[Cybertel-Ann] 5.15.8 :: I Get To Make Fun of Barbara in a Headline! :: Earthlink Mindsprings Philly :: Harold Declares The Apocalypes is Nigh :: Comcast Road Rage :: Proxy Server Companies Shares Go Up on Wall Street :: I am Not Criticizing The Syrian Secret Service! :: So How Many Times Have You Violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act? ::

Fri May 16 19:41:45 PDT 2008

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             CyberTelecom News  
      Federal Internet Law and Policy
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RSS Feeds : Fed Notices : Blog : Clips : 
http://www.cybertelecom.org/news.htm 
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"Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free
competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so
he simply set about achieving that efficient
monopoly." Mario Puzo, The Godfather, Referring to Don
Vito Corleone.

Where is the FCC's Annual Video Competition Report?,
PFF
Barbara Esbin and I have just released a short PFF
essay asking the question: "Where is the FCC's Annual
Video Competition Report?" The FCC is required to
produce this report annually and yet the last one is
well over a year past due and the data is contains
will be over two years old by the time it comes out.
I've embedded our paper about this below.
http://blog.pff.org/archives/2008/05/where_is_the_fc.html
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/cable.htm

Earthlink Announces it's Dismantling the Wireless
Philadelphia Network., Sascha Meinrath
Last year, New America Foundation released an in-depth
report and analysis of the Wireless Philadelphia
Project, "The Philadelphia Story: Learning from a
Municipal Wireless Pioneer." We concluded that the
private franchise model was suboptimal and that
Philadelphia's solution was problematic in a number of
ways. At the time, we received good press coverage and
a helluvalot of blowback from certain constituencies
(who continued to assert that everything was on
track).
http://saschameinrath.com/2008/may/14/earthlink_announces_its_dismantling_wireless_philadelphia_network
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/muni.htm

FCC starts over with emergency network push, CNET
Earlier this year, federal regulators failed to
attract high enough bids for a chunk of TV airwaves
intended for use primarily by public safety workers.
Now they're trying again.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9944129-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/w700.htm

Using geolocation to prevent interference in the TV
white spaces, Google
We've blogged before about the vast potential of
"white spaces" -- the unused portion of the TV
spectrum between channels. In a March filing with the
FCC, we showed how this waste could be converted to
huge economic and social gain, providing broadband
internet to more Americans, particularly for
underserved rural areas and first responders. We
believe it's possible to marry the benefits of mobile
devices for consumers with the protection of fixed
devices for TV broadcasters and other incumbent users
of this spectrum (including wireless microphones) --
in part by using geolocation technology that would
prevent a white space device from transmitting over
channels that are in use.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GooglePublicPolicyBlog/~3/290157663/using-geolocation-to-prevent.html
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/wireless.htm

D Block Rides Again! And the NPRM Is Already
Released!, Tales from the Sausage Factory
If I weren't generally pleased with my quick flip
through of the Commission's Latest Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking on D Block, I would declare it a true sign
of the coming of the Apocalypse. Amidst the Mighty
Earthquakes, the Great Whirlwinds, an...
http://www.wetmachine.com/item/1186
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/wireless.htm

Study: Comcast, Cox Throttle P2P Round-the-Clock, IP
Democracy
A study by the German Max Planck Institute for
Software Systems has purportedly revealed that despite
Comcast's contention that it throttles P2P
applications only during periods of peak congestion,
in fact the nation's top cable operator "blocks"
BitTorrent applications at all hours of the day.
http://www.ipdemocracy.com/archives/2008/05/15/#002992
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Glasnost: Results from tests for BitTorrent traffic
blocking, Max Planc Institute
More than 8,000 users from locations around the world
have used our tool, Glasnost, to test whether their
BitTorrent traffic is being manipulated. On this page,
we present preliminary results from these tests. The
tests were conducted between March 18th and May 15th
2008.
http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/results/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Congressmen Not Happy About Charter's Plan To Sell Out
Users To Advertisers, Techdirt
While Charter Communications is out defending its
efforts to inject ads into your surfing activities by
collecting data on where you surf, it appears that
some powerful Congressional Representatives are
suggesting that Charter might want to think twice
about implementing this. Reps. Ed Markey and Joe
Barton (who both have a fair amount of power in
Congress) have sent Charter a letter warning the
company that doing this without letting people
affirmatively opt-in may violate the Communications
Act, which limits what cable companies can do with
customer records. What's really surprising is that,
after so much anger over similar efforts in the UK
(including similar questions about legality) that
Charter forged right ahead with a nearly identical
plan in the US, positioning it as an "enhancement."
Update And on top of this, reports are now coming out
that opt-ing out of this system isn't so easy after
all.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080516/1538271138.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Yet More Proof That Comcast (and Cox) Are Deliberately
Blocking BitTorrent; I Await the Whacky We
, Tales
from the Sausage Factory
There are those still clinging to the desperate hope
that somehow critics of Comcast's “network management”
policy of “delaying” BitTorrent packets “only during
peak congestion periods” will be discredited. The...
http://www.wetmachine.com/item/1191
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Latest Study Confirms Cox Traffic Shaping; Comcast
Misleading Again, Techdirt
A bunch of folks have been submitting various news
reports claiming the "news" that Cox is traffic
shaping just like Comcast is -- but that's hardly
news. We had a story about that last November. What is
a bit more interesting out of the same study (though,
not very surprising) is the news that Comcast has been
less than forthright in explaining what it's doing.
While Comcast denied any traffic shaping for the
longest time, when it finally 'fessed up (just a bit)
it said that it only used traffic shaping during peak
hours. However, the research suggests otherwise. After
testing a bunch of users at various times, this new
study found no noticeable difference in blockages
based on time.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080515/1756281127.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

