FCC Commissioner: T-Mobile buyout is "paradigm-altering"

Everyone has an opinion about AT&T’s $39 billion buyout of T-Mobile. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps calls it “a huge transaction. It’s a paradigm-altering transaction, as far as the world of wireless goes.” A pair of Stanford economists suggest that the “anticompetitive effects appear to be plausible.” And small wireless operator MetroPCS thinks the deal will be good for its business—but only because AT&T could take T-Mobile’s cheap voice and data plans off the table.

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FCC Commissioner: T-Mobile buyout is "paradigm-altering"

LightSquared broadband: a threat to GPS?

The Pentagon and Department of Transportation have a written the Federal Communications Commission a letter insisting that they’re more than a bit worried about a new satellite-based wholesale broadband service: LightSquared wireless. “The new LightSquared business plan and the new FCC rules significantly expand the terrestrial transmission,” the letter warns, “increasing the potential for interference to GPS receivers.” Furthermore, the Department of Defense and DOT “were not sufficiently included in the development of the LightSquared input from federal stakeholders,” the agencies claim

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LightSquared broadband: a threat to GPS?

Fox gearing up for fight with Time Warner over iPad TV streaming

Time Warner Cable has been facing a backlash from the TV industry ever since it rolled out its live-video-streaming iPad app earlier this month. Now, the cable giant faces one of its first real legal challenges over the app in the form of a cease-and-desist letter from Fox, and it likely won’t be the last unless Time Warner can figure out a way to placate the channels that are left.

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Fox gearing up for fight with Time Warner over iPad TV streaming

Google agrees to new privacy rules as part of Buzz settlement

Google has settled with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that Google Buzz violated user privacy and used deceptive tactics to get people using the service. Both parties acknowledged the agreement on Wednesday morning, with Google noting that the Buzz launch “fell short of our usual standards for transparency and user control.” As part of the settlement, Google has agreed to an independent review of its privacy practices every two years, and must get consent from users anytime its services change in a way that results in sharing more information. When Google first launched Buzz , its social media/microblogging service, it immediately faced a barrage of privacy complaints from users.

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Google agrees to new privacy rules as part of Buzz settlement

Data caps claim a victim: Netflix cuts streaming video quality

Netflix announced last night that Canadian users will, by default, receive lower-quality—and lower-bandwidth—streaming video. The change was made to protect users, “because many Canadian Internet service providers unfortunately enforce monthly caps on the total amount of data consumed.” Fast Internet connections could previously chew through 30-70GB of data while streaming 30 hours of Netflix video in a month

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Data caps claim a victim: Netflix cuts streaming video quality

Oops: major Canadian ISP admits throttling World of Warcraft

Back in February, a Canadian gamer wrote the government’s telecom regulator with an unusual complaint: her ISP, Rogers, was allegedly throttling games like World of Warcraft , making them all but unplayable.

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Oops: major Canadian ISP admits throttling World of Warcraft

Long battle likely in Microsoft’s newest patent infringement suit

Another lawsuit has been added to the increasingly complex patent lawsuit merry-go-round in the smartphone world. This time, Microsoft has sued Barnes & Noble, claiming that its Nook and Nook Color tablets infringe on Microsoft’s patents.

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Long battle likely in Microsoft’s newest patent infringement suit

Copyright troll Righthaven achieves spectacular "fair use" loss

Whoops—in its bid to sue hundreds of bloggers, commentors, and website operators from posting even a few sentences from newspaper stories, the copyright zealots at Righthaven have just scored an own goal.

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Copyright troll Righthaven achieves spectacular "fair use" loss

Google maps 300TB of real-world Internet speed data

How fast is your broadband?

