Podcast of a conference with some distinguished network architects who helped develop the Internet technologies and standards.

Just by way of introduction to Digital Society readers, I’m a “cable guy.” Just wanted to get that right out front as I start blogging as opposed to what I have been doing for the past 35 years, which is writing a column on cable law, politics, technology, business and the like.

As a Netflix subscriber, I am both impressed and puzzled by the speed with which its movies zip through the postal system. Drop one in the slot for a late afternoon pickup, and the chances are that in the pre-dawn hours of the next day an email will appear saying that it has been received, [...]

Marguerite Reardon reports on a new bipartisan congressional bill H.R. 1521 that would ban new state or local taxes on wireless service. Average taxes for wireless services average more than 15% nationwide while other taxable goods average 7%. This puts wireless taxes into the category of “sin taxes” even though it has economic benefits for society.

The U.S. Supreme Court has set a date to hear Schwarzenegger V. EMA. The hearing will take place on November 2nd and marks the very first time the Supreme Court has ever heard a case on the topic of banning video games.

Digital Society Q&A Podcast
Episode #7
Length: 38:52
Topic: “The Future of the Internet”

In Vernor v. Autodesk, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Autodesk’s software licensing agreement (SWA) trumps the copyright doctrine of “first sale.” (Thanks to Broadband Breakfast for the link, and for a summary of the case.)

Proponents of Internet regulation continue to misrepresent the Internet standards claiming that they don’t facilitate differentiated pricing for differentiated service tiers. We can cite many of the documents within the Internet standards to show that they in fact do.

ICanStalkU.com website was created in 2010 by Jackson, Pesce, and Mayhemic Labs in order to convey to individuals information that they may be inadvertently be sharing online that they normally would not share because of privacy concerns.

Castro believes that current legislation on advertising could be detrimental for online businesses. Stricter privacy regulation for online advertising could reduce money that goes toward supporting free content or inexpensive content as well as applications and services. Castro also feels that this could reduce start up funding and the effectiveness of advertising.