Another trip around the diamond just in time for Labor Day Weekend...
- What does it mean when: "In the 50's, 62% of the nation could be found snuggled in front of their television sets for Lucy; in the 80's, still 51% saw the Cosby Show; but today, only 25% sit to watch a top-rated show like CSI." (HeeHaw Marketing)
Continue reading "Around the Horn: The OK, Go Edition" »
Just last week the UK Cabinet Office posted a couple videos to YouTube in an effort be at once hip and informative. Despite the less than enthusiastic reviews of the content, the mere act of posting the videos was called "ground-breaking and one other governments might well follow" in Silicon.com.
Today, in an act straight out of the "The Office" (OG), different folks from a different part of the very same governmental entity requested YouTube to take down the videos "because its content was used without permission."
Silicon.com follows-up...
Continue reading "Bloody Brilliant" »
The Australian legislative bid to regulate mobile content similar to broadcast TV rules has new momentum. The impetus is the case of "an 11-year-old student in Castle Hill who was suspended after he downloaded nude photos onto an internet-capable phone outside school hours, and then brought them to school to show classmates." (Sidney Morning Herald).
The reaction from Australia's Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan:
"Like the Internet, increasingly sophisticated hardware such as mobile phones can be a vital communications tool, but in inexperienced hands they can become a pipeline for perversion."
Actually, the priceless "pipelines for perversion" line is a slight oldie, but goodie. It was first used back in June when Coonan announced the planned legislation. Here's a link to the full speech and a relevant excerpt follows after the jump.
Again, we whole heartedly agree with the prediction that social regulation will drive communications rules in the near future. As Australia goes, so goes....?
Continue reading "Excuse Me, My Pipeline for Perversion is Ringing" »
About 16 months ago, a music publisher had this to say about a "friend to friend" file-sharing service meant for sharing between small-ish groups of people:
"I'm not so sure that I see a big distinction between this and, say, Grokster because you're at 30 people. Where are you going to draw the line at what constitutes unlicensed use of copyrighted music?"
The service he was referring to in the LA Times was Grouper. You might have heard that, Sony announced plans this week to buy it for $65 million.
Will a big media company be buying the new "F2F" service AllPeers anytime soon? Not likely.
Grouper evolved into a multi-dimensional YouTube-like service, while AllPeers looks locked and loaded on becoming the first ultra-light P2P application that runs as an extension to a browser (in this case, the open source Firefox). Jon Healey of the LA Times notes its significance while tossing out the "N" word:
Continue reading "The Unbearable Lightness of Darknets" »
Just got back from another much enjoyed PFF Aspen Summit. Here's the top-ten of what I learned:
10. When he's not firing controversial superstars, Sumner Redstone is apparently reading New Economy business tomes. In his speech last night, Redstone referred extensively to Chris Anderson's book "The Long Tail" and noted that "Anderson wrote his book in hopes that folks like me would pick it up." Redstone endorsed the economic opportunity of back catalogues -- but only under a regime of strong copyright controls.
9. If she wants it, FTC chair Deborah Platt Majoras has a long, successful political career ahead of her. She has the one-two punch of showing smarts and a warm personality in front of a crowd and in smaller settings. Majoras also is clearly inquisitive. She attended most sessions and stayed for the entire conference. Some keynoters are "wheels-up" 15 minutes after their speech.
8. "I'm wheels-up in 15 minutes" is a normal thing to say in Aspen....
Continue reading "What I Learned in Aspen" »
More than a mile high in lovely Aspen, the impressive FTC chair Deborah Platt Majoras surprised policy wonks (at least the three I talked to after her speech) by throwing the FTC headlong into the briefly hibernating Net Neutrality debate. A FTC release notes:
(Majoras) has formed an Internet Access Task Force to examine issues being
raised by converging technologies and regulatory developments, and to
educate and inform the enforcement, advocacy and education initiatives
of the Commission. “I also have asked the Internet Access Task Force to
address what is likely the most hotly debated issue in communications,
so-called ‘network neutrality,’” she said.
“The
FTC’s Internet Access Task Force is looking carefully at the issues
raised by calls for network neutrality laws. . . . I urge caution in
proceeding on the issue. I . . . question the starting assumption that
government regulation, rather than the market itself under existing
laws, will provide the best solution to a problem,” Majoras said.
The speech was today's lunch keynote at the aforementioned PFF Aspen Summit. And, the location for announcement shouldn't come as a huge surprise. After all, PFF's outgoing President Ray Gifford submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee and advocated for the FTC's jurisdiction in policing any net neutrality violations. Those of you following at home, of course, know that PFF has been an outspoken opponent of legislated NN protections. Gifford wrote:
Continue reading "FTC Gives NN Fans Altitude Sickness" »
There's a video game (pictured above) called Bully coming out this October that has the level heads at the UK's Mirror hyperventilating...
A SKINHEAD thug wins a bloody playground fight with a classmate, before hunting down a teacher as his next victim.
This is Bully. A new video game that's been called the sickest ever, a sadistic orgy of violence where you win points for being the most vicious yob in a reform school. News of the game's release comes as research suggests that playing violent video games makes youngsters more aggressive.
There is controversy about the game aplenty in the US, too, and Wal-Mart has reacted by halting pre-orders for what the video game industry's chief-legal-burr-in-their-side calls a "Columbine simulator."
What perfect timing for a November election! Indeed, we'll be watching how this plays out and keep a eye out for video game legislation in general. As all software gets delivered as a Web service, regulating video games is just one step away from regulating the distribution of Web content. Luckily, all this will be easy to track...
Continue reading "Bully for Game Politics" »
[Update: See our October 22, 2007 post for more current developments]
If Europe and Australia can consider regulating online video, why not China?
Of course, China isn't dancing around the issue with niceties like consultations, studies and votes. They are jumping in head first and going whole hog. The same regulatory body that makes rules for TV and movies is going prevent sites from showing online videos unless the site is government approved. So far, YouTube and Google Video are among the many not on the People's Most Favored list. From the WSJ:
Continue reading "YouTube Banned in China?" »