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Google maps 300TB of real-world Internet speed data

Google spends $1 million on censorship and throttling detection

Google has awarded $1 million to Georgia Tech researchers so that they can develop simple tools to detect Internet throttling, government censorship, and other “transparency” problems. That money will cover two years of work at Georgia Tech, with an additional $500,000 extension possible if Google wants an extra year of development. At the end of the project, the Georgia Tech team hopes to provide “a suite of Web-based, Internet-scale measurement tools that any user around the world could access for free

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Google spends $1 million on censorship and throttling detection

Death of the Internet predicted, film at your local cineplex

A scary story about the demise of the Internet has been making the rounds through the social networking echo chamber lately. It’s a paper by five researchers from the University of Michigan and one from Kansas State University (actually only a poster was published).

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Death of the Internet predicted, film at your local cineplex

"America’s toughest sheriff" asks Craigslist to prevent… bestiality

In 2006, a deputy fire chief in Maricopa County, Arizona, was accused of heading over to a neighboring farm, dragging one the farmer’s small gray lambs into the barn, and attempting to fornicate with the animal.

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"America’s toughest sheriff" asks Craigslist to prevent… bestiality

Congress asks to review DoD and NSA contracts with HBGary

Anonymous’s recent exposure of a federal contractor’s plan to take down WikiLeaks has led to a congressional probe seeking data on contracts the company and its partners hold with the US military and intelligence agencies. The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on Wednesday asked the Defense Department and its intelligence arm—the National Security Agency—to hand over copies of any contracts they may have signed with HBGary Federal, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies. Read the comments on this post

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Congress asks to review DoD and NSA contracts with HBGary

Global raids shut boylover.net, arrest 184 men, rescue 230 kids

Police around the globe have wrapped up the largest child sex abuse case in history after three years of investigation into the website boylover.net. One hundred eighty-four arrests have already been made in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe, with 230 child victims “safeguarded” by authorities. Four hundred more suspected sex abusers are still being sought

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Global raids shut boylover.net, arrest 184 men, rescue 230 kids

Major report debunks alleged link between piracy and terrorism

On February 15, the film industry, the movie business, video game publishers, and business software developers submitted a massive report to the US government, as they do every year.

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Major report debunks alleged link between piracy and terrorism

"There’s a Mercedes divide": former FCC chief now top cable lobbyist

The revolving door that is Washington, DC swiveled rather loudly yesterday

Obama "IP czar" wants felony charges for illegal Web streaming

The Obama administration wants to make sure that the illegal streaming of music and movies over the Internet is a felony, and it also wants to give the federal government wiretap authority in copyright cases. Victoria Espinel, the Obama administration’s IP Enforcement Coordinator, today released her long-awaited wish list (PDF) of intellectual property law changes.

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Obama "IP czar" wants felony charges for illegal Web streaming

Etsy users irked after buyers, purchases exposed to the world

What would you do if you registered on a site to buy something, only to find months later that your user account was searchable and your purchases were exposed? That scenario is currently playing out for Etsy users, who are dealing with the fallout from Etsy’s decision to roll out a new People Search tool. The site, dedicated to enabling crafters and artisans to sell their work online, has yet to notify its user base of the change that exposes users’ real names and, via their profile pages, anything they have purchased and left feedback on.

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Etsy users irked after buyers, purchases exposed to the world

Report: Piracy a "global pricing problem" with only one solution

A major new report from a consortium of academic researchers concludes that media piracy can’t be stopped through “three strikes” Internet disconnections, Web censorship, more police powers, higher statutory damages, or tougher criminal penalties. That’s because the piracy of movies, music, video games, and software is “better described as a global pricing problem.” And the only way to solve it is by changing the price.

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Report: Piracy a "global pricing problem" with only one solution

BT to UK Infinity subscribers: no more usage caps!

Here’s something we don’t see very often: an ISP dropping its usage caps and telling subscribers to download away. United Kingdom subscribers to BT’s Total Broadband and Infinity fiber services will soon be able to download as much data as they want, the company claims. “As BT continues to invest in the network and network bandwidth we can now remove these restrictions and ensure the experience of the wider customer base,” declared Mayuresh Thavapalan, General Manager of Consumer Broadband at BT Retail

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BT to UK Infinity subscribers: no more usage caps!