
"If we're going to do this, let's pass real laws ... that give the commission more specific guidance about what we want, not just an anti-vote," Powell told reporters after speaking to the Progress & Freedom Foundation Aspen Summit."
redux [08.07.03]
"Legal challenges to a Federal Communications Commission overhaul of media-ownership rules emerged Wednesday, with the regulations under fire both for allowing too few and too many mergers."
"Separately, organizations representing more than 600 local television stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, and NBC asked the court to reject the regulation that raised a TV ownership limit on the national reach of companies from 35% of U.S. households to 45%."
"Defying the will of the White House and the Republican-controlled Federal Communciations Commission, the House voted 400-21 today to overturn controversial rules adopted by the FCC in June that would allow a single company to own TV stations serving 45 percent of TV viewers nationwide.
`There's a great deal of consternation about that across the country,` said Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., a leader in the move to throw out the FCC's media ownership rule changes. `In my view that is a severe threat to democracy.`"
redux [07.16.03]
"On Wednesday, a House committee effectively voted to bar the new rules from taking effect. The vote follows a move by a group of senators to utilize an obscure law, called a "resolution of disapproval," also aimed at defeating the rule changes."
The bill still faces opposition from the Republican leadership in the House and a likely veto threat from the White House. Still, the latest maneuverings indicate that the attempt to roll back the new media-ownership regulations is gaining momentum."
redux [06.02.03]
"The vote has engendered public opposition by lawmakers, consumer and advocacy groups and unaligned citizens who fear that further media consolidation will make it more difficult for those with minority viewpoints to get their message out. On Friday, the FCC's voice- and e-mail systems were temporarily shut down by a deluge of public comments. The agency has received more than 500,000 e-mails and postcards opposing the changes."
"This is a gross scandal. The Center for Public Integrity has a stunning study out on the concentration of ownership in telecommunications. The even more stunning news is that the Federal Communications Commission, which theoretically represents you and me, is about to make all of it even worse. And behind this betrayal of the public trust is nothing but rotten, old-fashioned corruption. It's the old free-trip-to-Vegas ploy, on a grand scale.
The Public Integrity people examined the travel records of FCC employees and found that they have accepted 2,500 trips, costing nearly $2.8 million over the past eight years, paid for by the telecommunications and broadcast industries, which are, theoretically, "regulated" by the FCC."
"Perhaps unsurprisingly, the protests have been given little media coverage. "We're frozen out," said Karen Pomer, who attended a protest in Los Angeles. "All of this is benefiting conservative voices."
The Washington consumer watchdog, the Centre for Public Integrity, said that the FCC met with broadcasters 71 times in the run-up to the proposed rule changes but with consumer groups, just five."
11:04 PM 0 comments
The New York Times
Despite an Act of Leniency, China Has Its Eye on the Web
[requires 'free' registration]
"Both in China and abroad, some commentators quickly applauded what seemed like an official show of leniency toward the accused man, Du Daobin, a prolific author of online essays on issues of democracy and free speech.
But many among China's rapidly growing group of Internet commentators are warning that what appears to be government magnanimity in this high-profile case conceals a quiet but concerted push to tighten controls of the Internet and surveillance of its users even though China's restrictions on the medium are already among the broadest and most invasive anywhere."
redux [06.08.04]
"Vietnam has ordered local governments nationwide to closely monitor Internet use and enforce regulations aimed at cracking down on "bad information" sent or read on the Web, an official said Tuesday.
The move comes after the communist country sentenced several dissidents to long prison terms over the past two years for using the Internet to criticize the government and promote democracy."
redux [07.26.03]
" "We need communications with the outside and there are no phones," said Ibrahem al-Samarra'i, general manager of Tina, a computer company and Internet cafe. "We need e-mail.""
""It is freedom, really," said Layth Abed al-Samea, a former computer engineer who left his field to become a graphic designer, as he trawled the Web at the Botan. "I chat with my family, with my cousin in Qatar...I also search for jobs.""
redux [06.13.03]
"For a country that has been brutally scarred by a war that has left little standing, the idea of an information revolution takes some getting used to."
""The Taleban banned the use of the internet because they did not want Afghans to be part of the world and see the freedom that people elsewhere were enjoying.
