May 2006
7 posts
The new Betamax case?
Seven Hollywood studios and TV networks are suing Cablevision over its new network DVR service. To a consumer, the service is just like TiVo in that they choose programs to record and watch at a later time. The difference is that there is no set-top DVR on the consumer’s premises; it’s all recorded at Cablevision’s end and sent to the customer when they request it. The studios...
Why not have a comparative hearing while you're at...
Today there are reports that a startup headed by former FCC Wireless Bureau chief John Muleta and @Home founder Milo Medin has asked the FCC to give it a spectrum license to offer a national wireless broadband service. No auction, just an assignment. According to Reuters, “Most wireless spectrum is auctioned to the highest bidder but M2Z has offered to pay the U.S. Treasury 5 percent of its...
Zero doesn't apply to spectrum
Mike at TechDirt takes issue with an article by Tom Lenard on C|Net that argues that market allocation of “white space” spectrum is more efficient than a “commons” designation. He writes that “Unlicensed spectrum is hardly a ‘centralized allocation system,’ and it’s hard to see how anyone could make such a claim with a straight face.” As I...
The RFID cookie monster
It looks like RFID panic is percolating a bit again. Wired has an article in the current issue about how easy it will be to hack RFID tags, and Gizmodo recently reported ominously hat Levi’s will be tagging its jeans. Most of the privacy concerns are the same as those I’ve refuted in the past; RFID is not GPS and it won’t let you pinpoint someone’s position. However,...
This one's not an urban legend
For a long while I’ve been bemused by the running rivalry over intellectual property issues between some of the writers on this blog and the folks at PFF. While sometimes entertaining, I often shake my head when Tim takes the time to painstakingly refute an argument from Jim DeLong that on the surface was already patently erroneous. Now, as I prepare to take the bait myself, I think I...
Google's citywide wi-fi hits snags
According to eWeek, “Google’s begun testing [its proposed Mountain View, CA, muni wi-fi] network and, in so doing, has discovered it might need to add more Wi-Fi transmitters than originally thought to deliver the coverage and service quality it promised[.]” This follows “snags” in the muni wi-fi efforts in St. Cloud, FL. I’ve said it before and I’ll say...
Google grows up
Google, who less than a year a go didn’t have an office in D.C., seems to have picked up the ways of Washington pretty quickly. The New York Times reports today that Google has gone to Justice Department and EU antitrust authorities to complain that the search box in Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7 browser uses MSN as the default search engine.
Google has informed the European...
