[Cybertel-Ann] 7.8.8 :: Constitution Ends Tomorrow :: Invasion of the Flying Pigs :: What? Me Worry About My Privacy?? :: Why Johnny Cant Blog ::

Tue Jul 8 19:41:12 PDT 2008

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             CyberTelecom News  
      Federal Internet Law and Policy
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“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” – C.S. Lewis

Report: High speed Internet opens educational opportunities, Speed Matters
High speed Internet is boosting educational opportunities in the U.S., according to a new report by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA).
http://www.speedmatters.org/blog/high-speed-internet-opens-educational-opportunities.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/

Delray Beach, Florida looks for Wi-Fi alternatives, Muni
Delray Beach, Florida is still looking for alternatives to the Wi-Fi service that E-Path Communications was supposed to have delivered. Two months ago, the city canceled its contract with E-Path after endless delays. E-Path is also the service provider that Nassau and Suffolk counties (NY) hired to deploy a countywide wireless broadband network (probably never going to happen).
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/muniwireless/~3/329500639/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/muni.htm

FCC Has 4 Months to Justify Rule on Payments for Dial-Up Internet Access, CircleID
Dial-up Internet connections often require larger phone companies to transfer the connections to smaller competitors who contract with ISPs. In a non-Internet context, the original carrier of a phone call is required to pay the second carrier for use of its facilities. A federal appeals court on Tuesday has given the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 4 months to explain its rule governing how phone companies are compensated when people use dial-up Internet connections. If the FCC does not comply with that deadline, the rule will be invalidated, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/fcc_payments_dial_up_internet_access/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/rcomp.htm

When You Measure Broadband Caps In Terms Of How Many Emails, Something's Wrong, Techdirt
We've already talked about how low it appears some ISPs are making broadband "caps." Doing so seriously destroys the value of a broadband connection and will likely backfire on the ISPs who provide it. But, for those companies that are putting in place such low broadband caps -- a small suggestion: when discussing how much the caps allow, listing out how many emails you can send or receive under the cap is probably a bad idea. If the cap is so low that the number of emails is even worth mentioning, you've got a serious problem.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080703/1325301592.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

The Net Neutrality Debate: Still Sizzling, Ecommerce Times
The Internet is the greatest technical development of the 20th century, and its open competition model has been the envy of other market sectors. Internet advances are being crushed by monopolistic carriers who are more concerned with censoring content than delivering services to customers. Those disparate statements sum up the positions of the two sides squaring off in an increasingly contentious debate about the Internet's future. On one side of the debate are ISPs, which are trying to build viable business models for delivering their services in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/63649.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Pew Study Shows Sizable Chunk of US Still Not Online, Ecommerce Times
A new study shows the majority of Americans still on dial-up Internet access are keeping the slow connection by choice. The Pew Internet and American Life Project's "Home Broadband Adoption 2008" report finds only 55 percent of Americans are now using high-speed broadband connections -- up 8 percent from this time last year. Those with dial-up connections -- about 10 percent of the total polled -- largely say they're content and have no desire to upgrade. A whopping 62 percent of dial-up users reported no interest in switching over to broadband.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/63685.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/data/broadband.htm

DNS hole prompts synchronized patching effort by IT vendors, CW
A cache poisoning flaw that was discovered earlier this year in the Domain Name System protocol was kept under wraps while a group of vendors worked in tandem to develop software patches.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/~r/Computerworld/News/~3/330302838/article.do
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/

Massive, coordinated DNS patch released, CNET
A fundamental flaw within the Domain Name System is being addressed by multiple vendors.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9985618-57.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/

If ICANN Can't Even Control Its Own Domain Names…, Techdirt
ICANN has been something of a joke. Charged with managing top level domain names, the organization has done a lot more to annoy users and force them to keep buying new domain names at high prices than do anything constructive in managing TLDs. And now it turns out that even ICANN can get spoofed. Hoaxers convinced ICANN's own registrar to hand over the controls for two of its main websites: ICANN.com and IANA.com, allowing each to be redirected elsewhere briefly. While ICANN was able to regain control over both domains within 20 minutes, the ease with which both were hijacked suggests that perhaps a more constructive use of ICANN's time, rather than coming up with new TLDs that cost too much money, would be to come up with better ways to prevent such hijackings -- and better ways to deal with such hijackings if you don't happen to be ICANN.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080707/0111431599.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/icann.htm

ICANN loses own addresses, Globe and Mail
Agency in charge of the Internet's addresses tricked into transferring domain names
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheGlobeAndMail-Technology/~3/326682245/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/icann.htm

IPv4 Address Transfer Markets: The time has come, IGP
What happens when the Internet addresses run out? That question has been generating growing concern among Internet operators and policy analysts. The problem is fundamental to the future of the Internet. This blog post is part of a paper that evaluates a transitional policy that Internet governance agencies are considering as a response to the depletion of the IPv4 address space. In particular, it focuses on proposals to allow organizations holding IPv4 addresses to sell address blocks to other organizations willing to buy them. IP address transfer markets, as they are called, have been proposed as a pragmatic way to extend the life of the legacy IP address space.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/IGPBlog/~3/330087018/3782976.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ip.htm

Two Regressive Search Engine Advertising Rulings--Standard Process v. Total Health and Finance Express v. Nowcom, Tech & Marketing Law
It's not uncommon for courts to make judgments based on outdated understandings of precedent and technology, especially...
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2008/07/two_regressive.htm
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ecom/advertising.htm

