11-4-07 Verizon defines "Unlimited" 5 GB cap, Max 200 kbps
200 kbps at 5 GB is best U.S. can do for broadband for $65 per month
====================================================
It will be interesting to see how far this one goes.
11-1-07 Wi-Lan sues everybody for DSL Patent infringement
Canadian Company sues in East Texas Court
======================================================
10-29-2007 The F.C.C. has finally gotten around to ending anti-competive exclusivity that cable operators did with thousands of apartment complexes all over the country.
======================================================
10-26-2007 Poll Question added since 100G per month seems to be U.S. standard bandwidth cap now
Do you believe 100G per month Cap is reasonable?
Yes
No
=======================================================
I had a patent insanity thread but can't find it but this is related to the Internet.
Amazon's insanely stupid Patent that was rewarded for one click shopping was overturned.
10-17-2007 AMAZON ONE-CLICK PATENT REJECTED BY THE US PATENT OFFICE
USPTO Rejects Amazon's One-Click Patent
igdmlgd writes
"A while ago I filed a reexamination request for the Amazon.com one-click patent and recently checked out the USPTO online file wrapper -it seems they have rejected all the claims I requested they look at and more!"
And it only took many many years to remove what would have been obvious to the most incompetent web developer.
========================================================
Wow, call me surprised, another sweetheart "deal" handed out by the Bush Administration
So it's guaranteed to go up 28% and probably 42% and there isn't anything anybody can say or do about it.
4-5-2007 Prices for `.com' and `.net' to rise
NEW YORK - The master-keeper of Internet addresses ending in ".com" and ".net" ? two of the most popular domain name suffixes ? said Thursday it would raise fees charged to register those names.
The price hike does not require any regulatory approval.
Under a deal reached in November with the U.S. Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit group that oversees Internet addressing policies, VeriSign could increase ".com" prices as much as 7 percent during four out of the six years the contract is in effect.
The company may also raise fees during the other two years under limited conditions.
===================================================
This is the major linch pin for the splitting of the Internet into the Internets.
Once these corrupt Politicians bought out by the Telco Giants get their way the Internet is done in America.
9-19-2006 Senate Commerce Committee Now a Telco/Cable PR Firm
Push polls, misleading net-neutrality astroturf-flyers....
Written by Karl Bode at DSLReports.com
Editorial:"A new bipartisan poll released today finds that an overwhelming majority of American voters favor video choice over onerous "Net Neutrality" regulations," states a press release by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
While bi-partisan it may be, honest it is not.
The Verizon funded survey (pdf), conducted by Glover Park Group (traditionally Democratic) and Public Opinion Strategies (traditionally Republican) questioned 800 registered voters on their thoughts on network neutrality. The survey in question uses a tactic known as "push polling", which presents questions phrased in such a way as to illicit one particular answer.
This is the question asked used to support the committee's assertion of public opposition to net-neutrality laws:
Which of the following two items do you think is the most important to you:
Delivering the benefits of new TV and video choice so consumers will see increased competition and lower prices for cable TV, or enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet providers from offering specialized services like faster speed and increased security for a fee?
While push polling is a frequent tactic in corporate PR and political-campaign smear attempts, we should not see the same tactics originating from what's supposed to be an objective Senate committee, tasked with intelligently navigating tough questions in the field of technology law.
This is the second time in as many weeks we've observed this committee engaging in public relations warfare at the behest of the cable and phone giants. They've also been circulating a promotional flyer to "educate" voters on their Senate Communications Act of 2006. Note the flyer only contains links to editorials against net-neutrality laws, many of which contain misleading arguments designed by incumbent marketing departments.
Regardless of party affiliation or your position on net-neutrality regulation, at the forefront of technology law debates should lay the desire for an honest discussion.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has clearly decided to abandon such honest discourse and is now officially a bi-partisan public relation mouthpiece for the incumbent telecom providers.
========================================
In plain English we are pwned.
Some responses on the Forum:
Re: Debate period over; Senate now in consensus building phase
said by Zoder :
said by Tkjunkmail :
And now they are doing what politicians also do - building Senate and public support for the decision they have already reached.
Through misinformation and FUD. Stevens knows that a number of Democrats are adamant about keeping his bill from passing before the end of the year and the 109th Congress comes to a close. So he's using every tactic in the book to get the 60 votes he needs to defeat a filibuster. Even if some are dishonest like these survey results.
And this comes as a surprise? That is what politicians do. They do anything that is LEGAL (and sometimes what is barely legal) to win. Politics isn't a game for the squeamish and ethics has very little to do with it. It has always been such, back to the days of the Ancient Romans and Greeks.
