[Cybertel-Ann] 9.10.8 :: You Cant Handle Any More "Truth" Clichés :: Make Your Lawyer Happy - Share More Wfi! :: What's an "ARMIS"? :: You May Already be a PMJL Winner! :: Why is the FiOS Guy Holding a Kindle?? ::

Wed Sep 10 09:31:47 PDT 2008

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             CyberTelecom News  
      Federal Internet Law and Policy
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Bart: We want the truth!
Sideshow Bob: You want the truth?  You can't handle the truth.  No truth-handler, you.  Bah!  I deride your truth-handling abilities.
Judge: Will you get to the point?

The FCC Can’t Handle the Truth, Save the Internet
America is the birthplace of the Internet, but judging by the current state of the broadband market, you’d think we’re a late bloomer.  U.S. consumers face high prices, slow speeds and little to no choice among broadband providers. The Federal Communications Commission – the agency charged by Congress with the duty of facilitating a top-rate broadband marketplace — hasdone little to improve this situation.  In fact, they’ve actually managed to make things worse.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2008/09/09/the-fcc-cant-handle-the-truth/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/706.htm

Google and Others Back Satellite Internet Project,
Aimed at Connecting 3 Billion People, CircleID
An entrepreneur's quest to
use satellites to bring high-speed Internet service to poor, remote countries
is nearing liftoff with a major investment from some big names, including
Google Inc. the WSJ reports. On Tuesday, O3b Networks (named after "other
three billion people") founded and run by 38-year-old telecommunications
entrepreneur Greg Wyler, is expected to announce plans to launch as many as 16
satellites that could provide service to Africa, the Middle East and parts of
Latin America by the end of 2010.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/o3b_satellite_internet_project/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/satellite.htm

FCC to Re-Auction D-Block Spectrum - Public safety
spectrum up for sale with more relaxed terms, dslreports
There was one section of
spectrum that failed to sell earlier this year during the big 700 MHz spectrum
auction held by the FCC. The D-Block, often dubbed the public safety portion of
the spectrum, was being auctioned under the condition that the buyer must build
out an interoperable emergency communications network as part of the deal. Very
few buyers were interested in this and the spectrum block failed to meet its
reserve price at auction so it wasn t sold.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/FCC-to-ReAuction-DBlock-Spectrum-97542
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/w700.htm

Wi-Fi Theft May Be Defense in Filesharing Cases -International cases establishing history of successes with this defense, dslreports
Two women who were facing court charges in Denmark for illegal filesharing have successfully used the defense that their Wi-Fi had been piggybacked by unknown users and that they therefore are not responsible for any illegal p2p sharing that occurred on their connections. Both women admitted that they had p2p software on theircomputers but insisted that they weren t the ones doing the filesharing. The
court agreed that it was not their responsibility to pay fines for filesharing that they couldn t be proven to have committed themselves. This is not thefirst case in which this ruling has occurred. A
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/WiFi-Theft-May-Be-Defense-in-Filesharing-Cases-97519
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/wifisecurity.htm

Comcast Promises WiMax Bundles - Takes shots at new DSL offers…, dslreports
Comcast this week insisted that their deal with Sprint, Google and Intel to offer mobile WiMax broadbandservice should be finished by the end of this year. Comcast President Steve
Burke promises the joint venture will offer Comcast customers "wireless data speeds that Verizon and AT&T can't match," and confirmed that the service will be bundled with Comcast services. Burke also took a shot at the telcos' well publicized efforts to bring in more DSL customers. "There'snothing they can do,"
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Promises-WiMax-Bundles-97608
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/wimax.htm

No CDA immunity for letting co-defendant use computer to post material, Internet Cases
Professor Goldman points us to a recent decision in a case where the plaintiff alleged that one of the individual defendants “allowed [a co-defendant] to use ‘a computer registered in her name’ to make . . . defamatory statements.” The defendants filed a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, arguing that the Communications Decency Act (CDA)at 47 U.S.C. 230 barred the claims. The court denied the motion.
http://blog.internetcases.com/2008/09/09/no-cda-immunity-for-letting-co-defendant-use-computer-to-post-material/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/cda/samaritan.htm

FCC Kills Telco Reporting Requirements - Nation's five largest telcos get huge gift from Kevin Martin, dslreports 
Last week we noted that the FCC was expected to give a major gift to AT&T, by no longer requiring the carrier provide data on network reliability, customer satisfaction and infrastructure investment. Instead, over the weekend the FCC gave that gift to all five of the nation's largest telcos (AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Frontier and Embarq), with a few exceptions. In order to get approval for the move from FCC Democrats, FCC boss Kevin Martin had to promise they'd continue to require reliability and satisfaction data for two years. From the order:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/FCC-Kills-Telco-Reporting-Requirements-97566
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/accounting.htm

Comcast Wins Lottery on BitTorrent Appeal., Tales fromthe Sausage Factory
Yesterday, the Panel on Multijurisdictional Litigation (PMJL) awarded the Comcast-BitTorrent Appeal to the D.C. Circuit. Obviously I would prefer to be elsewhere for the same reasonComcast wants to be there (despite being actually located in the...
http://www.wetmachine.com/item/1314
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutralp2p.htm

U.S. 3G Adoption Rivals Europe, Tech Industry and Regulation
Those of you who like to keep score might find this item interesting. It would be interesting to take comparative look at pricing for these services as well. In any case, I guess it pretty much renders moot the discussions about the different airtime charging schemes (caller pays vs. mobile pays) and multiple standards!
http://telcom2935.blogspot.com/2008/09/us-3g-adoption-rivals-europe.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/data/broadband.htm

