Month: August 2006
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Taking a Peek under the Astroturf
Common Cause has been keeping tabs on the faux-grassroots Astroturf groups like Hands off the Internet and TV4US.org which have been lobbying on behalf of the big telcos with the smokescreen that there’s enormous public support for a national cable franchise and against network neutrality. Now Common Cause has released a new report compiling dossiers…
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radioshow news headline: FCC Broadband Report Not as Rosy as It Looks
From the Aug. 4, 2006 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Recently the FCC released a report saying that the number of high-speed internet connections in the US increased by 33% in 2005. The total number of high-speed lines at the end of 2005 was 50.2 millions, of which 43 million serve residential users. For the…
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radioshow news headline: SENATE TELECOMM BILL STILL GOING NOWHERE
From the Aug. 4, 2006 edition of the mediageek radioshow: The Senate Telecomm bill which would create a national cable franchise is no closer to a vote than it has been all Summer. One factor holding up the bill are Democrat threats of a hold or filibuster. Majority leader Bill Frist won’t let the bill…
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radioshow news headline: HOUSE DEMS URGE OPENNESS ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP REVIEW
From the Aug. 4, 2006 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Eighty-four members of the House, all Democrats, save for one Republican, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin calling on the Commission to conduct its review of media ownership rules in an open fashion. As I reported last week, the Martin plans to hold…
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radioshow headline: DISH AND DIRECTV GANGING UP TO BUY SPECTRUM
From the Aug. 4 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Speaking of big media, satellite TV rivals Dish Network and DirecTV are ganging together to buy up as much spectrum as they can in the FCC’s Aug. 9 auction. Teaming up under the name Wireless DBS LLC the companies are looking to win the right to…
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Ted Stevens Goes Postal
On today’s radioshow I reported on a half-baked pamphlet that Senate Commerce Committee Ted Stevens is distributing to fellow Senators to promote his telecom bill and oppose network neutrality. Click here to take a look at the pamphlet yourself [PDF]. Public Knowledge’s Alex Curis asks some good questions about the pamphlet: Has a congressional committee…
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#2 Music Download Service Has No DRM
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about eMusic. I was a customer for a few years when it was a monthly-subscription fee for all-you-can-download MP3s from independent and minor labels. I quit in 2003 when eMusic changed hands and went to a limited download model. But this year I decided to resubscribe after noticing…
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Lying Liars on Network Neutrality
Techdirt properly points the finger at liar Mike McCurry, current mouthpiece for the big telcos, for his farcical Op-Ed attacking network neutrality in the Baltimore Sun: Among the whoppers in the editorial: “The “neutral” proposal that companies like Google are touting will ensure that they never have to pay a dime no matter how much…
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The Future of Cuba May Be on Shortwave
Back in ancient times, say before 1995, if you wanted to get up-to-the-minute news from far away places generally ignored by the western press, the best place to get it was a shortwave radio. While you were not guaranteed to get a professional, quasi-objective take on events, you would nevertheless hear voices much closer to…