"It's our chance, we have to grasp it.""
redux [02.20.03]
"It's easy to assume that the Internet is a friend of democracy and a facilitator of the free flow of ideas. Ronald Reagan once said, "The Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip." Shanthi Kalathil wasn't so convinced. She and fellow researcher Taylor Boas studied the effect of the Internet on eight authoritarian regimes, and what they found challenges conventional wisdom. Kalathil joins guest host Lynn Neary to discuss their findings."
redux [02.03.03]
"Plans are in motion to quadruple the current number of Internet users to four million by 2005 and the country's fledgling information technology sector will get injections of $100 million over the next two years, an initial investment aimed at harnessing the Internet's economic potential.
Yet even as it encourages Internet industry growth with tax breaks and other IT-friendly policies, Vietnam has tightened control over networked information. Web sites with pornography, violence, and in particular, criticism of Vietnam's communist, one-party system are all deemed ``poisonous and harmful.'' The government blocks access to many."
redux [01.25.03]
"IF THE internet will force difficult changes on democracies by handing power to individual citizens, it seems reasonable to believe that it will have a devastating impact on dictatorships. But it is not impossible that instead of undermining repressive regimes, the internet could become the most effective tool of social control that autocratic rulers have ever wielded."
"As more human interactions are conducted and recorded electronically, as the ability to analyse databases grows and as video and other offline surveillance technologies become cheaper and more effective, it will become ever easier for authoritarian governments to set up systems of widespread surveillance. George Orwell's Big Brother of "1984" might yet become a reality, a few decades later than he expected."
redux [01.09.03]
"In today's networked, globalized world, many presume that the Internet will pose a grave threat to authoritarian regimes. Such has been the power of this conventional wisdom that it remains for the most part unchallenged, and largely unexamined.
A new book, Open Networks, Closed Regimes, offers the most comprehensive and thought-provoking work on this subject to date. Authors Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas trace Internet use in eight authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries: China, Cuba, Singapore, Vietnam, Burma, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. They discover that authoritarian governments, far from fearing the information age, have chosen to direct Internet development in ways that bolster the state. At the same time, many regimes are struggling to cope with the potent challenges posed by new technologies. The authors encourage policy makers in the U.S. and other industrialized democracies to promote specific Internet-based initiatives that foster political liberalization, rather than perpetuating the myth of the Internet as an unstoppable "virus of freedom.""
redux [09.30.02]
"After resisting the Internet as a freewheeling tool of globalization and political anarchy for a decade, Saddam Hussein's government has cautiously embraced it.
Internet cafes have sprung up all over Baghdad in recent months, and even in smaller cities such as Karbala, a religiously conservative city 75 miles southwest of the capital. Just last month, the government took another major step, permitting some citizens to have Internet connections at home
Iraqis can now surf the Web and send e-mail to their hearts' content -- as long as they do it via www.uruklink.net, the government-controlled service provider monitored by Saddam's agents."
redux [08.29.02]
[requires 'free' registration]
"THE Saudi government is censoring public Internet access to a degree that goes significantly but haphazardly beyond its stated central goal of blocking sexually explicit content that violates the values of Islam, according to a recent study by Harvard Law School researchers.
The study's detailed list of blocked sites offers a glimpse into the areas that the Saudi government has deemed most troubling. Among them are sites related to pornography, women's rights, gays and lesbians, non-Islamic religions and criticism of political restrictions. Many humor and entertainment sites have also been blocked."
The device has been the kind of purchase people imagined someone else might enjoy."
redux [06.25.02]
""This version of the bill still allows the ability to prevent Internet activities without any necessity," said Kovalev, a 72-year old civil libertarian and member of the liberal "soyuz peravikh sil" faction.
Kovalev cited the portion of the bill that says it is "forbidden to use computer networks for extremism" and pledges a vague punishment that may "take into consideration" existing Russian criminal laws."
"Unlike the less-populated but richer countries Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which only last year overtook Egypt as having the largest Arab Internet population, Egypt is not trying to restrict the Internet.
But security police are monitoring chat rooms and local sites deemed immoral or damaging to the state or religion have been shut down. A few people have been imprisoned for soliciting sex on the Net."
redux [06.06.02]
""Without the internet the story may still have got out," said Mr Zheng. "With so many people killed it would have been hard to keep it a secret for ever, but it would have been much more difficult."
The internet is changing China in subtle but profound ways. Information is now being spread and exchanged in ways unthinkable just a few years ago.