And you think this is acceptable? Really what is Karl supposed to do sit down and accept the ass fvking?
It's called civic engagement whether it be through the media (such as DSLR a decent tech news website) or actual protest.
Either way it is the way legal change in this country has occured for the past two hundred years.
It doesn't come as a surprise, it comes as part of a laundry list of grievances that the netizens of this country have.
The fact that they are using this to build support for a possible corrupt position is the issue not a question of the fact that they are building support through pr campaigns.
I don't support net neutrality, but that isn't the question the question is the masking effect the senate is trying to achieve by looking like they are pro consumer.
======================================================
For those that dare doubt my sincerity for looking out for the little peons in the world.
I mentioned this years ago and BellSouth finally caved only after the FCC said they have started an "investigation":
8-25-2006 BellSouth to eliminate bogus DSL non-government government service fee, Verizon refuses to drop the bogus charge
WASHINGTON - Under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, BellSouth Corp. said Friday that it will stop collecting a $2.97 per month regulatory fee from its high-speed Internet customers.
The company made the announcement after learning the FCC had begun investigating whether the carrier and Verizon Communications Inc. were violating federal truth-in-billing laws.
The FCC confirmed Friday that "letters of inquiry" had been mailed to the two carriers seeking information about their billing practices.
BellSouth said it is "immediately eliminating" the fee that was "designed to recover a number of costs remaining from previous regulatory obligations and other network expenses."
Both companies have been accused of continuing to collect regulatory fees that the government is no longer assessing.
Verizon sent DSL customers an e-mail stating that on Aug. 26, it would charge a new monthly "supplier surcharge" of $1.20 or $2.70, depending on the connection speed. The fee will affect about half of Verizon's 5.7 million DSL subscribers, according to the company.
Prior to Aug. 14, the company was collecting $1.25 or $2.83 for from DSL customers depending on the connection speed.
Verizon said the new fee is needed to recover costs related to offering the high-speed Internet service.
"We would have no comment on it other than to say obviously we will explain to them (the FCC) whatever it is they want to have explained," said Verizon spokesman Brian Blevins.
========================================
Another Law that says one thing and will actually do another.
Enjoy your rights being stripped away piece by piece.
Internet going down the tiolet in the U.S. and getting more expensive to access the crap
7-26-2006 Congress Moves To Ban Social Networking Websites Such As My Space and Anandtech
A Pennsylvania congressman has introduced legislation that would ban minors from accessing social networking websites such as MySpace, and forbid libraries from making such access available.
The bill, known as the "Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006," was introduced Wednesday in the House by Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Penn), a first-term representative.
Social networking site defined as one that "allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger."
The bill would require the government to set up a web site warning of the dangers of social networking.
<blockquote>quote:
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Both of these articles are related because it is the same equipment:
Some call it progress, some call it Big Brother.
To borrow from Faux News, you decide.
4-14-2006 AT&T and EFF Challenges Bush U.S. Domestic Spy Program
SAN FRANCISCO - AT&T Inc. and an Internet advocacy group are waging in federal court a privacy battle that could expose the reach of the Bush administration's secretive domestic wiretapping program.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it obtained documents from a former AT&T technician showing that the National Security Agency is capable of monitoring all communications on AT&T's network.
"It appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet, whether that be people's e-mail, Web surfing or any other data," whistle-blower Mark Klein, who worked for the company for 22 years, said in a statement released by his lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is considering whether to unseal documents that Klein provided and AT&T wants kept secret. EFF filed the documents under seal as a courtesy to the phone company, but is seeking to unseal them.
The EFF lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the 2001 terror attacks. The suit is based in large part on the Klein documents, which detail secret spying rooms and electronic surveillance equipment in AT&T facilities.
The suit claims AT&T company not only provided direct access to its network that carries voice and data but also to its massive databases of stored telephone and Internet records that are updated constantly.
AT&T violated U.S. law and the privacy of its customers as part of the "massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications" without warrants, the EFF alleged.
Klein said the NSA built a secret room at the company's San Francisco central office in 2003, adjacent to a "switch room where the public's phone calls are routed." One of the documents under seal, Klein said, shows that a device was installed with the "ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets."
Other documents under seal show that fiber optic cables from the secret room tapped into WorldNet Internet subscribers, Klein said. The documents also instructed technicians how to connect cables to the secret room. Klein said he was required to connect circuits that fed information to the secret room.
"Any discussion about actual or alleged operational issues would be irresponsible as it would give our adversaries insight that would enable them to adjust and potentially inflict harm to the U.S.," NSA spokesman Don Weber said.
President Bush confirmed in December that the NSA has been conducting the surveillance when calls and e-mails, in which at least one party is outside the United States, are thought to involve al-Qaida terrorists.
