Consumer groups slam NBC's antipiracy plea
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Blog: Media conglomerate had asked federal regulators to require broadband providers to police their networks for copyright violations, but public-interest groups say the effort is "misguided."
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Plans for pop-up ads and restrictions on copying have some consumer advocates wondering about Tivo's commitment to customer control. The company says it has to bow some to Hollywood and advertiser interests.
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Free software advocates rallied   against certain limits on copying music and films on Tuesday in   a global "Day against DRM" (Digital Rights Management), saying   consumers are robbed of their fair-use rights as entertainment   goes digital and online.
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NBC Universal has decided against  renewing its contract to sell digital downloads of television  shows on Apple Inc&#39;s iTunes after failing to come to an  agreement on pricing, the New York Times reported in its online  edition on Friday.
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If you want to stop piracy of your programming, why would you take it off legitimate services? The peacock is in for a rude awakening.
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A group representing UK media companies calls on the BBC Trust not to allow adverts on its international websites.
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Blog: Amidst thousands of comments about whether Net neutrality rules are needed, media conglomerate urges FCC to stress that broadband providers must fight transfer of copyrighted works.
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Internet service providers and other technology firms are proposing to soften a bill in Congress that they claim will make them targets of frivolous entertainment industry copyright lawsuits.
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Christian groups go after Crest, Tide due to company&#39;s opposition to Cincinnati anti-gay statute. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Conservative Christian groups are urging a boycott of two of consumer product maker
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Blogs that monitor file-sharing and antipiracy developments online find themselves this week in a kerfuffle with a company that sells antipiracy services to major studios and recording firms. The bloggers say the firm attempted to entrap potential downloaders; the head of Media Defender denies it.
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Tech companies pushing for access to spectrum &quot;white spaces&quot; and for net neutrality and open access on broadband and wireless networks have an antiproperty agenda, said one critic on Wednesday.Open access and other conditions on the 700MHz spectrum currently being auctioned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)&#160;may be suppressing bids and limiting the uses winning bidders have for the spectrum, added Scott Cleland, founder of telecom analyst firm The Precursor Group, speaking at the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee&#39;s 2008 State of the &#39;Net Conference in Washington, D.C. Cleland voiced a contrarian view during a discussion of spectrum policy; other speakers called on the U.S. Congress and the FCC to open up more spectrum to unlicensed uses.Open access in the ongoing 700MHz auction at the FCC, widening fair-use rights under copyright, net neutrality, and white-spaces access to television spectrum are all part of a broad and hidden agenda pushed by some tech companies and civil liberties groups, said Cleland, whose company operates the anti-net-neutrality advocacy group NetCompetition.org.&quot;Everybody throws the word &#39;open&#39; around and says open is wonderful,&quot; he said. &quot;But &#39;open&#39; means communal. It means not owned.&quot;Other speakers suggested mobile networks aren&#39;t open enough. Mobile voice providers Verizon Wireless and AT&amp;T have embraced a version of open access in recent months, but they still limit innovative mobile applications, said Jason Devitt, founder of secretive startup Skydeck and cofounder of mobile-phone-application provider Vindigo.Verizon Wireless in November announced it would open its network this year to outside devices, but that doesn&#39;t help mobile application developers, Devitt said. Most of Verizon&#39;s customers will still get their handsets from Verizon, and developers will have to get the company&#39;s permission to include their applications on Verizon-sold phones, he said.&quot;If you&#39;re a developer of mobile applications, Verizon&#39;s announcement makes no difference,&quot; he said.Cleland blasted the FCC for including open-access requirements in about a third of the 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band currently being auctioned, saying some of the requirements may have driven away bidders. In the 22MHz block of spectrum called the C block, the winning bidder must allow users to bring such devices&#160;as mobile phones from other carriers and allow outside applications to run on the network.The FCC&#39;s 700MHz auction began last Thursday, and after 16 rounds of bidding through Wednesday, the high bid for the C block was nearly $4.3 billion, just short of the reserve price of $4.6 billion set by the FCC. High bids for the complete auction totalled $10.8 billion, and the FCC had expected to raise at least $10 billion. The auction will likely continue for several days, depending on bidding action.But Cleland criticized the FCC for imposing conditions on the C block and the D block of spectrum, a 10MHz block that the FCC wants to pair with another 10MHz set aside for public safety. The winning bidder of the D block would be required to build a nationwide mobile and broadband network with the two pieces of spectrum, with the network shared by public safety agencies and commercial users.As of late Wednesday, the D block had received a high bid of $472 million, far short of the $1.3 billion reserve price demanded by the FCC. The FCC may have to re-auction the D block without some of the requirements, Cleland said.When the FCC sets several conditions on spectrum, &quot;the bidders have the freedom not to play,&quot; Cleland said. &quot;An auction is a party. You don&#39;t get people to come to your party if you make it not fun and not a happy place.&quot;Other speakers disagreed with Cleland. The FCC needs to push forward with a proposal that would open up the unused &quot;white spaces&quot; in the spectrum bands used by U.S. television broadcasters, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Spectrum Policy Program at think tank the New America Foundation.Opening up this unused spectrum, which allows the long-range transmission of signals, would allow companies to offer wireless broadband services, particularly in rural areas, Calabrese said.TV broadcasters have opposed unlicensed spectrum use in the white spaces, saying the technology to avoid existing signals is unproven. The FCC is currently testing white-space devices.
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Arts & entertainment: Industry calls on internet service providers and governments to take action against digital piracy
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The National Consumer Council considers making a 'super-complaint' about the BSkyB-Virgin Media TV row.
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Demands for higher royalty payments by a US copyright body could shut down net radio stations, they warn.
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TechWeb - Columbia law professor Tim Wu says consumers are fed up with misguided, and in some cases, outrageous and perhaps illegal policies.
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A new political action committee supports candidates who speak for the consumer when it comes to copyright law. The group doesn't have the big bucks of the entertainment companies, but it's just getting started. By Katie Dean.
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The United Church of Christ, one of the nation&#39;s most liberal Christian denominations, accused CBS and NBC yesterday of rejecting a commercial it had produced about religious