The Chinese state's once total control on information has been broken and hard as it may try it has little hope of regaining that control."
redux [04.16.02]
"A decade or so ago, it was all clear: the Internet was believed to be such a revolutionary new medium, so inherently empowering and democratizing, that old authoritarian regimes would crumble before it. What we've learned in the intervening years is that the Internet does not inevitably lead to democracy any more than it inevitably leads to great wealth.
The idea that the Internet itself is a threat to authoritarian regimes was a bit of delusional post-Cold War optimism."
redux [03.21.02]
"Mao once said, "Political power grows from the barrel of a gun." The entrepreneurs in China Dawn seem to want to change the last phrase to "ISP access."
But their enthusiasm betrays a streak of naivete. As Tiananmen so amply demonstrated, in China today, political power still grows from the barrel of a gun. And the prediction that the rise of the Internet will liberate Chinese from authoritarian rule is far from certain."
"One notable loophole in the content watch list are weblogs. Weblogs are content websites maintained by ordinary users that can act as introspective online diaries, soapboxes to rant opinions, and a vehicle guide the horde of Internet users to swarm to other obscure links to be found on the net. They are easy to update, cheap to maintain, and difficult to block because so many new ones appear each day. They utilize a client relationship with a server and can be updated with a simple browser."
The bureaucrats and censors in China who block and monitor websites will be hard pressed to try and control the future flow of weblogs both in and out of China due to the number and diversity of this new information platform. Having met actual Internet content censors from China, they are decent people but come from a different time and different place in terms of technology. They don't really get it yet since weblogs remain a concept difficult for them to understand for now."
redux [08.08.01]
"It is widely believed that the Internet poses an insurmountable threat to authoritarian rule. But political science scholarship has provided little support for this conventional wisdom, and a number of case studies from around the world show that authoritarian regimes are finding ways to control and counter the political impact of Internet use. While the long-term political impact of the Internet remains an open question, we argue that these strategies for control may continue to be viable in the short to medium term."
"In this paper we illustrate how two authoritarian regimes, China and Cuba, are maintainng control over the Internet's political impact through different combinations of reactive and proactive strategies. These cases illustrate that, contrary to assumptions, different types of authoritarian regimes may be able to control and profit from the Internet. Examining the experiences of these two countries may help to shed light on other authoritarian regimes' strategies for Internet development, as well as help to develop generalizable conclusions about the impact of the Internet on authoritarian rule."
redux [06.19.01]
"Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister has warned the internet threatens democracy and people's sense of patriotism.
Lee Hsien Loong says governments must find new ways to build a consensus on national issues and strengthen national identities."
"The internet "opens up societies and helps individuals link up with like-minded souls anywhere in cyberspace," he said.
But it "may weaken the bonds of place and circumstance that have always tied citizens to their home and nation," he added."
redux [10.26.00]
"The world is changing fundamentally. Images and information respect neither time nor borders. Hierarchy is giving way to networking. Openness is crowding out secrecy and exclusivity. Ideas and capital move swiftly and unimpeded across a global network of governments, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations. In this world of instantaneous information, traditional diplomacy struggles to sustain its relevance."
"Nations once connected by foreign ministries and traders are now linked through millions of individuals by fiber optics, satellite, wireless, and cable in a complex network without central control. The Internet, with 100 million users today, will reach one billion people by 2005 and will be available to half the world's population by 2010. The network will become the central nervous system of international relations."
redux [10.10.00]
"Metaphors, symbols and sayings are mighty mind-setters. They captivate our minds and focus our attention to one main point, effectively excluding others. Putin used the burning of the Ostankino television tower, once hailed as a symbol of Soviet supremacy, as a metaphor for the desperate economic need of Russia. The global media played along with this tune, once again showcasing images of Russia's decay. But there is another largely untold story to be extracted from Putin's metaphor: TV towers are more than symbols - indeed they are very concrete centers of mind control, distributing the flow of information and entertainment."
"Who chose the crumbling Berlin Wall as the icon and metaphor for the breakdown of communism and the end of the Cold War? Wouldn't a TV tower in flames be more accurate? It wasn't about the free flow of capital. It was about the free flow of information."
7:40 PM 0 comments
USA Today
Turning old cell phones into new cash
"Way back when, groups like Scout troops and the Salvation Army raised money by picking up old newspapers, bottles, and cans, and reselling those commodities in bulk for pennies.