Elude Your ISP's BitTorrent Blockade, Slashdot
StonyandCher writes "More and more ISPs are blocking
or throttling traffic to the peer-to-peer file-sharing
service, even if you are downloading copyright free
content. Have you been targeted? How can you get
around the restrictions? This PC World report shows
you a number of tips and tools can help you determine
whether you're facing a BitTorrent blockade and, if
so, help you get around it."
http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotYourRightsOnline/~3/290569731/article.pl
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutralp2p.htm

comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties
for April, comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring
the digital world, today released its monthly analysis
of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties
for April 2008 based on data from the comScore Media
Metrix service. April saw Google Sites attain the
number one spot in the Top 50 U.S. Properties ranking
for the first time in its history with a total
audience of more than 141 million visitors. Content
categories showing gains in April included job search,
career resources, and television sites.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/comscore/~3/291086703/release.asp
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/data/

Google sets sights on IPv6, CNET
The number of IP addresses available in the current
iteration of the Internet Protocol is likely to run
out in 2011, so Google has decided to promote the next
version.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9943822-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ipv6.htm

Internet address space: economic considerations in the
management of IPv4 and in the deployment of IPv6, OECD
With nearly 85% of all available Internet addresses
already in use, experts believe that, if current
trends continue, Internet addresses will run out by
2011. What next? Will the Internet be able to scale to
connect billions of people and devices to the
Internet? This new report focuses on possible
scenarios and on the need to deploy the newer version
of the Internet Protocol, IP version 6 (IPv6).
http://www.oecd.org/department/0,3355,en_2649_34223_1_1_1_1_1,00.html?rssChId=34223#40605971
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ipv6.htm

Google Officially Announces Introduction of IPv6,
CircleID
Google search is available over IPv6 at
ipv6.google.com (you'll need an IPv6 connection to
view it)... From the official blog: "We hope that by
allowing every computer and mobile device on the
network to talk to each other directly -- an idea
known as the "end-to-end principle" that was crucial
to the original design of the Internet -- IPv6 will
allow the continued growth of the Internet and enable
new applications yet to be invented."
http://www.circleid.com/posts/851411_google_announces_ipv6/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ipv6.htm

Comcast Van Drag Race Injures 3-Year-Old - As if
Comcast subcontractors needed any more bad news....,
dslreports
Here I was thinking Comcast subscontractors probably
didn't need any more bad news, given they're
consistently in the news for falling asleep, murder,
digging in the wrong yard or blowing up laptops,
dishwashers or homes. But user uid://486895 submits
this Consumerist report that says two dragracing
Comcast vans were responsible for an accident last
weekend in Huntsville, Alabama. As a result of the
accident, one 3-Yr-Old Girl was temporarily placed on
life support, and remains unconscious, according to
WAAF in Huntsville.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Van-Drag-Race-Injures-3YearOld-94400
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/comcast.htm

Syria - Blogger gets three-year prison sentence for
posting article critical of secret services -
14.05.2008, rsf
Reporters Without Borders today condemned a three-year
jail sentence against blogger Tariq Biassi
(http://alzohaly.ektob.com/) for posting an article
criticising the Syrian secret services in an article
posted on an online forum. “This punishment is
unjustifiable. It sanctions the publication of an
article, of which it has not even been proved that
Tariq Biassi was the author. We urge the Syrian
justice system to reconsider its verdict”, the
organisation said.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26986
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/me.htm

