The rumors have swirled in the blogosphere for weeks that Netflix is gearing up to launch a online movie download venture and according to a San Jose Mercury News piece penned by Dawn C. Chmielewski, the rumors are true.
Netflix is purportedly getting ready to launch the online rental service, which will work in conjunction with a Netflix-provided set-top box. Netflix execs say the service is simply a trial balloon, but it should look like other online movie web ventures such as Movielink or CinemaNow. (Tip of the hat to PVRBlog on this one).
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 6:48 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Courtesy of Joho the Blog, a group that calls itself First Mile.US issued yesterday something called the “Big Broadband Bill of Rights.” The document lays out an extensive list of rights covering broadband pipes, applications and devices, and details expectations for public officials involved in setting broadband rules and policies.
While the Bill of Rights reads well, and lists theoretically laudable goals, First Mile lost me right off the bat.
The first right listed:
You have the right to a big broadband pipe — no matter where you live, work or play. The pipe must be fast enough to support what you want to accomplish and must provide symmetric service.
First Mile doesn’t define “big” but the company states elsewhere on its website
Most experts agree that we need at least 100 megabits of broadband bandwidth to support the kind of applications we expect in the next five years. Some have even suggested that one gigabit of bandwidth is essential by 2010.
Really? Is FirstMile saying that it is a right for all citizens to have 100 Mbps, and conceivably 1 gigabit of bandwidth? What would the citizens do with all of that today? And who is delivering it, aside from a few scattered pilot projects?
FirstMile doesn’t say where it gets its funding, but we suspect that some kind of vested interest is behind this initiative. The company’s website says that it accepts “corporate and individual” donations, but the board is led by Jim Baller, a DC-based attorney who usually represents municipalities in their negotiations with cable operators.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 6:18 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Courtesy of Copyfight, President Bush last Friday created a new post to coordinate government efforts to combat foreign theft of copyrighted works. Bush tapped a man named Christian Israel to fill the slot of coordinator of international intellectual property enforcement at the Commerce Department.
Israel had previously been a deputy chief of staff at Commerce. According to the AP report of the announcement, Israel will head an interagency panel covering five government agencies and will report to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 6:00 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Montgomery County, Maryland is a hot-spot in the increasingly heated rivalry between cable operators and phone companies. And according to this Washington Post article, both industries had better watch their steps.
Montgomery County Council members have rebuked both Comcast and Verizon for treating their customers badly in the county. Comcast contends that Verizon has cut its cables while installing fiber optic lines in the county, leading to a surge in customer complaints. But Council Member Marilyn Praisner isn’t buying it.
“It is very frustrating to continue to get the volume of complaints we are getting — some of which, if they have any relation to Verizon’s damages, I can’t find them,” she said.
Verizon, however, is not off the hook. Praisner complained that Verizon caused a power outage at the home of Council member Michael Knapp after failing to notify neighborhood residents that it would be working there to install fiber optic lines.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 1:02 PM | Print | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thanks to Cory Doctorow in this Boing Boing item for flagging something in a Sacramento Bee article that is just out-and-out not right.
The article, published on Sunday, covered a student hacker who broke into his school’s computer system to change his grades. When the police went to the student’s home, they found a “cantenna,” a device for extending the range of Wi-Fi networks, which a a cop from the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force said is illegal. The article further went on to state that accessing any wireless networks that aren’t public is also illegal.
Cory’s catch:
Huh? I’m not sure which law-book these two are reading, but this is simply not true. If there are cops from a “Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force” in Sacramento who think that making your own WiFi antenna is illegal, I think the Bee and other papers should be covering it, to be sure, but not because it’s true: because it’s a shockingly stupid and dangerous thing for a cop to believe, especially one who is billed as some kind of high-tech specialist. Likewise, I’m not sure who told this reporter that accessing an open wireless network is illegal, but again, it’s not true. There are certainly circumstances where doing so is illegal, and others where it’s perfectly legal (for an unambiguous example of the latter, consider what happens if both you and your neighbor have a network called “linksys.” When you’re in the front of your house, you’re closer to your AP than his, so your laptop connects to your AP. When you go to the back bedroom, your computer seamlessly and transparently flips to your neighbor’s network. This isn’t lawbreaking: it’s standards-compliant behavior.)
Update: Cory spoke to Lt Lozito of the Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force who said he doesn’t remember whether he said cantennas are illegal and affirmed that they are, in fact, not illegal. Lozito also said he will post a statement about all this.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:53 AM | Print | Comments (1) | TrackBack
A good piece by National Journal’s Bara Vaida highlights the efforts by broadband-over-powerline advocates to make sure their nascent industry isn’t overlooked in the Telecom Act rewrite. BPL firms such as Current Communications and Ambient Corp. can’t match the lobbying firepower of the top telco and cable operators and work to influence the legislation through the United Powerline Council.
The biggest concern BPL faces: ham radio operators (who apparently carry a lot of politically weight — who knew?) want to stiffen rules adopted by the FCC last year that limit the interference caused by BPL operations.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:25 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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