Programmers should follow Warner Bros lead and immediately start thinking of ways to protect their content within their own apps. Why give the content away for free through Hulu, or your own website, when you can do it through an app, and protect the content.

Video delivered via apps (whether desktop or mobile) would allow rights management, and provide a revenue stream, not a revenue hole. Want to watch Lost via your iPad? There’s an app for that.

The litany of posts and pontifications about cord cutting continues unabated, yet few people take the time to actually look at what’s really going on. The Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro recently touted the benefits of ditching cable, but in the same breath admitted that it works best for people who a) don’t watch much TV, b) live in an area with great OTA reception, c) don’t watch live sports much, and d) don’t mind relying on DVD rentals to catch first-run movies. This isn’t to say that the cable industry doesn’t face challenges from online video. It’s just that the challenge is somewhat different from what’s being reported.

Net neutrality advocates are spun up about two recent decisions that have little to do with net neutrality.  In the first instance, T-Mobile blocked a company called EZ Texting from sending messages for an outfit promoting medical marijuana dispensaries in California.  The second involves Facebook preventing users from displaying marijuana leaves in the images on [...]

When news broke last week that the cable industry saw a net decline of some 711,000 subs in the second quarter, the news was met with near hysteria.  Oddly, though, the hysterics weren’t in cable board rooms, but on blogs.  The chattering class, it seems, was more than eager to proclaim this the work of [...]

In a discussion taking place over on Jon Henke’s “The Internet Has Not Changed Everything” post, the topic of sales and use taxes has come up.  Based on the discussion, it’s clear that there is a misconception of what exactly the issues are in an online context.  So I thought I’d provide this short, but [...]

It has been my experience that people are unlikely to shill for someone they disagree with philosophically just because of a check. I’ve seen people try, and they usually end up with horrible reputations and a different line of work.

I was taking another look through Morgan Stanley’s Mobile Internet Report from December and a graph caught my eye that pretty much sums up the reason mobile carriers are doing away with the all-you-can-eat pricing model. It’s somewhat hard to see in the image above, but if you’re interested, click through to the report and [...]

Astroturf is creating the appearance of a grassroots movement where none actually exists. According to an article in The Daily Caller today, groups that Free Press listed as signatories to its pro-net neutrality agenda not only didn’t sign it, but had no recollection of ever being asked.

In the overly hyperbolic world of issue advocacy, Free Press is truly the organization that would be king of inflated rhetoric. Tim Karr’s latest post sealed the title. In response to the FCC having the audacity to meet with companies it regulates, and lend an ear to concerns about applying to the Internet a regulatory model based on 18th century railroads, Free Press says, “This is what a failed democracy looks like…”

When talk turns to the payload data Google collected surreptitiously through its Street View cars, the company has said the data is fragments and is looking to destroy it. The destruction of the data runs contrary to the wishes of many countries unwilling to take Google’s word for what’s in it. What’s the worst that could be in the data? I have one theory…