In congressional hearings last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggested the president could order the NSA to listen in on purely domestic calls without first obtaining a warrant from a secret court established nearly 30 years ago to consider such issues.
He said the administration, assuming the conversation related to al-Qaida, would have to determine if the surveillance were crucial to the nation's fight against terrorism, as authorized by Congress following the Sept. 11 attacks.
=======================================
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/
This should go in my "No Sh!T sherlock" thread.
Every Router has been built with automatic ports to the Government built in since 2001.
======================================================
4-14-2006 Pennyslvania uses $1 surcharge to Install Cell Tracking Technology
PITTSBURGH - You pass an accident on a lonely stretch of highway at night. You call 911 on your cell phone to report it but don't know exactly where you are. Soon that won't be a problem in Cambria County, where emergency officials said they plan to install technology allowing county 911 dispatchers to track where emergency calls are placed.
Almost a dozen states ? including neighboring Maryland and Delaware ? and the District of Columbia are completely covered by 911 cell phone tracking technology, which uses information from GPS chips embedded in some cell phones or by monitoring how far the caller is from nearby cell phone towers.
Pennsylvania funds its 911 cell tracking technology with a $1 surcharge on wireless phone service, Fleming said. The state began collecting funds in July 2004 and has received about $120 million since then, he said.
=======================================
Out of the 12 States, I've worked on 8 States.
===========================================
The Internet/Music David & Goliath battle of the United States is shaping up.
If I had the resources and money I would go up and help this woman.
12-26-2005 Mom Fights Downloading Suit on Her Own
WHITE PLAINS, New York - It was Easter Sunday, and Patricia Santangelo was in church with her kids when she says the music recording industry peeked into her computer and decided to take her to court.
Santangelo says she has never downloaded a single song on her computer, but the industry didn't see it that way. The woman from Wappingers Falls, about 80 miles north of New York City, is among the more than 16,000 people who have been sued for allegedly pirating music through file-sharing computer networks.
"I assumed that when I explained to them who I was and that I wasn't a computer downloader, it would just go away," she said in an interview. "I didn't really understand what it all meant. But they just kept insisting on a financial settlement."
The industry is demanding thousands of dollars to settle the case, but Santangelo, unlike the 3,700 defendants who have already settled, says she will stand on principle and fight the lawsuit.
"It's a moral issue," she said. "I can't sign something that says I agree to stop doing something I never did."
If the downloading was done on her computer, Santangelo thinks it may have been the work of a young friend of her children. Santangelo, 43, has been described by a federal judge as "an Internet-illiterate parent, who does not know Kazaa from kazoo, and who can barely retrieve her email." Kazaa is the peer-to-peer software program used to share files.
The drain on her resources to fight the case ? she's divorced, has five children aged 7 to 19 and works as a property manager for a real estate company ? forced her this month to drop her lawyer and begin representing herself.
"There was just no way I could continue on with a lawyer," she said. "I'm out $24,000 and we haven't even gone to trial."
So on Thursday she was all alone at the defense table before federal Magistrate Judge Mark Fox in White Plains, looking a little nervous and replying simply, "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" to his questions about scheduling and exchange of evidence.
She did not look like someone who would have downloaded songs like Incubus' "Nowhere Fast," Godsmack's "Whatever" and Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life," all of which were allegedly found on her computer.
The David-and-Goliath nature of the case has attracted considerable attention in the Internet community. To those who defend the right to such "peer-to-peer" networks and criticize the RIAA's tactics, Santangelo is a hero.
Jon Newton, founder of an Internet site critical of the record companies, said by e-mail that with all the settlements, "The impression created is all these people have been successfully prosecuted for some as-yet undefined 'crime'. And yet not one of them has so far appeared in a court or before a judge. ... She's doing it alone. She's a courageous woman to be taking on the multibillion-dollar music industry."
Because some cases are settled just before a trial and because it would be months before Santangelo's got that far, it's impossible to predict whether she might be the first to go to trial over music downloading.
But she vows that she's in the fight to stay.
"People say to me, `You're crazy. Why don't you just settle?' I could probably get out of the whole thing if I paid maybe $3,500 and signed their little document. But I won't do that."
Her travail started when the record companies used an investigator to go online and search for copyrighted recordings being made available by individuals. The investigator allegedly found hundreds on her computer on April 11, 2004. Months later, there was a phone call from the industry's "settlement center," demanding about $7,500 "to keep me from being named in a lawsuit," Santangelo said.
===================================================
7-4-2005 Use open Wi-Fi, go to Jail - Tampa man arrested for using open Wi-Fi
ST. PETERSBURG - Richard Dinon saw the laptop's muted glow through the rear window of the SUV parked outside his home. He walked closer and noticed a man inside.