In the new millennium, there's an easier way to fill charitable coffers: collecting old cell phones and reselling them to companies that refurbish and ship them overseas."
redux [02.27.04]
"California's District Assembly member, Fran Pavley has introduced legislation requiring cell phone retailers to take back obsolete cell phones at no cost to the consumer and to provide for their recycling.
"Almost 45,000 cell phones are thrown away every day in California Ð either into a drawer somewhere or worse, into the trash," said Pavley. "Their circuit boards contain myriad toxins such as arsenic, lead and mercury, many of which are Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxin (PBTs), and have the potential to be released into the air and groundwater when burned in incinerators or disposed of in landfills. That's a serious threat to human health and our environment and we need to provide a real alternative.""
redux [01.01.04]
"Entrepreneurs and environmental groups are getting ready for a surge of old computers, cell phones and other electronic devices that could be recycled or reused.
A recent tax law and new recycling requirements are expected to increase the supply of gadgets that can be given new life.
The tax break gives businesses an added 50 percent "bonus deduction" from a company's profit for equipment purchased between last May 5 and the end of next year. The deduction, in a law signed by President Bush, is on top of the 30 percent first-year write-off that many businesses take on new equipment."
redux [11.25.03]
"The long-awaited arrival of local number portability hits Monday, meaning for the first time, anyone who wants to change their service can keep their phone number -- long cited by consumers as the biggest pain with switching companies. Typically, when people change providers, they upgrade their phones, which relegates old phones to the dusty back of a junk drawer, or worse, the landfill.
There are a lot of phones to recycle. A 2002 study by the environmental group Inform, Inc., showed by 2005, there will be 130 million phones discarded annually."
9:05 PM 0 comments
eWeek
FCC's Powell Reassures VOIP Community
"Powell said telecom regulation fit a model begun over 100 years ago, when "there was one wire" that had to be strung, often at great expense, to every home. But it dates back to an era in which specific platforms were optimized for one and only one application. "The PSTN [Public Switched Telephone Network] is probably the finest engineering experiment, for the single thing it does, that the U.S. has ever produced," he said.
But that era has been replaced, he said, by one in which a range of platforms perform a wide range of applications, with telephony just one of them. "The technology has disconnected the architecture from the application. Platforms can be application-agnostic. People don't get what a new paradigm that is," Powell said. In the absence of a monopoly, he sees no regulatory role beyond assuring equal access and issues relating to public safety, like 911."
redux [04.02.04]
"Sen. John Sununu announced on Friday long-awaited Internet phone legislation that would effectively eliminate state and local authorities' ability to tax and regulate broadband phone calls."
"A backlash from states is expected, according to Mike Hurst, legislative director for Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss., who introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives on Monday.
"Of course they are going to be pissed," Hurst said."
redux [02.23.04]
"AT&T cannot avoid paying hefty fees to local phone companies to connect long-distance calls by carrying big chunks of the calls on the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission is soon expected to rule.
The decision is sparking a debate at the FCC about regulation of Internet phone calls. It eventually could spell higher fees for new retail Internet phone services, such as those offered by Vonage and cable companies, and for their customers."
"The Federal Communications Commission, in a split decision, approved a request from voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider Pulver.com to be immune from the hefty stack of government rules, taxes and requirements that applied to 20th-century telephone networks."
"Other applications covered by the decision include Skype and instant-messaging programs from Microsoft, Yahoo and America Online. But the ruling appears to leave in limbo VoIP services from Vonage Holdings, cable giants and others that allow calls to be placed from a computer over a broadband connection to any phone number in the world, and vice versa."
redux [01.23.04]
"The top U.S. telecom regulator said Thursday that he has no intention of setting rules for Internet telephony, which he said could have a dramatic impact on voice communications."
""It's probably the most significant paradigm shift in the entire history of modern communications, since the invention of the telephone," Michael Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, told journalists at the World Economic Forum."
redux [01.12.04]
"U.S. Sen. John Sununu said he's preparing legislation to keep broadband telephone service providers from being "smothered by state and federal regulators."
The New Hampshire Republican described the proposed law at the Consumer Electronics Show as a "clear, pre-emptive remedy" that directs state utility regulators to take a hands-off regulatory stance on what's called voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)."
"The California Public Utilities Commission will now take its time to decide whether to regulate Internet telephone service providers, according to a commissioner."
