From the Associated Press’ AP History — 1846-1900:

1875
Over objections from Western Union, AP secures its first leased telegraph wire, a 226-mile circuit between New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, enabling AP to move news unencumbered by delays and competition for the wire.

It is a good thing that the FCC did not exist then, or AP would probably be in its 50th round of hearings as to whether this proposal was in the public interest.

Disney and Time Warner are suing a company called Triton Media, in an effort to expand the definitions of “contributory copyright infringement” and “inducing infringement.” [Note: There is more than one Triton in the US media world, unfortunately. The defendant here is Triton Media of Scottsdale, AZ. Triton Digital Media of Sherman Oaks, CA, is [...]

Does cable really cost $100/month or are tech geeks misrepresenting the costs compared to Internet alternatives? By the time the equipment leasing is factored out and premium channels are factored in, the online alternatives won’t be priced much differently.

Sameer Soleja like so many other Net Neutrality proponents completely misrepresents the issues surrounding Net Neutrality. They want to scare the public into supporting restrictions on voluntary and beneficial business agreements by misrepresenting them as extortionist agreements.

Richard Bennett has just created High Tech Forum: Thoughts from the Technology Trenches, because: Some of the most critical technology and telecommunications policy debates take place without the input of those most knowledgeable about the issues, and most affected by the outcomes.  Hightechforum.org is an open forum where such experts can offer their perspectives and [...]

Intel President Paul Otellini’s speech last Monday (text here; video here) expressing concern about the direction of public policy has gotten heavy ink in both the tech and the business press. Samples: Declan McCullagh, CNET: Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini offered a depressing set of observations about the economy and the Obama administration Monday [...]

The Washington Post made an earnest attempt to have a thoughtful debate on how the FCC should best regulate the Internet. But to have that thoughtful debate, the Post’s editorial is sorely in need of some basic fact checks.

In 2009 the Federal Trade Commission issued warning to the world of advertising that if advertising agencies that used behavorial advertising within their published ads did not self-regulate then the FTC would act on their behalf. In order to self-regulate, leading ad agencies formed the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to establish industry guidelines following the principles suggested by the FTC’s “Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising”.

If you have never heard of The Brainy Gamer I highly recommend it. It’s one of my favorite blogs and is run by Michael Abbott who is both a gamer and a professor at Wabash College, a private mens college in Indiana. Abbott blogs about the cross-section of video games, academia, culture, and the sciences and has many a time spun my brain to examine the ramifications or exposition of a game in a totally new light.

One of the problems of dealing with the tech world is that the disputes often involve complexities that render understanding exceedingly difficult. This does not prevent pontification, however, often hideously wrong. (See, e.g., net neutrality, passim, to the continuing frustration of those such as my colleague George Ou, who do understand the underlying technical issues.) [...]