Then the man noticed Dinon and snapped his computer shut.
Maybe it's census work, the 28-year-old veterinarian told his girlfriend. An hour later, Dinon left to drive her home. The Chevy Blazer was still there, the man furtively hunched over his computer.
Dinon returned at 11 p.m. and the men repeated their strange dance.
Fifteen minutes later, Dinon called police.
Police say Benjamin Smith III, 41, used his Acer brand laptop to hack into Dinon's wireless Internet network. The April 20 arrest is considered the first of its kind in Tampa Bay and among only a few so far nationwide.
Smith, who police said admitted to using Dinon's Wi-Fi, has been charged with unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony.
===============================================
I'm sorry, this is insane.
The homeowner had an OPEN wireless Internet port!!!
I could see the guy being charged if the homeowner had the Internet router encryption turned on but he didn't.
This is very interesting.
I knew the Internet would be the Catalyst for Revolution II in the U.S.
The souce or the "Hot-Spot" is the part that catches me off gaurd.
The People Vs The Corporations is starting.
It has started with the Heads of State of Major Cities (which represent the people) Vs The Corporations that in turn own and pull the strings of Politicians.
The only unknown element is the leap from the echelon to the little people actually rioting and bloodshed beginning but the ingredients are there.
The Title below is misleading.
The "backlash" is not from the people, it is from the Corporations/Politician side:
5-3-2005 Cities Face Backlash As They Plan Municipal Wireless Services
A growing number of cities plan to offer wireless Internet access as a municipal service. But as those plans spread, a backlash appears to be forming.
More than 50 U.S. cities have set up or plan to install wireless broadband networks. Minneapolis is the latest to join the list.
A number of think tanks oppose such moves. And some state lawmakers look to ban cities from going into the wireless business.
Critics say city wireless networks waste tax money. The goal of city networks -- low-cost broadband Internet access for all -- is noble. But business, not cities, should meet that goal, they say.
Advocates say city-owned wireless is needed, since private services don't provide adequate access at fair rates.
And the backlash against municipal plans was spurred by corporate wireless providers, they say, not individuals.
"This isn't a grass-roots backlash," said Ron Sege, chief executive of wireless gear firm Tropos Networks, which supports municipal wireless plans. "This is an organized campaign of disinformation."
Lawmakers in 10 states have bills to limit city-built wireless networks. That's created headaches for a number of cities.
Sege says there's a real need for government to push broadband on its own.
About 22 million U.S. households don't have access to broadband service.
Current providers won't service many of those areas because it's not economical.
Owensboro, Ky., with a population of 54,000, faced that problem. Local provider BellSouth didn't have broadband widely available.
The city's utility had extra space on its fiber telecom network. So it began connecting to customers via wireless back in 2001.
The utility offers broadband to homes starting at $25 a month and business starting at $50.
The utility is separate from the city, though. So it used its own money, not tax funds.
12-21-2004 Broadband Use Surpasses Dial-Up in U.S. For First Time at 53%
As prices dropped over the past year, broadband use at home has surpassed that of dial-up in the United States, reaching 53 percent of residential Web users in October, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
The United States trailed 12 of the 15 top economies, including Canada, in broadband penetration, according to a September report from U.N. International Telecommunication Union analyzing 2003 data.
11-30-2004 Internet Users Left Stranded After Intelsat Satellite Fails
Dianne VanBeber, vice president of investor relations at Intelsat, said yesterday that it was not clear what had happened to the Intelsat Americas-7 satellite, but that it had suffered a "sudden and unexpected power loss" early Sunday morning.
VanBeber declined to estimate what the loss of the uninsured satellite would cost the company, other than to say it would not be material to the firm's financial results. However, the loss could affect plans to sell the company.
Intelsat is incorporated in Bermuda but most of its workforce, or about 850 employees, is based in Washington.
StarBand had about 20,000 customers who relied on the satellite for their Internet access, all of whom are now without access.
"We've had better ways to start the week," said Howard Lossing, vice president of marketing at StarBand, who found out about the problem when he learned his service at home was down Sunday morning.
Joel Loucka, a StarBand customer in Beach Bluff, Tenn., has already ordered a second phone line because he needs to be online and on the phone simultaneously to run his Web-hosting company, based out of his home in the woods.
Loucka is reluctant to go to another wireless Internet company because he has already shelled out $600 for equipment to get online through StarBand (his subscription costs an additional $60 per month).
========================================================
More fallout from America's love of Monopoly Phone & Cable Co's and their reluctance to exand infrastructure to cover all of the U.S. and instead soak inner City infrastructure for every penny they can get. U.S. citizens only have themselves to blame.
