The New York Times Victoria Shannon has this piece today that should spook citizens of Germany and The Netherlands. Both countries are seeking more expansive powers to track Internet and phone use, going beyond an already discomforting EU directive.
In Germany, under a proposed law, Internet users would not be allowed to create fictitious email accounts to bid in auctions or receive commercial email (there goes Yahoo!’s business in Germany). Aliases would be allowed but they would always have to be traceable back to the owner. Any email registrations would have to be verified by some kind of identity verification.
In The Netherlands, a draft law would require phone companies to save records of a caller’s precise location during an entire mobile phone conversation. One attorney suggests that this law might even make prepaid cellphones illegal.
The cause of the tightened monitoring is, of course, the rise in terrorist activity, which lead to the original EU directive regarding expanded and longer data storage requirements for telecommunications carriers. But, forcing people to give up their multiple email accounts — or making them feeling queasy when they talk on the phone — can hardly make anyone feel safer.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:51 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The Washington Post’s Charles Babington has this article today built around the following idea: Democratic presidential candidates have to support net neutrality because if they don’t, the liberal blogosphere will eat them alive. As everybody knows by now, blogs play a far more important role in Democratic party politics than they do in Republican circles.
A veteran Democratic consultant who spoke on condition of anonymity was more blunt. Among Democratic candidates, she said, “if you’re not for net neutrality, then the blogs will kick your” rear. The grass-roots groups that strongly favor it are relatively small but very noisy, she said, “and you just don’t want to have to deal with that.”
Hmmm…it’s true that every major Democratic presidential contender is in favor of some form of net neutrality. But I would argue that’s true because net neutrality became a partisan issue almost at the outset, and good Democratic leaders embrace the party’s positions.
But, it would be very, very cool if the liberal blogosphere had the power to scare Presidential candidates into adopting positions out of fear that their rears would be kicked. It would be proof that bloggers, and not politicians, rule.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 1:27 PM | Print | Comments (0)Satellite radio rivals Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio announced yesterday the two companies plan to merge in a deal that would create a combined enterprise worth an estimated $13 billion. Stressing that the combination is a merger of equals, the companies have spelled out a stock exchange that will end up giving XM and Sirius shareholders 50% of the combined company.
Hollywood veteran and current Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin will become CEO of the combined company and XM’s current Chairman Gary Parsons will become CEO of the combined company. The board will consist of 12 directors, including Karmazin, Parsons, four independent members designated by each company as well as one representative each from investors General Motors and American Honda. Hugh Panero, CEO of XM, will leave when the merger closes.
XM and Sirius, beset by competition and increased costs as they outbid each other for top talent such as Howard Stern and Martha Stewart, claim the deal will help them create a radio powerhouse capable of surviving in the iPod and Internet radio era by enabling the combined company to offer “best of breed” programming. The combined company will have $1.5 billion in estimated annual revenue and serve a total of 14 million subscribers.
Given that each company uses different technology, XM and Sirius plan to develop a range of multi-functional devices capable of receiving the other’s signal, which would benefit chip makers and device manufacturers, not to mention consumer electronics retail outlets.
During a call held this morning to discuss the deal, Karmazin said that the merger will result in $3 billion to $7 billion in cost savings. Cash flow will ramp up as the efficiencies kick in and as the company leverages “the brightest minds and creative geniuses from both companies.”
The real challenge to the deal, however, is the uncertain ability for Sirius and XM to get the merger approved by the federal antitrust and regulatory authorities. The success in those endeavors depends very much on getting the feds to see that the mobile radio market is a lot bigger than just “satellite radio.” By merging together, Sirius and XM will eliminate altogether any competition in the satellite radio sector.
But, the companies argue, the market for radio services has mushroomed over the past ten years as Apple’s iTunes and Internet radio have swiped market share from both traditional and satellite radio providers. “Consumers today have a significantly broader range of audio entertainment options than was the case when we conceived our companies over ten years ago,” Karmazin said during the call. “I’m sure that the regulatory approval process is on everybody’s mind. I can assure that both companies have done their homework on this issue.”
Parsons underscored this point. “Satellite radio is still a small player by comparison with moderate market share against these giants,” specifically online radio channels that are available to 230 million PCs in the U.S. and the 39 million iPods in service.
Although the Justice Department might see the sense in the argument that the relevant market should be expanded to include these new forms of radio options, the tougher nut to crack will be the Federal Communications Commission, which has to approve the transfer of satellite licenses from XM and Sirius to the new company. To sway the FCC, the companies will have to argue that the deal is “in the public interest.”
“We would not enter into this deal if we were not confident that it is in the public interest,” Parsons said during the call. “We believe that a thoughtful analysis of that will clearly recognize the broader marketplace that is there.”
Despite the uphill battle in getting the feds to bless the deal, Sirius and XM are banking on receiving regulatory approvals within nine months, and closing the deal by year-end.
(Article reprinted from today’s IP Media Monitor.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 1:14 PM | Print | Comments (0)
In a move widely interpreted to be a giant obscene gesture aimed at Google and YouTube, Viacom has entered into a web video distribution pact with Joost, the start-up launched by Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Under the agreement, Viacom’s MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures will provide entire TV shows and movies via the Joost platform.
Joost hopes to provide “broadcast quality” video services over the Internet and has, until now, struggled to gain access to high-caliber TV content. Unlike Google, which has frustrated top program providers with its seeming insensitivity to the content protection concerns held by Hollywood and TV programming networks, Joost has positioned itself as a “piracy-proof” Internet platform that guarantees copyright protections for rights holders.
Viacom plans to offer full-length TV shows from a variety of its MTV Networks’ channels. Among the programs that will be available on Joost’s platform are Laguna Beach, Beavis & Butthead, Real World, Punk’d and My Super Sweet Sixteen from MTV and Stella, CCP’s and Freak Show from Comedy Central. Nickelodeon, CMT: Country Music Television, MTV2, Logo, Spike TV, mtvU, and Gametrailers.com will also provide content. VH1 will contribute episodes of Flavor of Love, Surreal Life, and I Love New York. BET’s Networks’ offerings will include Beef, DMX: Soul of a Man, Comic View and American Gangster. Most interesting of all, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage and Paramount Classics will provide full-length feature films from its catalog of classics and recent releases.
There can be no doubt that this is a humbling piece of news to the Googlers who have managed to tick off most of the traditional media businesses with their purported hard-ball negotiations. Google, it is said, lobbed a veiled threat to Viacom (and other TV content providers) that it would not use its content protection system for filtering copyrighted video on YouTube works unless it had a deal in hand with the content provider.
Whatever the case may be, Google and YouTube, heretofore unstoppable Internet forces, have entered the big leagues — they’ve been thrown a knuckle ball by a major Hollywood studio and TV programming provider.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:18 PM | Print | Comments (2)
Blogs We Read