"Because of California's size, some industry insiders believe that the state's tactical shift could have an effect on New York and the handful of other states that are now weighing up the regulatory future of what are known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers."
[requires 'free' registration]
"But Mr. Davidson is more than an adventuresome consumer. As a member of the Florida Public Service Commission, he is a regulator who is eager to see Internet telephone service spread because he predicts it can make the nation's phone services less expensive and richer in features.
That is why Mr. Davidson wants the federal and state governments to let Internet-based phone service blossom, free from regulation, taxes and surcharges. Like a growing number of officials who advocate minimal oversight of the service - including Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission - Mr. Davidson says Internet telephone service should be treated just like other unregulated Internet services, including e-mail messaging and Web surfing."
redux [12.01.03]
"When the FCC examines VoIP in landmark hearings Monday, the battle lines in the debate will be sharply drawn between the country's two sunny states -- California and Florida. California wants to regulate VoIP, Florida doesn't.
Each state is sending a public regulatory commissioner to argue its respective merits."
redux [11.13.03]
"When IBM talks, Corporate America listens. So Big Blue created quite a stir on Nov. 7 when a top exec told a tech conference in Atlanta that it hopes to move 80% of its 300,000 employees to voice-over-IP phone systems by 2008."
"[The] IBM announcement signifies that the end may be far nearer than previously thought for the legacy copper-wire phone networks that have built fortunes for the Baby Bells such as Verizon (VZ ) and SBC (SBC ) as well as AT&T (T ) and Sprint (FON ). When the largest tech company on the planet announces it no longer needs the phone company to manage its calls, you can bet the communications landscape has fundamentally changed."
"The agency has waived the usual public comment period, which is often the first step before making such a ruling, Hundt said. Though the hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1, Powell wrote that the agency planned to issue a Notice of Public Rule Making (NPRM) "shortly after the hearing," in an effort to gather comments from the public.
Hundt said that language indicates that the agency had already made up its mind about what rules it plans to issue, and that the December hearing would be little more than a formality.
"I ran this agency," Hundt said. "I know you should be suspicious.""
"Time Warner plans to begin selling Internet phone service in California next year and will cooperate with regulators by seeking a telephone operator's license in the state, if necessary."
""We don't think it's a good idea to regulate VoIP right now. We want a debate and full airing," said Peter Casciato, an attorney representing Time Warner Cable, who attended the hearing. "(But) we want to be a very good corporate citizen.""
redux [10.19.03]
"But not only does VoIP challenge the business structure of large telecommunications carriers, it also threatens to turn the regulatory structures that govern the industry on their head. That's because VoIP calls are carried over a structure that does not track geographic origins and destinations - the central basis for regulations that govern and set rates for calls placed over traditional networks.
"It's no surprise that regulators smell blood and see a lot of money on the table," said a representative of one VoIP company that did not want to be identified. "What we don't need is the regulators coming down and quashing us just as this is getting started. It's similar to taxing the Internet. Let us get our legs under us.""
"Since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, regulators have sought to draw a strict division between voice networks and data networks. But with the rise of VoIP, that distinction is rapidly collapsing.
"It's a mess," said Kevin Werbach, founder of consulting firm Supernova Group and former FCC counsel for new technology. "The distinction between information and telecommunications services is in the 1996 act, but it assumes they are completely distinct...Today, all networks are digital and can provide many services in many different ways. (Regulators) are trying to come to an end result within a flawed legal framework.""
redux [10.08.03]
"Internet phone providers have won the first round in a clash with state regulators, providing needed momentum for the upstart industry.
In ruling from the bench late Tuesday, Minneapolis federal Judge Michael J. Davis permanently barred Minnesota from applying traditional telephone rules to Vonage, a pioneer in technology that lets consumers bypass the traditional phone network by making voice calls over a broadband connection."
redux [10.01.03]
"There is no risk of everyone swooping out and buying VoIP phones and eliminating the plain old telephone service (POTS) overnight. However, in the next five years there is going to be some serious worry at the traditional phone companies about how they will make money."
"The local phone companies, or incumbent local exchange carriers, will do whatever they can to slow the growth of VoIP, but the fact that the phone traffic is on the Internet will make VoIP impossible to stop. Vonage, for example, isn't a phone company at all in the eyes of the Federal Communications Commission."
"The race is on among the states to regulate voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) service, or at least consider the regulation of VoIP.