200 kbps at 5 GB is best U.S. can do for broadband for $65 per month
====================================================
It will be interesting to see how far this one goes.
11-1-07 Wi-Lan sues everybody for DSL Patent infringement
Canadian Company sues in East Texas Court
======================================================
10-29-2007 The F.C.C. has finally gotten around to ending anti-competive exclusivity that cable operators did with thousands of apartment complexes all over the country.
======================================================
10-26-2007 Poll Question added since 100G per month seems to be U.S. standard bandwidth cap now
Do you believe 100G per month Cap is reasonable?
Yes
No
=======================================================
I had a patent insanity thread but can't find it but this is related to the Internet.
Amazon's insanely stupid Patent that was rewarded for one click shopping was overturned.
10-17-2007 AMAZON ONE-CLICK PATENT REJECTED BY THE US PATENT OFFICE
USPTO Rejects Amazon's One-Click Patent
igdmlgd writes
"A while ago I filed a reexamination request for the Amazon.com one-click patent and recently checked out the USPTO online file wrapper -it seems they have rejected all the claims I requested they look at and more!"
And it only took many many years to remove what would have been obvious to the most incompetent web developer.
========================================================
Wow, call me surprised, another sweetheart "deal" handed out by the Bush Administration
So it's guaranteed to go up 28% and probably 42% and there isn't anything anybody can say or do about it.
4-5-2007 Prices for `.com' and `.net' to rise
NEW YORK - The master-keeper of Internet addresses ending in ".com" and ".net" ? two of the most popular domain name suffixes ? said Thursday it would raise fees charged to register those names.
The price hike does not require any regulatory approval.
Under a deal reached in November with the U.S. Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit group that oversees Internet addressing policies, VeriSign could increase ".com" prices as much as 7 percent during four out of the six years the contract is in effect.
The company may also raise fees during the other two years under limited conditions.
===================================================
This is the major linch pin for the splitting of the Internet into the Internets.
Once these corrupt Politicians bought out by the Telco Giants get their way the Internet is done in America.
9-19-2006 Senate Commerce Committee Now a Telco/Cable PR Firm
Push polls, misleading net-neutrality astroturf-flyers....
Written by Karl Bode at DSLReports.com
Editorial:"A new bipartisan poll released today finds that an overwhelming majority of American voters favor video choice over onerous "Net Neutrality" regulations," states a press release by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
While bi-partisan it may be, honest it is not.
The Verizon funded survey (pdf), conducted by Glover Park Group (traditionally Democratic) and Public Opinion Strategies (traditionally Republican) questioned 800 registered voters on their thoughts on network neutrality. The survey in question uses a tactic known as "push polling", which presents questions phrased in such a way as to illicit one particular answer.
This is the question asked used to support the committee's assertion of public opposition to net-neutrality laws:
Which of the following two items do you think is the most important to you:
Delivering the benefits of new TV and video choice so consumers will see increased competition and lower prices for cable TV, or enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet providers from offering specialized services like faster speed and increased security for a fee?
While push polling is a frequent tactic in corporate PR and political-campaign smear attempts, we should not see the same tactics originating from what's supposed to be an objective Senate committee, tasked with intelligently navigating tough questions in the field of technology law.
This is the second time in as many weeks we've observed this committee engaging in public relations warfare at the behest of the cable and phone giants. They've also been circulating a promotional flyer to "educate" voters on their Senate Communications Act of 2006. Note the flyer only contains links to editorials against net-neutrality laws, many of which contain misleading arguments designed by incumbent marketing departments.
Regardless of party affiliation or your position on net-neutrality regulation, at the forefront of technology law debates should lay the desire for an honest discussion.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has clearly decided to abandon such honest discourse and is now officially a bi-partisan public relation mouthpiece for the incumbent telecom providers.
========================================
In plain English we are pwned.
Some responses on the Forum:
Re: Debate period over; Senate now in consensus building phase
said by Zoder :
said by Tkjunkmail :
And now they are doing what politicians also do - building Senate and public support for the decision they have already reached.
Through misinformation and FUD. Stevens knows that a number of Democrats are adamant about keeping his bill from passing before the end of the year and the 109th Congress comes to a close. So he's using every tactic in the book to get the 60 votes he needs to defeat a filibuster. Even if some are dishonest like these survey results.
And this comes as a surprise? That is what politicians do. They do anything that is LEGAL (and sometimes what is barely legal) to win. Politics isn't a game for the squeamish and ethics has very little to do with it. It has always been such, back to the days of the Ancient Romans and Greeks.
And you think this is acceptable? Really what is Karl supposed to do sit down and accept the ass fvking?
