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Dan Gillmor on FCC DSL ruling
August 6, 2005Abandoning Broadband Competition, Fairness, Dan Gillmor, Sat, 08/06/2005. Read all of Gilmor’s excellent (as always) analysis with the link above. Excerpt: As expected, the Federal Communications Commission has given the regional phone monopolies exactly what they wanted: permission to stifle DSL competition on “their” lines. As the New York Times reports: “Under current rules, carriers [...]
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License Agreement from Hell…
August 6, 2005Tim Boudreau’s Blog: When engineers (sort-of) read licenses – a cautionary tale, July 29, 2005. Every day, it seems, libraries and librarians have to agree to another license to use information or software. These are typically long documents filled with complicated legal jargon. It is not always easy to know exactly what you are agreeing [...]
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US Government shuts down independent news: update
August 6, 2005Last November, we noted the story about the US Government seizing web servers in London (US Gov. says: “We seize servers, you can’t complain”). Now an update from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): Secret Documents About Indymedia Server Disappearance Unsealed EFF last week won a motion allowing it to access sealed court documents about the [...]
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FCC deregulates DSL
August 5, 2005Unanimous FCC Votes To Deregulate Telecom Broadband Technology Daily PM Edition, August 5, 2005. [subscription required] After the recent “Brand X” Supreme Court decision (Supreme Court Rules for Industry, Against Internet Freedom), the FCC has decided to de-regulate the telephone companies that provide high-speed Internet access through Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. The FCC ruling [...]
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Supreme Court Rules for Industry, Against Internet Freedom
August 2, 2005A recent Supreme Court decision has the potential for affecting access to the Internet and information. The basic issue is whether or not cable companies (and phone companies) must share their lines with competing Internet Service Providers (ISP). When regulations require them to do so, there are more alternatives for consumers; if there are no [...]
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DRM, hardware, and digital libraries
August 1, 2005Several new articles help explain the dangers to digital libraries of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies, the integration of DRM technologies into the Windows and Macintosh operating systems, the new hardware DRM technologies, and how hardware and software and operating systems creators may incorporate restrictions even though no law requires them to do so. These [...]