Earthlink Expands Presence In California - Will offercable broadband via Time Warner Cable, dslreports
Earthlink is in a bit of a bind. The company lost $80 million on Muni-Fi last year, their investments in broadband over powerline have gone nowhere, the government says they can't share access to next-generation broadband networks, and their effort to run an MVNO (Helio) flamed out spectacularly. What's left? The company is stillallowed to offer access via Time Warner Cable's cable broadband network as a
condition of the $109 billion Time Warner AOL merger, and for the first time in a while the
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Earthlink-Expands-Presence-In-California-97611
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/earthlink.htm

Google bends to Chrome privacy criticism, CW
Google has decided to render anonymous the data it collects from its Chrome Web browser within 24 hours, amove that follows concerns raised by privacy advocates about the data.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/click.phdo?i=3c216689b54ee44f45967bbbf257b819
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/google.htm

Another step to protect user privacy, Google
Today, we're announcing a new logs retention policy: we'll anonymize IP addresses on our server logs after 9months. We're significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy
to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GooglePublicPolicyBlog/~3/387565473/another-step-to-protect-user-privacy.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/google.htm

Who Knew FiOS Installers Used Amazon Kindles? - Verizon's latest salvo in cable ad wars...., dslreports
Just as an amusing non-news aside, CNET notes that Verizon's latest ad for FiOS features a FiOS installerwho uses an Amazon Kindle to schedule installation appointments. Apparently,
Verizon just wanted to portray themselves as technically sophisticated (the cable guy in the ad still uses a clipboard), even if FiOS techs don't use e-book readers for appointments, and ironically the Kindle is powered by Sprint EVDO.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Who-Knew-FiOS-Installers-Used-Amazon-Kindles-97590
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/verizon.htm

Google-Yahoo deal to be probed by former top DOJlawyer, report says, CW
The U.S. Department of Justice has hired one of its own former top attorneys to help in its probe todetermine whether to challenge the Google-Yahoo advertising deal on antitrust
grounds, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
http://feeds.computerworld.com/click.phdo?i=5df89fd01a19555065881c5fe4391f05
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/yahoo.htm

Subpoena to university in P2P case must give time tonotify parents, Internet Cases
Plaintiff record companies, using Media Sentry, found the IP address of a John Doe file-sharing defendant, and filed suit against Doe in federal court for copyright infringement. As in any case where a defendant is known only by his or her IP address, the record companies needed some discovery to ascertain the name and physical addressmatching that IP address. But the federal rules of procedure say that without a
court order, a party cannot seek discovery until the parties have conferred pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f).
http://blog.internetcases.com/2008/09/10/subpoena-to-university-in-p2p-case-must-give-time-to-notify-parents/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ip/p2p.htm

426,487 Reasons Why Metatags Still Matter (In Court)--Venture Tape v. McGills, Tech & Marketing LawVenture Tape Corp. v. McGills
Glass Warehouse, 2008 WL 3959997 (1st Cir. Aug. 28, 2008). For more...
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2008/09/418922_reasons.htm
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ip/search.htm

Wilmington, North Carolina: First All Digital - First city to make move, ahead of the February 17 deadline…, dslreports
"With the flick of an eight-foot switch at midday Monday, this Southern city became the first market
in the U.S. to make the change to digital-only broadcasting," announces
the Associated Press. The eight-foot switch was part of a downtown marketing
event held in the city center at noon today. The FCC and cable industry have
been alerting the nation's grandmothers that the digital TV transition will
arrive on February 17, 2009, requiring those who still enjoy The Price Is Right
on analog sets and rabbit ears to purchase a digital converter. The FCC is in
the process of mailing two $40 coupons for digital converter boxes to anyone
who requests them. Despite the very loud marketing campaign, it's
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Wilmington-North-Carolina-First-All-Digital-97568
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/

Steve Jobs: NBC Universal returning to iTunes, CNET
Apple CEO announces the feudis over, but did NBC Universal finally get the financial terms it wanted?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10036393-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/

Prisons Upset That Prisoners Don't Get Discounts On
Digital TV Converters, Techdirt
As you probably have heard, the US will be shutting down analog TV broadcasts early next year, as the conversion to digital is complete. For most TV watchers, this won't matter one bit. For anyone who watches TV via cable or satellite TV, the change means nothing. It only impacts those who watch TV-over-the-air and who don't have a digitally-enabled TV or conversion box. So, as part of the effort to move the transition
along smoothly, the gov't is handing out coupons to individuals that can be used to pay for a converter box.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080905/0304192179.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/

Zillow, newspapers expand tie-up, Lost Remote
Last year, Zillow cut a deal
with a newspaper consortium to run Zillow ads on its real estate sites. Now the
deal is expanding, with members of the consortium and Zillow selling ads on
each others sites — a local real estate advertising network. Zillow is reaching
more than 5 million unique monthly visitors - giving the
http://www.lostremote.com/2008/09/08/zillow-newspapers-expand-tie-up/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/news.htm

NYC's 911 system upgraded to accept photos, video, CNET
Tipsters can now send images
from computers and Web-enabled cell phones and PDAs to the city's 911 and
non-emergency hot lines to report crimes and quality-of-life issues.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10037418-94.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/voip/911.htm

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