It's called civic engagement whether it be through the media (such as DSLR a decent tech news website) or actual protest.
Either way it is the way legal change in this country has occured for the past two hundred years.
It doesn't come as a surprise, it comes as part of a laundry list of grievances that the netizens of this country have.
The fact that they are using this to build support for a possible corrupt position is the issue not a question of the fact that they are building support through pr campaigns.
I don't support net neutrality, but that isn't the question the question is the masking effect the senate is trying to achieve by looking like they are pro consumer.
======================================================
For those that dare doubt my sincerity for looking out for the little peons in the world.
I mentioned this years ago and BellSouth finally caved only after the FCC said they have started an "investigation":
8-25-2006 BellSouth to eliminate bogus DSL non-government government service fee, Verizon refuses to drop the bogus charge
WASHINGTON - Under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, BellSouth Corp. said Friday that it will stop collecting a $2.97 per month regulatory fee from its high-speed Internet customers.
The company made the announcement after learning the FCC had begun investigating whether the carrier and Verizon Communications Inc. were violating federal truth-in-billing laws.
The FCC confirmed Friday that "letters of inquiry" had been mailed to the two carriers seeking information about their billing practices.
BellSouth said it is "immediately eliminating" the fee that was "designed to recover a number of costs remaining from previous regulatory obligations and other network expenses."
Both companies have been accused of continuing to collect regulatory fees that the government is no longer assessing.
Verizon sent DSL customers an e-mail stating that on Aug. 26, it would charge a new monthly "supplier surcharge" of $1.20 or $2.70, depending on the connection speed. The fee will affect about half of Verizon's 5.7 million DSL subscribers, according to the company.
Prior to Aug. 14, the company was collecting $1.25 or $2.83 for from DSL customers depending on the connection speed.
Verizon said the new fee is needed to recover costs related to offering the high-speed Internet service.
"We would have no comment on it other than to say obviously we will explain to them (the FCC) whatever it is they want to have explained," said Verizon spokesman Brian Blevins.
========================================
Another Law that says one thing and will actually do another.
Enjoy your rights being stripped away piece by piece.
Internet going down the tiolet in the U.S. and getting more expensive to access the crap
7-26-2006 Congress Moves To Ban Social Networking Websites Such As My Space and Anandtech
A Pennsylvania congressman has introduced legislation that would ban minors from accessing social networking websites such as MySpace, and forbid libraries from making such access available.
The bill, known as the "Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006," was introduced Wednesday in the House by Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Penn), a first-term representative.
Social networking site defined as one that "allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger."
The bill would require the government to set up a web site warning of the dangers of social networking.
<blockquote>quote:
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Both of these articles are related because it is the same equipment:
Some call it progress, some call it Big Brother.
To borrow from Faux News, you decide.
4-14-2006 AT&T and EFF Challenges Bush U.S. Domestic Spy Program
SAN FRANCISCO - AT&T Inc. and an Internet advocacy group are waging in federal court a privacy battle that could expose the reach of the Bush administration's secretive domestic wiretapping program.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it obtained documents from a former AT&T technician showing that the National Security Agency is capable of monitoring all communications on AT&T's network.
"It appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet, whether that be people's e-mail, Web surfing or any other data," whistle-blower Mark Klein, who worked for the company for 22 years, said in a statement released by his lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is considering whether to unseal documents that Klein provided and AT&T wants kept secret. EFF filed the documents under seal as a courtesy to the phone company, but is seeking to unseal them.
The EFF lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the 2001 terror attacks. The suit is based in large part on the Klein documents, which detail secret spying rooms and electronic surveillance equipment in AT&T facilities.
The suit claims AT&T company not only provided direct access to its network that carries voice and data but also to its massive databases of stored telephone and Internet records that are updated constantly.
AT&T violated U.S. law and the privacy of its customers as part of the "massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications" without warrants, the EFF alleged.
Klein said the NSA built a secret room at the company's San Francisco central office in 2003, adjacent to a "switch room where the public's phone calls are routed." One of the documents under seal, Klein said, shows that a device was installed with the "ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets."
Other documents under seal show that fiber optic cables from the secret room tapped into WorldNet Internet subscribers, Klein said. The documents also instructed technicians how to connect cables to the secret room. Klein said he was required to connect circuits that fed information to the secret room.
"Any discussion about actual or alleged operational issues would be irresponsible as it would give our adversaries insight that would enable them to adjust and potentially inflict harm to the U.S.," NSA spokesman Don Weber said.
President Bush confirmed in December that the NSA has been conducting the surveillance when calls and e-mails, in which at least one party is outside the United States, are thought to involve al-Qaida terrorists.
