Fighting Video Game Cyber Crime
This week has produced some really unique stories involving the upcoming release of Modern Warfare 2.? Video game piracy generally slides under the table, and efforts by content creators are generally never heard about in the papers and blogs.? But with MW2 looking to be the best sold video game in the history of video games, the attention is at an all time high. I’ve put up a post over on DigitalSociety.org on MW2 and its dealings with cyber criminals. You can find it here. -nick Read More →
Windows 7 Whopper Claims First Victim
We at techlobbyist love all things tech.? And that includes yesterdays release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system.? In celebration of that glorious event, we introduce to you the Windows 7 Whopper available in Japan and a video of its first victim. The thing is huge! Read More →
FCC NPRM Is Here…
The FCC’s announcement of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Net Neutrality rules rolled on as scheduled today.? The NPRM was approved and the recommended rules will spend the next several month under review and debate. A live blog of the event, along with some videos can be found here. I will be posting up Digital Society’s response as soon as they have it up. Read More →
George Ou Tackles Flaws In Berkman Study
Really great piece by George Ou looking at the flaws in the Berkman broadband study. Check it out. Read More →
Apple/AT&T/Google Still Fighting
Some thoughts I had on the fighting that continues mainly between AT&T and Google. “But Apple started it!” Posted over at DigitalSociety.org. -nick Read More →
What Am I Doing, You Ask?
Hi everyone, Just wanted to let you know that I’ve recently taken a position with DigitalSociety.org.? Here’s our official “about us”: Digital Society is a digital think tank that believes culture and commerce are inseparable, that the digital economy flourishes when people are free and rights are secure, and that free markets free people. Digital Society is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, funded by donations from Jon Henke and from Arts+Labs. We advocate for a pro-culture, pro-commerce digital society through research, analysis and debate on emerging technology issues. Personally, I’m handling content management and working as a research associate.? The first week or so has been great, and I’m enjoying the guys I’m getting to work with.? I suspect that you will see me linking to some of the work over there, but outside of that, I really do hope you drop by the site and look into some of the work that’s being done in keeping the free markets free. Best, -nick Read More →
FCC & Net Neutrality: Part 2
As with Part 1, my comments in bold. At a Crossroads Notwithstanding its unparalleled record of success, today the free and open Internet faces emerging and substantial challenges. We?ve already seen some clear examples of deviations from the Internet?s historic openness. We have witnessed certain broadband providers unilaterally block access to VoIP applications (phone calls delivered over data networks) and implement technical measures that degrade the performance of peer-to-peer software distributing lawful content. We have even seen at least one service provider deny users access to political content. And as many members of the Internet community and key Congressional leaders have noted, there are compelling reasons to be concerned about the future of openness. Without a doubt the FCC Chairman is correct on these points.? There have occurred violations to Net Neutrality over the years.? I can count them on my hand.? Some of these violations have been mistakes and rectified.? Others were corrected when public voices and other market forces corrected the problems within days or weeks.? Still other violations to neutrality occurred because of violations to the network administrators policy or because an end user was hijacking the network.? Traditionally, these few cases have been individuals using torrenting services that were receiving and distributing high amounts of data round the clock and causing other users at the node to experience low quality service.? In these cases, the private network makes a policy decision to either allow one individual to continue dominating the last-mile, or to violate Net Neutrality for the benefit of other paying customers. One reason has to do with limited competition among service providers. As American consumers make the shift from dial-up to broadband, their choice of providers has narrowed substantially. I don?t intend that remark as a policy conclusion or criticism — it is simply a fact about today?s marketplace that we... [Read More...]
FCC & Net Neutrality: Part 1
The Net Neutrality issue has been hot the last few months, and it probably won’t be cooling with the Fall weather.? There is already one bill sitting in committee, and another from Byron Dorgan and Olympia Snowe on the way.? In addition to this, the big news toward the end of September was the FCC’s policy statement on Net Neutrality.? This was accompanied by the launching of the FCC’s new site OpenInternet.gov to go along with it’s sister site, Broadband.gov. After reading over FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s speech and considering my comments, I felt that a lot of the nuances of what he talked about may get lost in a simple response.? So I decided that I would just break the whole thing down.? I’ll be splitting his speech up over several parts and providing responses to what he had to say. If you’d care to listen to the speech in full first, then here you go: You can also find the text of the speech unmolested by my comments here. So here comes our break down, paragraph by paragraph.? My comments in bold. Prepared Remarks of Chairman Julius Genachowski The Brookings Institution, Washington DC September 21, 2009 I?d like to thank Brookings for hosting me and this discussion about the future of broadband and the Internet. We?ve just finished a summer of big-ticket commemorations, celebrating the 40th anniversaries of the Apollo landing and of Woodstock; 1969 was also a good year to be a kid in New York, with Joe Namath calling the Super Bowl, and the Knicks? season that ended with the legendary Willis Reed in Game 7. I grew up a long fly ball from Shea Stadium and soaked up every minute of the Miracle Mets? season. Maybe that?s why I tend to believe in miracles. But perhaps the most momentous birthday from that famous summer of 1969 went by just a couple of weeks ago with little mention. Just over forty years ago, a handful of engineers in a UCLA lab connected two computers with a 15-foot gray cable and transferred little... [Read More...]
Genachowski Extending Net Neutrality to Cell Networks
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the FCC Chairman Genachowski is going to establish Net Neutrality rules for cellular networks.? The rules which he plans to produce on Monday will outline how cellular companies should manage their networks.? Similar to the recent Net Neutrality bill introduced to Congress, the FCC guidelines would allow for “reasonable” network management of Internet networks for cellular carriers. This will be sure to rub carriers the wrong way, as many companies exclude certain applications on cell phones existing on their networks that would compete with those carriers ability to offer their own services.? For example, you have the recent Google Voice application being denied by AT&T/Apple from the iPhone because it bypasses AT&T’s ability to provide cell phone service. There will also exist a concern by network managers on what exactly “reasonable network management” is.? As this implies that the government will be able to step in and examine and then determine whether a company is managing their own network up to government standards.? Whatever those standards may be. We will be eagerly anticipating Genachowski’s comments on Monday. -nick Read More →
AT&T: Time Sensitive Services Not Priority in Broadband Expansion
AT&T’s FCC comments from the Broadband Expansion Comment period are up. You can read them here. In short, they believe that expansion into underserved and unserved communities should be about core Internet services.? The toys of the Internet, like gaming and streaming media, will have to take a back burner for the foreseeable future. You can find our full post on the issue at gamelobbyist.net. -nick Read More →
