Congress erred in passing a child porn law banning promotion, or “pandering,” of content that doesn’t depict actual children or that depicts children nonsexually because it is constitutionally protected speech, the U.S. Appeals Court, Atlanta, ruled last week in U.S. v. Williams. The case involved a man convicted of possession and promotion of child pornography over the Internet. The appeals court panel overturned a U.S. Dist. Court, Miami, conviction of Michael Williams on the pandering charge but upheld his 5-year sentence for possessing “real” child porn.
GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons Mon. accused .eu registry EURid of fleecing Europeans by letting straw registrars take part in last week’s domain-name “land rush.” “What happens when you match an inept registry with crafty businessmen?” Parsons wrote in a blog. “The answer is a really large scam.” EURid denied GoDaddy’s charge, saying it followed all the rules for the general registration, in which over a million .eu names were activated the first day (WID April 10 p3).
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. -- Since setting up its first customer in Strasburg, Colo., nearly a year ago, NRTC-backed satellite broadband provider WildBlue has been bridging the digital divide in rural communities across the U.S. without govt. aid. The firm’s main market lies beyond the reach of terrestrial broadband -- particularly in farming and ranching communities targeted by WildBlue advertising the past year in agriculture magazines and local radio spots.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. -- Since setting up its first customer in Strasburg, Colo. nearly a year ago, NRTC-backed satellite broadband provider WildBlue has been bridging the digital divide in rural communities across the U.S. without govt. aid. The firm’s main market lies beyond the reach of terrestrial broadband -- particularly in farming and ranching communities targeted by WildBlue advertising the past year in agriculture magazines and local radio spots.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo.: Since setting up its first customer in Strasburg, Colo. nearly a year ago, National Rural Telecom Cooperative (NRTC)-backed satellite broadband provider WildBlue has been bridging the digital divide in rural communities across the U.S. without govt. aid. The firm’s main market lies beyond the reach of terrestrial broadband -- particularly in farming and ranching communities targeted by WildBlue advertising the past year in agriculture magazines and local radio spots.
AT&T sued 2 Chicago suburbs late last week, and planned to file a 3rd suit today (Mon.), in disputes over its Project Lightspeed network. The towns have refused AT&T’s buildout requests over its lack of video franchises -- the requirement that landed AT&T at the center of a raucous House debate earlier in the week. AT&T, maintaining it isn’t a cable firm, said in the suits the towns are violating its rights as a telecom carrier.
Congress has a “responsibility to the nation” to examine big monopolies’ impact on consumers, Senate Commerce Committee Co-Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) said Thurs. at a Quello symposium lunch. Inouye voiced worry at recent Bell mergers, and suggested others could be coming: “I remember when we created 7 Baby Bells. I don’t know how many we'll have a year from now.”
Webcast signals could be protected on an opt-in basis under a draft treaty posted ahead of the May meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) standing committee on copyright & related rights (SCCR). The panel is trying to update a convention that protects broadcasters’ copyright in their transmission signals to account for new technologies such as cablecasting. U.S. webcasters -- with support from the EU and Japan -- want to include webcasting signals, which has sparked strong opposition from many other quarters. Publication of the draft text prompted one civil libertarian to ask how webcasting and other controversial provisions seem to have made the final cut, while more popular elements may have fallen by the wayside.
Webcast signals could be protected on an opt-in basis under a draft treaty posted ahead of the May meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) standing committee on copyright & related rights (SCCR). The panel is trying to update a convention that protects broadcasters’ copyright in their transmission signals to account for new technologies such as cablecasting. U.S. webcasters -- with support from the EU and Japan -- want to include webcasting signals, which has sparked strong opposition from many other quarters. Publication of the draft text prompted one civil libertarian to ask how webcasting and other controversial provisions seem to have made the final cut, while more popular elements may have fallen by the wayside.
IFire will begin shipping sample 34W thick-film dielectric electroluminescent (TDEL) displays to prospective customers the next several months, but will target 37W and 42W sizes for volume production, Vp-Product Planning Donald Carkner told Consumer Electronics Daily.