In congressional hearings last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggested the president could order the NSA to listen in on purely domestic calls without first obtaining a warrant from a secret court established nearly 30 years ago to consider such issues.
He said the administration, assuming the conversation related to al-Qaida, would have to determine if the surveillance were crucial to the nation's fight against terrorism, as authorized by Congress following the Sept. 11 attacks.
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http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/
This should go in my "No Sh!T sherlock" thread.
Every Router has been built with automatic ports to the Government built in since 2001.
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4-14-2006 Pennyslvania uses $1 surcharge to Install Cell Tracking Technology
PITTSBURGH - You pass an accident on a lonely stretch of highway at night. You call 911 on your cell phone to report it but don't know exactly where you are. Soon that won't be a problem in Cambria County, where emergency officials said they plan to install technology allowing county 911 dispatchers to track where emergency calls are placed.
Almost a dozen states ? including neighboring Maryland and Delaware ? and the District of Columbia are completely covered by 911 cell phone tracking technology, which uses information from GPS chips embedded in some cell phones or by monitoring how far the caller is from nearby cell phone towers.
Pennsylvania funds its 911 cell tracking technology with a $1 surcharge on wireless phone service, Fleming said. The state began collecting funds in July 2004 and has received about $120 million since then, he said.
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Out of the 12 States, I've worked on 8 States.
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The Internet/Music David & Goliath battle of the United States is shaping up.
If I had the resources and money I would go up and help this woman.
12-26-2005 Mom Fights Downloading Suit on Her Own
WHITE PLAINS, New York - It was Easter Sunday, and Patricia Santangelo was in church with her kids when she says the music recording industry peeked into her computer and decided to take her to court.
Santangelo says she has never downloaded a single song on her computer, but the industry didn't see it that way. The woman from Wappingers Falls, about 80 miles north of New York City, is among the more than 16,000 people who have been sued for allegedly pirating music through file-sharing computer networks.
"I assumed that when I explained to them who I was and that I wasn't a computer downloader, it would just go away," she said in an interview. "I didn't really understand what it all meant. But they just kept insisting on a financial settlement."
The industry is demanding thousands of dollars to settle the case, but Santangelo, unlike the 3,700 defendants who have already settled, says she will stand on principle and fight the lawsuit.
"It's a moral issue," she said. "I can't sign something that says I agree to stop doing something I never did."
If the downloading was done on her computer, Santangelo thinks it may have been the work of a young friend of her children. Santangelo, 43, has been described by a federal judge as "an Internet-illiterate parent, who does not know Kazaa from kazoo, and who can barely retrieve her email." Kazaa is the peer-to-peer software program used to share files.
The drain on her resources to fight the case ? she's divorced, has five children aged 7 to 19 and works as a property manager for a real estate company ? forced her this month to drop her lawyer and begin representing herself.
"There was just no way I could continue on with a lawyer," she said. "I'm out $24,000 and we haven't even gone to trial."
So on Thursday she was all alone at the defense table before federal Magistrate Judge Mark Fox in White Plains, looking a little nervous and replying simply, "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" to his questions about scheduling and exchange of evidence.
She did not look like someone who would have downloaded songs like Incubus' "Nowhere Fast," Godsmack's "Whatever" and Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life," all of which were allegedly found on her computer.
The David-and-Goliath nature of the case has attracted considerable attention in the Internet community. To those who defend the right to such "peer-to-peer" networks and criticize the RIAA's tactics, Santangelo is a hero.
Jon Newton, founder of an Internet site critical of the record companies, said by e-mail that with all the settlements, "The impression created is all these people have been successfully prosecuted for some as-yet undefined 'crime'. And yet not one of them has so far appeared in a court or before a judge. ... She's doing it alone. She's a courageous woman to be taking on the multibillion-dollar music industry."
Because some cases are settled just before a trial and because it would be months before Santangelo's got that far, it's impossible to predict whether she might be the first to go to trial over music downloading.
But she vows that she's in the fight to stay.
"People say to me, `You're crazy. Why don't you just settle?' I could probably get out of the whole thing if I paid maybe $3,500 and signed their little document. But I won't do that."
Her travail started when the record companies used an investigator to go online and search for copyrighted recordings being made available by individuals. The investigator allegedly found hundreds on her computer on April 11, 2004. Months later, there was a phone call from the industry's "settlement center," demanding about $7,500 "to keep me from being named in a lawsuit," Santangelo said.
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7-4-2005 Use open Wi-Fi, go to Jail - Tampa man arrested for using open Wi-Fi
ST. PETERSBURG - Richard Dinon saw the laptop's muted glow through the rear window of the SUV parked outside his home. He walked closer and noticed a man inside.