Score Two for Defendants in the P2P Wars, EFF
Yesterday saw two important court decisions in the
file-sharing wars, both favoring defendants. First,
Tanya Andersen, a single mother on a disability
pension who successfully fought off allegations of
illegal file-sharing, was awarded almost $110,000 in
fees and costs. Andersen had insisted she had done
nothing illegal, and demanded that the RIAA produce
evidence linking her to the alleged infringement. The
RIAA couldn't, and dropped the case instead--but not
soon enough to avoid being hit with a fee award. Of
course, this
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/score-two-defendants-p2p-wars
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ip/p2p.htm

CBS to pay $1.8bn for CNET Networks, FT
The US broadcast network said it had agreed to pay
$1.8bn in cash to acquire CNET Networks, a technology
and entertainment website operator
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bb224a2e-2271-11dd-93a9-000077b07658.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/

Senators Question FBI About Unlawful Internet Archive
Record Demand, EFF
A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter (pdf) to
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III this week demanding
answers about an illegitimate National Security Letter
(NSL) served on the Internet Archive last fall. The
Archive joined with EFF and the ACLU to fend off the
NSL, which sought information about an Archive patron
that the FBI had no authority to gather. After
extensive negotiations, the FBI agreed last month to
withdraw the letter and lift an accompanying gag order
that had been imposed on the Archive, EFF, and ACLU.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/senators-question-fbi-about-unlawful-internet-arch
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/bigbrother.htm

A girl’s suicide is a very tragic case, but should it
be a “federal case”?, CDT
Proving again the adage that “bad cases make bad law,”
the federal U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles today
obtained an indictment of a woman named Lori Drew, a
mother in Missouri who is alleged to have created a
false profile on MySpace (posing as a teenage boy)
that led a neighboring girl to commit suicide.
Background on the case can be found in the Washington
Post.
http://blog.cdt.org/2008/05/15/a-girl%e2%80%99s-suicide-is-a-very-tragic-case-but-should-it-be-a-%e2%80%9cfederal-case%e2%80%9d/
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/crime.htm

Prosecutors Go Overboard In Indicting Woman Involved
In MySpace Hoax That Resulted In Suicide, Techdirt
Before we get into the details, I think everyone can
agree that the story of Megan Meier is quite tragic.
She was the 13-year-old girl who was "friended" on
MySpace by a boy with whom she became close online.
After a certain amount of time, the boy turned on her,
trying to end the friendship and saying that "the
world would be better off without her." After
receiving this message, Megan committed suicide.
Later, it was discovered that the boy in question
never existed -- and was part of a hoax perpetrated by
some of Megan's friends/neighbors, including the
mother of one of Megan's former
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080515/1832441128.shtml
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/crime.htm

Tragic Case Could Lead to Very Bad Legal Precedent, IP
Democracy
Hunting for some way to bring justice in a very sad
case, Missouri federal prosecutors in California are
seeking to set a very dangerous precedent in Internet
law that could make criminals of us all. By way of
background, a 47 year-old mother, Lori Drew, along
with her teenager daughter and another teenage girl,
befriended online a 13 year-old girl Megan Meier of
Dardenne Prairie, Missouri by signing up for a MySpace
account under the fake identity of a teenage boy
"Josh," all in a cruel hoax to hurt Megan.
http://www.ipdemocracy.com/archives/2008/05/16/#002993
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/crime.htm

NATO backs cyber defence centre, Globe and Mail
Seven nations to set up defence centre in Estonia
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheGlobeAndMail-Technology/~3/290323767/
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/cyberwar.htm

Spam Spikes: A Real Risk to Your Business, CW
A close look at the data provides a clear picture of
how spammers vary their tactics to overwhelm
traditional corporate email defenses, through changes
in duration, frequency and intensity among others.
This white paper will help you understand these
threats to your business, and how MessageLabs provides
a unique solution.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/~r/Computerworld/News/~3/290975734/whitepapers.do
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/spam/

IP-Enabled Services; Implementation of Sections 255
and 251(a)(2) of The Communications Act of 1934, as
Enacted by The, Fed Reg
In this document, the Consumer and Governmental
Affairs Bureau (Bureau) grants interconnected voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers an extension
of time to route 711dialed calls to an appropriate
telecommunications relay service (TRS) center in the
context of 711dialed calls in which the calling
party's telephone
http://thefederalregister.com/d.p/2008-05-15-E8-10755
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/voip/ada.htm

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