Category Archives: politics

Cablevision – ABC = No Oscars and Millions of Pissed Consumers

We’ve officially lost ABC on Cablevision today.  Thanks Disney.  Aside from the Oscar blackout tonight, which upsets my wife more than anything, we’ll lose access to Lost as well the only other show we care about on ABC. The question … Continue reading

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Nokia and Skype – With an Open Phone it Won’t Matter

It was only a matter of time for carriers to make stink about the inclusion of Skype on the N97.  I had first read about the issue via Simon Judge and was surprised it had even take this long to … Continue reading

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From the WTF are you thinking dept …

NO NO NO! So both the consumer and content provider pay … yeah – no thanks. The BBC would have to pay ISPs to deliver iPlayer traffic under the government’s new internet policy recommendations. Say bye bye to HD BBC … Continue reading

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No Muni-Fi for NYC

To be officially confirmed later today, but apparently the Mayor’s office will be passing on lighting up the city. The plan is to instead focus on providing affordable access to everyone which is certainly an admirable goal. According to a … Continue reading

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Is your phone Born Free?

Walt Mossberg has a great piece (Free My Phone!) up on All Things D, which is a must read for anyone even remotely interested in the mobile industry. While he’s not saying anything that we (you gentle reader) have not … Continue reading

Posted in gadgets and technology, marketing, Nokia, politics, VOIP | 6 Comments

T-Mobile, You used to be cool, what happened?

T-Mobile used to be cool. They were one of the first carriers in the US to offer the opportunity to use unlocked phones and they also were very early in WiFi deployments, tested Dual-Mode Services and even invested in VOIP … Continue reading

Posted in gadgets and technology, marketing, politics, software, VOIP | 2 Comments

Nokia Legal Strikes within YouTube… removes a disassembly video?

UPDATE– Resolved! I am not sure how this in any way this falls under DMCA legal jurisdiction, but blog buddy ThoughtFix had a video removed from YouTube. Apparently, Nokia did not like how he PURCHASED an N800 and the proceeded … Continue reading

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Why is the Presidential address NOT in HDTV?

I just clicked through all the networks and they are all showing an SD broadcast … seems like a missed opportunity to me.

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Boing Boing: MPAA: it’s OK to copy movies if you keep them in a vault

A classic double standard… whatever they need to work for them. The MPAA is the worst of the worst. MPAA: it’s OK to copy movies if you keep them in a vault During the Q&A at last night’s screening of … Continue reading

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Must Read – Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality: This is serious | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs technorati tags:politics, policy, freedom, bs

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“even a moron”

Gotta love Apple’s attitude toward the ridiculous lawsuit from Apple Corps, The Beatles record label. Giving opening arguments on Thursday, lawyers for Apple Computer asserted the company’s right to distribute music through its iTunes music store, rejecting claims by The … Continue reading

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Mossberg on DRM

Walt Mossberg on DRM. Amen brother! For some activists, the very idea of Digital Rights Management is anathema. They believe that once a consumer legally buys a song or a video clip, the companies that sold them have no right … Continue reading

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Daily Show Torrents

CommonBits.org Content tagged with daily-show

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The Drugs I Need

via Jaffe Juice… The Drugs I Need an all too real parody of Prescription Drug Advertising. The movie was paid for by the Consumers Union and is designed to get letters written to congress if you choose.

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The Business of Propoganda

I just read a pretty fascinating NYT Cover Story on how our current administration is utilizing video news releases and and fairly extensive distribution network to assist networks and local affiliates, not too mention the American public in understanding current … Continue reading

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Mark Cuban Rocks the Broadcast Flag

Mark Cuban makes some excellent points in his latest post… So if one of the networks threatens to pull their HD signal because of the broadcast flag… call their bluff. The same applies to the Movie Industry. MPAA has been … Continue reading

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FCC shot down

Still to be determined whether this will stick and change the Flag countdown for July, but good news for consumers for the moment…. “You crossed the line,” Judge Harry Edwards told a lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission during arguments … Continue reading

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Burning the DRM strawmen

Recommended reading from Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing who ignites the DRM strawmen, based on arguments that have been making the rounds from previous posts to BB as well as Chris Anderson’s post on his new blog, The Long Tail.

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RIAA goes well beyond just suing consumers

They want your machine to go down down down… BoingBoing reports on a hole in some Windows DRM that is being fully exploited by record industry pal Overpeer to infect user machines. Lovely.

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Collecting movies

Mark Cuban has an interesting post on the legalities of collecting movies and how perhaps Hollywood might consider some changes in release schedules. So Hollywood has a choice. They can change their businessmodel of windowed distribution of movies and significantly … Continue reading

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