Then the man noticed Dinon and snapped his computer shut.
Maybe it's census work, the 28-year-old veterinarian told his girlfriend. An hour later, Dinon left to drive her home. The Chevy Blazer was still there, the man furtively hunched over his computer.
Dinon returned at 11 p.m. and the men repeated their strange dance.
Fifteen minutes later, Dinon called police.
Police say Benjamin Smith III, 41, used his Acer brand laptop to hack into Dinon's wireless Internet network. The April 20 arrest is considered the first of its kind in Tampa Bay and among only a few so far nationwide.
Smith, who police said admitted to using Dinon's Wi-Fi, has been charged with unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony.
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I'm sorry, this is insane.
The homeowner had an OPEN wireless Internet port!!!
I could see the guy being charged if the homeowner had the Internet router encryption turned on but he didn't.
This is very interesting.
I knew the Internet would be the Catalyst for Revolution II in the U.S.
The souce or the "Hot-Spot" is the part that catches me off gaurd.
The People Vs The Corporations is starting.
It has started with the Heads of State of Major Cities (which represent the people) Vs The Corporations that in turn own and pull the strings of Politicians.
The only unknown element is the leap from the echelon to the little people actually rioting and bloodshed beginning but the ingredients are there.
The Title below is misleading.
The "backlash" is not from the people, it is from the Corporations/Politician side:
5-3-2005 Cities Face Backlash As They Plan Municipal Wireless Services
A growing number of cities plan to offer wireless Internet access as a municipal service. But as those plans spread, a backlash appears to be forming.
More than 50 U.S. cities have set up or plan to install wireless broadband networks. Minneapolis is the latest to join the list.
A number of think tanks oppose such moves. And some state lawmakers look to ban cities from going into the wireless business.
Critics say city wireless networks waste tax money. The goal of city networks -- low-cost broadband Internet access for all -- is noble. But business, not cities, should meet that goal, they say.
Advocates say city-owned wireless is needed, since private services don't provide adequate access at fair rates.
And the backlash against municipal plans was spurred by corporate wireless providers, they say, not individuals.
"This isn't a grass-roots backlash," said Ron Sege, chief executive of wireless gear firm Tropos Networks, which supports municipal wireless plans. "This is an organized campaign of disinformation."
Lawmakers in 10 states have bills to limit city-built wireless networks. That's created headaches for a number of cities.
Sege says there's a real need for government to push broadband on its own.
About 22 million U.S. households don't have access to broadband service.
Current providers won't service many of those areas because it's not economical.
Owensboro, Ky., with a population of 54,000, faced that problem. Local provider BellSouth didn't have broadband widely available.
The city's utility had extra space on its fiber telecom network. So it began connecting to customers via wireless back in 2001.
The utility offers broadband to homes starting at $25 a month and business starting at $50.
The utility is separate from the city, though. So it used its own money, not tax funds.
12-21-2004 Broadband Use Surpasses Dial-Up in U.S. For First Time at 53%
As prices dropped over the past year, broadband use at home has surpassed that of dial-up in the United States, reaching 53 percent of residential Web users in October, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
The United States trailed 12 of the 15 top economies, including Canada, in broadband penetration, according to a September report from U.N. International Telecommunication Union analyzing 2003 data.
11-30-2004 Internet Users Left Stranded After Intelsat Satellite Fails
Dianne VanBeber, vice president of investor relations at Intelsat, said yesterday that it was not clear what had happened to the Intelsat Americas-7 satellite, but that it had suffered a "sudden and unexpected power loss" early Sunday morning.
VanBeber declined to estimate what the loss of the uninsured satellite would cost the company, other than to say it would not be material to the firm's financial results. However, the loss could affect plans to sell the company.
Intelsat is incorporated in Bermuda but most of its workforce, or about 850 employees, is based in Washington.
StarBand had about 20,000 customers who relied on the satellite for their Internet access, all of whom are now without access.
"We've had better ways to start the week," said Howard Lossing, vice president of marketing at StarBand, who found out about the problem when he learned his service at home was down Sunday morning.
Joel Loucka, a StarBand customer in Beach Bluff, Tenn., has already ordered a second phone line because he needs to be online and on the phone simultaneously to run his Web-hosting company, based out of his home in the woods.
Loucka is reluctant to go to another wireless Internet company because he has already shelled out $600 for equipment to get online through StarBand (his subscription costs an additional $60 per month).
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More fallout from America's love of Monopoly Phone & Cable Co's and their reluctance to exand infrastructure to cover all of the U.S. and instead soak inner City infrastructure for every penny they can get. U.S. citizens only have themselves to blame.
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