The Senate’s super-speedy Telecom Act hearings agenda continues unabated tomorrow, but unlike today’s hearing on muni-broadband (I know that it’s an important subject but the hearing today was a real snoozer), tomorrow’s hearing promises to be more lively.
For one thing, the top executives for two telcos aiming for a two-tiered Internet will be testifying — but this is not a net neutrality hearing. The subject is video franchising and the phone companies would like a little relief from the kind of extensive franchise obligations imposed on cable operators by local governments. Cable operators, of course, don’t want to be the only terrestrial video provider saddled with building local public libraries or planting thousands of trees along municipal rights-of-way.
Witness for tomorrow’s hearing include:
Panel 1:
Tom Rutledge, Chief Operating Officer, Cablevision Systems Corporation
Ivan Seidenberg, Chief Executive Officer, Verizon Communications
Edward Whitacre, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T ,
Lori Panzino-Tiller, President, NATOA
Panel 2:
Brad Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Cavalier Telephone
Anthony Riddle, Executive Director, Alliance for Community Media
Gene Kimmelman, Senior Director of Public Policy, Consumers Union
Gigi B. Sohn, President and Co-Founder, Public Knowledge
Again, thanks to Peter Kiley of C-SPAN for the reminder. As usual, the hearing webcast is available the Senate Commerce Committee website. But better yet, check it out at C-SPAN.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 4:37 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The Recording Industry Association of America has a new target for its digital copyright crusade: iPod owners who sell their used devices that also happen to have music tracks on them. The RIAA contends, to the consternation of some intellectual property experts, that a consumer who sells a second-hand iPod complete with unerased music tracks is violating the copyright laws.
“Selling an iPod preloaded with music is no different than selling a DVD onto which you have burned your entire music collection,” the RIAA said in a statement. “Either act is a clear violation of U.S. copyright law. The RIAA is monitoring this means of infringement. In short: seller beware.”
Well, the RIAA may be rattling its saber a little too loudly here. According to one of eBay’s copyright attorneys, Andrew Bridges, the law is not that cut-and-dried.
“It really depends on the individual circumstances,” he explained. “I’m not sure the law is settled. If I’m a college student and I want to supplement my income by buying 100 iPods and taking my CD collection and putting it on those iPods and selling them at a significant premium, that’s probably not going to fly. But if I’ve had my iPod Shuffle for two years and I’m tired of it and I go out and buy a 60 gig video iPod and want to sell my old Shuffle, but don’t want to purge the music first, that’s probably legal.”
(Hat tip to Engadget.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 4:24 PM | Print | Comments (0)
This is a big week for congressional hearings — a House International Relations subcommittee on global human rights will be holding a hearing tomorrow dubbed “The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?” Executives from Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have been lined up to presumably take some heat for their controversial acquiescence to the Chinese government’s oppressive censorship policies.
In advance of the hearing, Yahoo has released a statement, “Yahoo!: Our Beliefs as a Global Internet Company,” outlining the company’s principles on issues that surround the censorship problem. One interesting aspect of the statement is the high degree to which Yahoo says the solution to the problem should be government-to-government dialog.
Rebecca MacKinnon isn’t buying that. If industry doesn’t lobby government for change, then nothing much will happen.
So if Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others sit back and say: this is the government’s business and don’t make concerted efforts to assist and lobby in China, we can conclude they’re not very serious.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:58 AM | Print | Comments (0)
As if Google investors need more reasons to flee the company, this Business Week online piece recaps the renaissance in search start-ups, with a particular focus on “social searching” and specialized search engines.
A flock of startups has descended on the lucrative search industry. Last year, $263 million in U.S. venture capital poured into 47 search outfits, says researcher Dow Jones VentureOne (DJ ). The figures have risen steadily since 2002, when $58 million went into nine startups. “It’s shocking to go from drought to flood as quickly as we have,” says Bradley J. Horowitz, Yahoo Inc.’s director of technology development.
One interesting idea floated in the piece: much like cable television exploded into niche channels during the 1980s, search may very well follow the same paradigm.
The shift may look like the evolution of TV, from a world dominated by the Big Three networks to one in which hundreds of cable channels specialize in topics from cooking to history. “People are looking for targeted, specific information that search engines can’t provide,” says Michael Yang, CEO of Become.com, a search engine focused on Internet shopping.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:40 AM | Print | Comments (0)
BT is gearing up to become Europe’s first provider to deliver full-fledged TV signals to mobile phones. At the 3GSM confernce yesterday, the UK-based company announced its first deal for the five channel video offering. Virgin Mobile has agreed to become BT’s first customer for BT’s Movio wholesale mobile TV product, which, in addition to five TV channels, offers 350 radio channels. The service is slated for launch this summer and requires a special handset.
The on-again off-again MovieBeam is launching in 29 markets today its over-the-air VOD service, which uses the vertical blanking interval in broadcast TV signals to deliver movies to specialized set-top boxes.
That’s right, to use MovieBeam consumers have to buy another set-top box, not exactly a popular device to begin with, and worse, they have to pony up $250 bucks (with a $50 mail-in rebate) upfront for the unit. On top of that, an initiaton fee of $30 is required, and recent releases cost $3.99, with an additional $1 thrown in for HD format films.
Do I need to say more about MovieBeam? Cisco, Intel and a group of venture capitalists plunked $48.5 million into the venture and got a majority stake for their cash from MovieBeam developer Disney, which spent $100 million on the effort in the days when “datacasting” premium TV signals was still a viable concept.
I suppose with that kind of sunk capital, it’s at least worth an effort to see if the MovieBeam service will sell. But it’s not really 1999 again and I’m wagering that when all is said and done, the sales of MovieBeam boxes will number in the single thousands.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:15 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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