mediageek

Month: May 2006

  • Trouble in the Temples of Christian Broadcasting

    My pal John Anderson was my guest on the radioshow this evening to tell us about the newest dirt on the Calvary Satellite Network, the Clear Channel of Christian broadcasting. It seems that the two principal churches behind the network, the Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, ID and the Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, are…

  • Bit-Torrenting TV Shows — Why Do It?

    No Media Kings interviewed one man responsible for releasing a significant quantity of series TV shows onto Bit Torrent to find out why. It’s an interesting read: If you try to approach file-sharing the way I do, it is a library. A library exists to provide copyrighted materials to the general public without purchasing, pending…

  • Internet Freedom Fight Brewing in the House

    Today the House Judiciary Committee passed the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006,” HR 5417, which offers what SaveTheInternet calls “meaningful protections for Network Neutrality.” All 14 of the committee’s Democrats supported it along with 6 Republicans. 13 Republicans voted against it. Today’s vote is shot across the bow in a turf war, as…

  • A Wee Little Bit of Justice…

    It’s not media, but the news made me smile: Enron’s Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were just found guilty of fraud and conspiracy, which carry sentences of 5 to 10 years. Of course these evil fuckers will appeal, but at least they’ll squirm some more. Yet it’s amazing that these greedy bastards will get less…

  • Telcos Exploiting Their Bully Pulpit

    Just read an interesting anecdote reblogged at SaveTheInternet. Apparently, AT&T’s astroturf group TV 4US is now telemarketing to ask people: “The internet is going to be more expensive, because big companies like Microsoft and Google are wasting all our bandwidth. Do you think consumers should pay for that? Or should the big companies that are…

  • Catching Up with the Radioshow: The Yes Men Spoof Halliburton, Bringing Transmitters to Central America, Musicians Support Internet Freedom

    If you don’t normally listen to the mediageek radioshow, you should consider checking out the last two programs. Yesterday my guests were Bill Taylor and Adrienne Bauer from the Primary Communications Project, talking about their plans to bring a 1 kilowatt AM radio transmitter to the Lenca people of Honduras. I also played part of…

  • Moby and Rep. Ed Markey’s Press Conference to Save the Internet

    Moveon.org is hosting a video from Thursday’s SaveTheInternet press conference featuring Moby and Rep. Ed Markey.

  • Making Waves on Free Speech TV

    Micheal Lahey’s well-done documentary about pirate radio in Tuscon, AZ, Making Waves, is airing this month on Free Speech TV. It airs tonight at 9 PM EDT, and seems to be in regular rotation in the schedule right now. Free Speech TV is on all Dish Network satellite TV packages, and some of its programming…

  • From Today’s Radioshow: Primary Communications Project

    My guests for today’s radioshow were Bill Taylor and Adrienne Bauer from the Primary Communications Project, which works to bring communications technology to indigenous communities in Centarl America. Bill and Adrienne recently returned from Honduras where they are working with Radio Lenca and the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras to build…

  • Growing the Movement To Save the Internet with Moby, REM and Others

    An unsuprising coalition of musicians has come together under the banner of Artists and Musicians for Internet Freedom to support network neutrality legislation. Strangely, the group doesn’t have a website yet, though REM’s website has an announcement about it, and explains the issue rather succinctly: Net Neutrality is the long-held principle that all online speech…