September 2009

Verizon insists its adherence to a 768/200kpbs definition of broadband has nothing to do with resistance to upgrading its networks. AT&T says it knows that real-time video will become an essential Internet application, "over time"—but what about the here and now?

News Web sites in China, complying with secret government orders, are requiring that new users log on under their true identities to post comments, a shift in policy that the country's Internet users and media have fiercely opposed in the past. Until recently, users could weigh in on news items on many of the affected sites more anonymously, often without registering at all, though the sites were obligated to screen all posts, and the posts could still be traced via Internet protocol addresses. But in early August, without notification of a change, news portals like Sina, Netease, Sohu and scores of other sites began asking unregistered users to sign in under their real names and identification numbers, said top editors at two of the major portals affected. A Sina staff member also confirmed the change. The editors said the sites were putting into effect a confidential directive issued in late July by the State Council Information Office, one of the main government bodies responsible for supervising the Internet in China. The new step is not foolproof, the editors acknowledged. It was possible for a reporter to register successfully on several major sites under falsified names and ID and cellphone numbers. But the requirement adds a critical new layer of surveillance to mainstream sites in China, which were already heavily policed. Further regulations of the same nature also appeared to be in the pipeline.

Google defended its scanning and publishing of millions of books online on Monday by saying the project was making finding information on the Web more democratic. The Californian company struck a deal with author and publisher groups in the United States earlier this year, allowing it to copy books for the Internet. But the agreement has been criticized and come under the gaze of the U.S. Justice Department because it does not say what Google might charge libraries, for example. Some of them fear the service will become an expensive must-have. Dan Clancy, architect of the Google program, told a hearing at the European Commission, which is the European Union's executive body, that the group hoped to allow Web surfers to find out-of-print books.

There is more bad news for Dish Network and its controlling company, EchoStar, concerning the satellite distributor's dispute with digital video recording technology company TiVo. Now a new court order will force Dish/EchoStar to pay TiVo $200 million in additional damage payments should Dish/EchoStar lose its appeal to TiVo. Back in June, a U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas jury granted TiVo $103 million plus interest. TiVo originally wanted $1 billion in sanctions as part of a multi-year legal process, in which it won a lawsuit against Dish for illegally using TiVo DVR technology in Dish's DVR home units. The courts ruled that the technology used by Dish to get around TiVo's patents was not sufficiently different.