Even though fewer than 150,000 American consumers use IP telephony over phone, cable or other wires, lawmakers and policymakers in up to 11 states--Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Alabama, Colorado and Virginia--are now mulling over some type of regulatory conditions, rules or restrictions on the service. And the list seems to be getting longer almost every week"
"The Golden State is the largest state to decide that voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers are subject to the same rules and regulations as all other telephone service providers."
"Because of its size and national stature, California's decision to bring VoIP providers into the regulatory fold could have enormous sway on the dozens of other state's now investigating a similar step."
"Vonage, a Voice over Internet Protocol provider, has begun charging customers a $1.50 per month "regulatory recovery" fee.
"The fees were announced just as a growing number of states are clamoring for VoIP providers to pay taxes or fees to fund staple services such as 911 connections."
"Q: What kind of VoIP regulations do you see as necessary? Should VoIP providers be treated just like Verizon Communications or other carriers?
A: We'll probably initiate something to look at it this fall. But let me emphasize that we're going to look at it. That doesn't say what we're going to do about it. We only know that it's a growing issue. Basically, the advanced platforms permit divorcing services and applications from the infrastructure. That's very different from the ancient telephone models, when the application was the same as the distribution."
"This whole deal reminds me of some work I did for a UK advertising company years ago. I got to have lunch with the MD and Creative Director, who had just done market research for a cigarette lighter company on who their competition was. Was it Ronson, the low-end player? Or Dupont or Dunhill, the high-end players? Turns out that it actually was Parker Pen. The company learned that they were in the gift market.
My take is that telephone companies still think that other phone companies are their competition, and that the rules and givens of phone company competition will work in their favor. But actually they are actually in connection. And with increasingly wrong numbers."
redux [08.25.03]
"A cheap, Internet-based alternative to traditional telephone service is facing a sudden regulatory backlash that could slow adoption of the fast-growing technology, raise prices and put financially shaky start-ups out of business.
Two weeks ago, Minnesota drew first blood. It ordered so-called VoIP (voice over IP) provider Vonage Holdings to file for a telephone operator's license. Many see the move, the first attempt by a state public utilities commission to regulate an Internet telephony provider, as the beginning of a new regulatory framework for Internet telephone operators in the state."
redux [12.16.02]
[requires 'free' registration]
"After all, telecommunications and technology companies lost $7.6 billion in global market value from March 2000 to September 2002, as the industry was gripped by stunning collapses, financial scandals and an effort to absorb excess capacity on globe-spanning communications systems.
But alongside the industry's search for its direction after such turmoil are trends that threaten to destabilize global telecommunications further in 2003. These trends could be described as the start of a cannibalization of established services by disruptive new technologies."
redux [08.07.02]
"Of course The Economist is not alone in this fundamental error but "Crash" story is a useful foil for addressing this misunderstanding.
It is a tragic misunderstanding since the woes of the Telecom industry are seen as representing the state of the economy rather than the collapsing of a facade of a Potemkin industry. In 1900's there was a real telecommunications industry just like in the 1800's when there was a thriving business in transporting ice from frozen lakes to warmer climes. Just as refrigeration put an end to the need for buying ice, the Internet has put an end to the need to buy telecommunications services from others. We just need commodity connectivity."
redux [02.08.02]
"Despite the darkened outlook, new communications capabilities are within reach that will make the current Internet look like tin cans and string. The technical know-how exists. Radically simplified technologies can blast bits a million times faster than the current network at a millionth of the cost. These are sitting in laboratories undeveloped, in warehouses undeployed, and in the field underutilized.
It's not even that the communications revolution has been derailed by inept or self-aggrandizing behavior by incumbent telephone companies and their government regulators. Something more fundamental is at work."
7:25 PM 0 comments
ABC News
TSA: Airlines Gave Gov't Passenger Data
"More airlines than previously disclosed gave personal data on passengers to the government for testing a computerized background-check project, acting Transportation Security Administration chief David Stone said Wednesday."
"Passenger data was obtained from at least two computerized reservation systems, Sabre and Galileo International, and from four more airlines than previously revealed: Delta, Continental Airlines, America West Airlines and Frontier Airlines, Stone said."
"The data known as passenger name records, or PNR include credit card numbers, travel reservation information, address, telephone number and meal requests, which can indicate a passenger's religion or ethnicity."
redux [04.12.04]
"American Airlines' announcement Friday that it shared more than a million passenger itineraries with four government contractors reveals that Transportation Security Administration officials have repeatedly lied about the development of the passenger-profiling system known as CAPPS II."
