Media Disintermediation, Redux Part Deux

January 7, 2006

Looking back on 2005 in review, it’s hard to escape the predominance of the copywars as a defining theme for the year. I was recently reminded of how absurd it is that the debate has been framed in this way when I heard of a recent NYT article on a test of book publishers: Submitted […]

Onward →

The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists

January 6, 2006

Guy Kawasaki finishes the week with a hilarious post that reads between the lies of what VCs tell you. If I had a nickel … [tags]VC[/tags]

Onward →

Still More on Network Neutrality

January 6, 2006

The WSJ covers the issue in a front page piece today titled “Phone Companies Set Off A Battle Over Internet Fees”. Gist: Large phone companies, setting the stage for a big battle ahead, hope to start charging Google Inc., Vonage Holdings Corp. and other Internet content providers for high-quality delivery of music, movies and the […]

Onward →

Sarmite Bulte’s “Friends”

January 6, 2006

Liberal MP Sarmite Bulte’s reported response to the concerns now repeatedly being raised about her close fundraising ties to moneyed media interests troubles me. Jim Rankin, a staff reporter at the Toronto Star, reports her responding “These people have become my friends and I don’t apologize for that”. Two points are worth noting. First, as […]

Onward →

Sony BMG Rootkit Class Actions in Canada

January 6, 2006

New class actions lawsuits in the Sony BMG rootkit matter have been filed in Ontario and BC (a case was filed in PQ last year). Perhaps someone should ask Sarmite Bulte what she thinks of this particular use of DRM, and what her views are on the relationship between DRM and the safe and private […]

Onward →

Verizon: Application Providers Should Pay for Bandwidth

January 5, 2006

The plot on network neutrality continues to thicken. Techweb News reports that Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg commented at CES that application providers such as Microsoft and Google ought to pay for bandwidth: There’s no such thing as a free lunch on the Internet, according to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, who said Thursday that providers of […]

Onward →

Film, record industry fundraiser for Liberal MP a ‘worry’: Granatstein

January 5, 2006

This is the title of a CP piece on the Bulte fundraising concerns originally raised by Michael Geist that I recently blogged. Historian Jack Granatstein has been outspoken in his criticism of Bulte. The event has drawn the attention of several Internet blogs as well as criticism from prominent Canadian historian Jack Granatstein, who says […]

Onward →

Patent Law and Innovation Chill – Meme of the Week

January 5, 2006

Eric Reguly writes today in the Globe on patent law and innovation chill (“Patent protection a threat to innovation”); earlier this week it was Business Week (“The Patent Epidemic”) which, judging by the comments (now a handy dandy reference for a definition of ‘ad hominem’), has survived unscathed its thrashing by Patent Prospector. Reguly’s article […]

Onward →

More on Anti-competitive Uses of Technology

January 5, 2006

Jack Kapica writes on profound changes in recent years – since the DMCA – on the way technology is manufactured. He cites an example that had escaped my notice – cars are increasingly being manufactured with sealed computers, the data in which is protected by proprietary “u-code” encryption. The entire enterprise seems designed by the […]

Onward →

Logan Seizes Control Over Airport WiFi

January 3, 2006

A controversy is whipping up over plans at Boston’s Logan airport to squeeze out free WiFi services (such as those in airline lounges) that compete with the paid service offered by the landlord. From the Boston Globe: Logan International Airport officials’ ongoing quest to ban airline lounges from offering passengers free WiFi Internet services is […]

Onward →

Investing in Payphones

January 2, 2006

Some years ago I was retained to help a client with an investment in a startup that was proposing to enter into the private payphone business. Telcos were getting out of the payphone business and the way had been cleared for private investment. I was not enamoured of the investment; I had just come back […]

Onward →

Tipping Point

January 2, 2006

Michael Geist today follows up his recent posts on what seems to be the quite inappropriate role of CRIA and related interests in fundraising for Liberal MP Sarmite Bulte only days before the election. He notes that the story has been picked up elsewhere, including by Jack Kapica of the Globe. The gist of Michael’s […]

Onward →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →