Tag Archives: tech policy

Study: net neutrality could lead to "devastating" job losses

If you're looking for the Armageddon version of net neutrality analysis, search no further than a
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Verizon: Comcast P2P blocking was wrong, we won’t do it

Verizon isn't a fan of the FCC's proposed "third way" approach to network neutrality rules, and the company's top policy people have suggested that the Internet needs an entirely new "policy framework." Such a framework will require massive wrangling in Congress, so in the short term, Verizon has partnered with Google and others to find a "consensus" framework for the short-term. Is this a plan to avoid government rules on openness and turn the company into a maniacal bit-blocker? At a recent panel discussion (PDF), Verizon policy exec Link Hoewing said no—the company has no wish to go down Comcast's P2P blocking route, and he called out Comcast for its earlier approach. "We came up with a standard that says any of the players on the Internet should not do anything that harms users or competition," said Hoewing. "And I think that's a pretty important policy principle
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Accused spammer demands $135M from Spamhaus; gets $27,002

It must have seemed like a pretty good gig at first: an e-mail marketing firm called e360—located just up the road from us here in Chicago—objected to being called a "spammer" and sued UK-based Spamhaus in federal court. When Spamhaus refused to show up for the lawsuit, a judge issued a default ruling in favor of e360 and awarded the company and its main employee, Dave Linhardt, the $11.7 million he claimed in losses without forcing him to prove said losses. When a Chicago law firm offered to represent Spamhaus free of charge and took the case to the Court of Appeals, the appellate judge was appalled; e360 had to prove damages, not just state them . Read the comments on this post
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Three ways to shift spectrum from TV to wireless broadband

When was the last time you read a spectrum management document that concluded with a paragraph like this? "Spectrum policy is not easy. Technology changes.
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Deep packet inspection soon to be $1.5 billion business

Deep packet inspection (DPI) hardware continues to sell, with ABI Research now estimating that vendors will move $1.3 billion of the stuff in 2015, up from $207 million in 2008. According to Infonetics Research, DPI will be a $1.5 billion business—by 2013. What will DPI devices be used for? According to ABI, "optimizing" mobile networks will be one of the chief uses—and by "optimizing" they mean limiting or prioritizing traffic from data-hungry mobile devices.
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Enjoy a vuvuzela-free World Cup, thanks to technology

The plastic vuvuzela noisemaker, scourge of the human ear and omnipresent World Cup companion, may be bad for our hearing—but it has been terrific for our brains. Around the world, human ingenuity has been harnessed in pursuit of a single goal: removing the vuvuzela's drone from World Cup football broadcasts through noise-canceling devices, EQ settings, and Linux. Read the comments on this post
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A year of digital TV: who won the transition?

Remember the DTV transition ? The nationwide switch from analog to digital over-the-air television broadcasting crossed the finish line a year ago this past Saturday. So why do we feel like we're asking something akin to "Remember gopher ?" or "Remember the BBS days ?" That's probably because after all the sturm und drang over the event subsided, there was remarkably little interest in what happened to the millions of people and almost 1,800 full-power TV stations impacted by the change. Who would have predicted such a blasé attitude back then
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From post office to ‘Net: FBI’s Most Wanted cybercriminals

Photos of bank robbers used to line the walls of post offices across the US as part of the FBI's "Most Wanted" lists. You may not notice them when you have the occasion to walk into your local post office, but the Most Wanted lists are alive and well. Those lists have entered the digital age on the FBI's website, and there's a whole category dedicated to the top five most wanted cybercriminals .
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Senators to FCC: get that white space thing going… now

Two prominent United States Senators have told the Federal Communications Commission that it's time to fast track "white space" devices for sending and receiving broadband. "We request that you prioritize action on white spaces and urge the FCC to adhere to its Broadband Action Agenda and complete final rules in the third quarter of 2010," Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) wrote to the FCC on Monday. The letter also notes that it has been nearly two years since the FCC first authorized the technology , which will allow devices to utilize unused television channels for wireless broadband. "As you know, spectrum below 1 Gigahertz is both scarce and valuable," they added
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IEEE working group considers kinder, gentler DRM

People don't like DRM in large part because it removes much of their control over things like e-books, music, and movies. Want to loan a DRMed song to a friend? You probably can't, even though sharing a physical item like a CD remains trivial. A new IEEE working group has an ambitious plan to change this and return control over "digital personal property" to consumers. DRM's electronic tethers would be cut, but rightsholders would not need to remove all limits on sharing.
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