"American Airlines is the third major domestic airline to admit sharing vast amounts of customer information with post-Sept. 11 government data-mining efforts, following JetBlue's admission in September 2003 and Northwest Airline's forced admission in January. Both Northwest and American Airlines lied to the press in the wake of the JetBlue scandal, saying they had never turned over information about their passengers."
"The Department of Homeland Security's chief privacy officer has launched an investigation into a disclosure by American Airlines that it turned over 1.2 million passenger records to the Transportation Security Administration in June 2002 without the passengers' knowledge or permission."
"DHS privacy chief Nuala O'Connor Kelly said her investigation will focus on whether TSA personnel violated federal privacy laws or policies. She said the DHS inspector general also is looking into the matter."
redux [02.12.04]
"The U.S. government's controversial airline passenger-screening system remains flawed and behind schedule, according to a congressional report released on Thursday."
"Researchers have had difficulty obtaining passenger data from airlines to test the system, the GAO said in a report. The agency also still must take steps to prevent misuse of that data, the GAO said."
""We believe that these issues, if not resolved, pose major risks to the successful development, implementation and operation of CAPPS II," the report said."
redux [01.18.04]
"Northwest Airlines provided information on millions of passengers for a secret U.S. government air-security project soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, raising more concerns among some privacy advocates about the airlines' use of confidential customer data.
The nation's fourth-largest airline asserted in September that it "did not provide that type of information to anyone." But Northwest acknowledged Friday that by that time, it had already turned over three months of reservation data to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center."
redux [01.13.04]
"The United States is pushing ahead with plans to screen and color-code all passengers flying in the country despite resistance from airlines and privacy groups."
"Under CAPPS II, TSA will obtain the passenger's full name, home address, home telephone number, birth date and some information about that passenger's itinerary."
redux [12.13.03]
"A proposed new airline passenger screening system that would use private databases to identify risky passengers is facing delays amid heightened scrutiny from industry and government agencies."
"The GAO has met with various civil liberties groups that oppose the project, asking questions about the effectiveness and quality of data in the commercial databases to be incorporated in CAPPS II. The agency's investigative tactics have led some opponents of CAPPS II to believe that the resulting report will be harshly critical."
redux [09.23.03]
""This looks and feels like the data Valdez," said Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"Look at how we found out about this, only because one company was foolish enough to speak publicly about it," Tien added. "We should put the brakes on all these data-mining programs, and have a serious national conversation, because travel data is just one example of the many kinds of data every data-mining operation wants to suck in from private businesses.""
[requires 'free' registration]
"Two federal agencies announced today that they had opened investigations into JetBlue Airways in response to the airline's admission that it had provided travel records on more than a million passengers to a Pentagon contractor, violating its own privacy rules.
The moves by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Trade Commission came as JetBlue disclosed that it had hired Deloitte & Touche, the accounting firm, to review the company's privacy policies and determine if they needed to be revamped."
redux [09.18.03]
"JetBlue Airways confirmed on Thursday that in September 2002, it provided 5 million passenger itineraries to a defense contractor for proof-of-concept testing of a Pentagon project unrelated to airline security -- with help from the Transportation Security Administration.
The contractor, Torch Concepts, then augmented that data with Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information, including income level, to develop what looks to be a study of whether passenger-profiling systems such as CAPPS II are feasible."
"Bill Scannell, a privacy advocate who boycotted Delta Airlines earlier this year for its reported participation in testing, said his sources confirm that JetBlue will be replacing Delta Airlines as the "guinea pig for CAPPS II testing."
"JetBlue has no respect for its customers or the constitution of the United States," Scannell said. "JetBlue is clearly code red.""
""People have used irresponsible scare tactics to stop the testing of CAPPS II," [TSA's Turmail] said. "The American people have the right to know whether this system will work. We should have a dialogue based on fact and not innuendo.""
redux [04.16.03]
"The former privacy officer of Internet advertising giant DoubleClick will be the Department of Homeland Security's first privacy czar, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced today."
"The "Total Information Awareness" program would have created a database of consumer financial transactions combined with other publicly available data. Congress said it will suspend funding for the Defense Department project unless the administration can demonstrate that it will not violate constitutional privacy rights. The White House's report is due next month."