Comcast's Use Of Twitter Continues To Fascinate - But is it really fixing what causes Comcast's low satisfaction ratings?, dslreports
The Boston Globe explores Comcast's attempt to repair their reputation for poor customer service by reaching out to customers via social networking websites such as Twitter. Comcast now has an employee monitoring Twitter 24/7, a tactic that a growing number of companies are embracing and which seems to fascinate mainstream outlets. Comcast customer service recently reached a record low in the most recent American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). But is Twitter support treating a symptom or the disease?
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcasts-Use-Of-Twitter-Continues-To-Fascinate-95873
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/comcast.htm

Comcast's Right Hand Admits FCC Jurisdiction, Left Hand Declines to Comment, PK
For months, Comcast spokespeople have been deny, deny, denying that the FCC has the power to do anything about Comcast???s throttling of BitTorrent traffic. Now, in papers filed as part of a class action lawsuit against Comcast, Comcast has gone the opposite direction, asserting that because ???these issues are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the FCC, and because the FCC is actively investigating them,??? the judge should put the suit on hold until the FCC renders a decision. The court has agreed, staying the case until the FCC acts.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1642
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/juris.htm

Google Reacts to Pressure from Privacy Groups, Includes Link to Privacy Policy, CircleID
Last month, privacy organizations wrote to Google CEO Eric Schmidt asking the company to link to its privacy policy from its home page. Organizations say including the privacy link on the Google's home page is good practice and mandated by California law. On late Thursday, Google quietly changed its stance by adding a privacy link to its home page and with explanations posted on its main corporate blog and its public policy blog.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/google_privacy_ink_added/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/privacy/

A privacy link on Google.com, Google
Google values our users' privacy first and foremost. Trust is the basis of everything we do, so we want users to be familiar and comfortable with the integrity and care we give their personal data.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GooglePublicPolicyBlog/~3/326243261/privacy-link-on-googlecom.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/privacy/

Lithuania Attacked by Russian Hacktivists, 300 Sites Defaced, CircleID
Last week's mass defacement of over 300 Lithuanian sites hosted on the same ISP, an upcoming attack that was largely anticipated due to the on purposely escalated online tensions out of Lithuan's accepted legislation banning communist symbols across the country, once again demonstrates information warfare building capabilities in action. Moreover, the attack is again relying on common prerequisites for a successful information warfare campaign, used in the Russia vs. Estonia cyberattack last year. These very same Internet PSYOPS tactics ensure the success of the information warfare as a whole..
http://www.circleid.com/posts/87870_lithuania_internet_attack_russian_hacktivists/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/cyberwar.htm

The new FISA compromise: it's worse than you think, Ars Technica
With the Senate set to vote on FISA amendments this week, Ars examines the legislation's key provisions and finds that it would undermine judicial oversight of foreign-to-domestic communications.
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/fisa-compromise.ars
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/fisa.htm

Bush Administration Admits That Telco Immunity More Important Than Increased Spying Power, Techdirt
While we had thought that Congress was going to easily roll over on the so-called (but not really) compromise bill on new surveillance powers that included telco immunity from potentially illegal acts committed in the past few years, there has been some pushback in the Senate, where the bill is finally about to come up for vote. Some Senators have put together an amendment stripping telco immunity from the bill, but leaving the increased surveillance powers in place. Amazingly, the Bush Administration has now said that if telco immunity is stripped from the bill, Bush will veto the bill, even if everything else is identical. In other words, all the talk you hear from politicians about how this bill is necessary to protect Americans is hogwash. If it were true, then it is simply unforgivable to veto the bill without telco immunity.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080707/2353521615.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/fisa.htm

Obama Addresses FISA Immunity Critics - After they create largest social group on campaign website…, dslreports
Barack Obama angered a significant number of his core supporters recently when he threw his support behind a bill that would give the nation's largest phone companies immunity for handing over user phone and Internet data without a warrant. The vote for the bill is scheduled for after the holiday weekend, giving privacy advocates and other civil libertarians a chance for a last second fight against the bill. On the Obama campaign's social networking site, opponents of the bill have created the website's largest group. Obama has responded on the website:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Obama-Addresses-FISA-Immunity-Critics-95790
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/fisa.htm

Senate Begins Final Debate on Retroactive Immunity, EFF
The final Senate debate on the dangerously flawed FISA Amendments Act began this morning. Senator Feingold spoke at length in favor of Senator Dodd's amendment to strip retroactive immunity from the bill:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/senate-begins-final-debate
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/fisa.htm

U.S. Senate resumes debate on surveillance bill, CW
he U.S. Senate resumed debate on legislation that would extend a controversial NSA surveillance program, even as some senators pushed an amendment that would remove a lawsuit immunity provisions for telecommunication carriers.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/~r/Computerworld/News/~3/330178696/article.do
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/fisa.htm

The Constitution Dies Tomorrow ISEN
Obama's run to the center, OK, you gotta do whatcha gotta do. I'm not happy, but OK. I'm votin for ya. I don't understand politix, but hey, I'm votin for ya.
http://isen.com/blog/2008/07/constitution-dies-tomorrow.html

John McCain and the Millennials… When Pigs Fly!, IPDI
John McCain???s campaign has recently released a new game on its website and as a Facebook application called Pork Invaders ??? ostensibly as an attempt to reach younger voters through alternative mediums. This game, in many ways, exemplifies the lack of understanding within the McCain camp of how to best utilize the internet as an effective campaign tool. A rip off of the 1978 arcade game Space Invaders, McCain???s campaign switches the eradication of aliens to… you guessed it, pigs and pork barrels. The player, represented by a John McCain sign, shoots ???vetoes??? at the invading pork, racking up ???Tax Dollars.???
http://www.ipdi.org/blog/index.php/2008/07/08/john-mccain-and-the-millennials-when-pigs-fly/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/vote/2008.htm

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