Effective today, the U.S. Department of Defense has started blocking access over its Internet networks to You Tube, MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5; music sites Pandora, MTV, 1.fm and live365; and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.DoD says this is being done for two reasons: to soften demand on its networks,...
FedEx has a squeaky clean image. It is hard to imagine them running afoul of local law enforcement by interfering with police dispatching signals.But thats exactly what FedEx did in and around Riverside, California. And in a judgement announced by the FCC last Friday, FedEx is going to have...
In the somewhat self-delusional world that some Vonage execs, analysts and users seem to inhabit, yesterdays stay of an order allowing Vonage to keep signing up new customers until the patent infringement issues with Verizon are settled amounts to a win.I have a hard time viewing this attitude as reality....
Since we are awaiting a Vonage-Verizon patent infringement decision by end of today, this article Ive just read has special relevance. None of the parties in this article are directly tied to Vonage, but I think you might appreciate a broader take on what is going on with all...
In terms of Internet broadband subscribers per 100 residents, the U.S. keeps slipping further down the world rankings every time a new report is released.Today is one of those days. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD released data that notes that in December, 2006, the U.S. ranks...
Tomorrow, Vonage will ask an appeals court to extend a freeze of a lower court order that bars it from signing up new customers during the length of an appeals process of a ruling against Vonage in its patent infringement suit against Verizon.Last Tuesday, Vonage put out a statement...
This ones quite a story. I am not a patent attorney, but I would think that this info would be useful to all the players involved in the VoIP patent infringement cases between Vonage and Verizon, and Vonage and Sprint. Dan Connor, who runs the Vonage Forum, has just found...
Fellow blogger Andy Abramson writes that Ken Rutkowski, with whom he co-hosts the World Technology RoundUp has just forwarded him an email from an engineer who is listed as one of the three inventors of a 3Com patent that covers much if not most of the same ground one...
Heres an even more apt reference than a play on the title "Smells Like Teen Spirit," by Nirvana.We go a little further back for this one: "One likes to believe in the power of music"But glitter and prizes and endless compromises, shatter the illusion of integrity""Spirit of Radio,...
Roger Warin is the point person at the center of Vonages appeals in its patent infringement clash with Verizon.Chairman of Washington, D.C.-based Steptoe & Johnson, Warin,61, is the focus of todays Wall Street Journal Law Blog.Thats Warin at the top of this post. After a Friday...
Thats two weeks from today if you are counting or even if you are not.April 24 will be when a U.S. federal appeals court will hear oral arguments on Vonages request for a stay while it appeals a finding it infringed Verizons patents. Last Friday, a lower court...
My interpretation: I agree with Om that the technology described here is so generic that a claim for infringement is highly unlikely. Entitled Method, server and telecommunications system for name translation on a conditional basis and/or to a telephone number, Verizons U.S. Patent 6,282,574 refers to:An enhanced name translation...
Just a few minutes ago, U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton issued an order barring Vonage from signing up new customers.The order is for the length of the appeal process, in which Vonage appeals a ruling that it infringed on three Verizon patents.The only good morsel of new on this...
In just a few hours from now, Vonage will hear if a Federal judge will grant a stay in his ruling that Vonage is liable for violating three of Verizons VoIP-related patents.U.S. District Court Judge Claude M. Hilton will either issue the injunction or provide Vonage with a stay....
A representative of Iowa-based CLEC Competitive Local Exchange Carrier and broadband conferencing solutions provider Great Lakes Communications Corp. has emailed me with what sounds like a David-Goliath declaration of war against the big telcos. Justification, in GLCCs view, is what it sees as recent attempts by Cingular/AT&T Wireless,...
Why dont all of our cellular phones show us the elapsed time of our phone conversations during our conversations? Or why dont these same phones utitlize Bluetooth for more than just voice connections between headsets and handset?Its all because the carriers dont want that to happen.Thats the assertion of Tim...
The Associated Press reports today that the Recording Industry Association of America is not letting up on its campaign to target universities where illegal music downloading is going on."The music group said popular software programs it has targeted at schools include AresWarez, BitTorrent, eDonkey and other programs that operate...
I am usually not one to advocate governmental regulation of personal behavior.That said, I fully endorse the move of New York State Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), and shown at right- to introduce legislation today banning the practice of pedestrians looking down and dealing with their iPod, cell phone, BlackBerry,...
Whats interesting about Viacoms demand today that YouTube pull all of its 100,000 or so videos featuring Viacom content is that YouTube-owner Google already has a deal with Viacom to post some of Viacoms content for free.The difference, of course, is that YouTube content is still the unlicensed Wild West,...
Several recent court decisions are, in my view, threatening the generally accepted notion that the Internet thrives on a "free to link" privilege between any two sites.As rabid as some content creators, their lawyers and agents are, I fear that we may be headed into an era where these rights...
Thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large.
Visit SmartPlanet