http://scrawford.net/blog Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The overwhelming vote in the European Parliament this week - 663-13! - to oppose the secretly-negotiated Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement was striking.  They're calling for the text to be revealed, and they're not happy about making ISPs introduce "US-style draconian ways" to punish misbehaving subscribers. According to Wired, the Parliament isn't ... http://scrawford.net/blog/european-parliament-has-principles/1318/ Several canaries in several coal mines: 1.  In a filing in the FCC's net neutrality proceeding, Netflix notes the "growing concern that [cable companies] will use their control over programming networks to stifle competition, including the growing competition from online video providers like Neflix" and urges the Commission to take a ... http://scrawford.net/blog/canaries-in-coal-mines/1317/ I was at the airport this morning on the way back to Ann Arbor after spring break.  CNN was on above our heads, broadcasting the President's speech at Arcadia University.  Here's the amazing thing:  most of the people around me were watching attentively.  They paused over their pizza.  They put ... http://scrawford.net/blog/we-were-sent-there-to-do-what-was-hard/1316/ I've been talking to lots of people for the last three days, and that's gotten in the way of completing the blog post I started on Monday.  But on the internet, who knows what time it is? Here's the rest of the story. Back during the Bush(2)-era FCC, the Commission agreed with ... http://scrawford.net/blog/rest-of-the-story/1315/ Last week's letter to the FCC from the network provider industry has a lot of people talking. For lots of reasons, the US government for a hundred years required basic general-purpose interactive networks - you can lable them "telephone" and "telegraph" - not to discriminate.  There's also been a requirement to ... http://scrawford.net/blog/plain-language-explanation-part-i/1314/ Two surveys of broadband adoption were released last week, and they both tell us we have a long way to go in closing the digital divide. The FCC's excellent survey, Broadband Adoption and Use in America, conducted at the end of 2009, shows that 35% of Americans do not use broadband ... http://scrawford.net/blog/patterns-of-broadband-adoption/1313/ 1.  FCC says a major reason for low adoption of broadband in the US is price. 2.  FCC also reminds us that there's a looming spectrum crisis. Let's assume mobile phones providing high-speed Internet access require additional spectrum.  But they're also going to need much more deeply-available fiber - mobile communications need ... http://scrawford.net/blog/big-week/1312/ I spent part of today watching Videocracy.  It's a nightmarish film about the culture surrounding Silvio Berlusconi.  Control over 90% of the medium - television - on which 80% of Italians rely for information adds up to significant cultural saturation. Berlusconi himself, with his easy smile and his fascination with spectacle, ... http://scrawford.net/blog/videocracy/1311/ The recent Berkman broadband report found that the $7.2 billion in stimulus funding allocated in the U.S. for broadband was in line with what other countries are doing - indeed, "several countries [including South Korea, Japan, Sweden] have invested over the long term as a strategic choice rather than as ... http://scrawford.net/blog/west-virginia-statewide-broadband/1310/ The US spends $2.25B annually on its E-rate program, supporting schools and libraries that provide Internet access and other related services.  E-rate is an important part of US communications policy - it hasn't always been smooth sailing, but the program has led to substantial internet adoption by these crucial anchor ... http://scrawford.net/blog/e-rate-sense/1309/