CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0079, 12/13/2008

Title/Description: FCC Cancels Meeting, College Music Fees, News Briefs

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 79, recorded December 13th, 2008.

This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information.

This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Story 1 - FCC Cancels Meeting

I've been reporting on an upcoming meeting of the FCC where a vote is scheduled to take place on a proposal to provide free national broadband Internet. It appears that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has gone too far in his enthusiasm for this proposal, and angered politicians on capital hill. As a result the FCC meeting has been canceled and it appears that Martin's proposal will never see the light of day. Several forces have come to bare against Martin and his free Internet plans this week:

President Bush criticized the plan as being anticompetitve, and unfair to the telecom industry.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, criticized the intent to filter indecent content.
T-Mobile complained that opening up the free Internet spectrum would cause interference and disrupt its network services that exist on neighboring frequencies.
The Energy and Commerce Committee issues a scathing report accusing Martin of abusing his power and breaking commission rules during his time in office.

All hope for cheap broadband is not lost however, President-elect Obama has outlined his economic stimulus plan which includes major investments in broadband deployment and IT infrastructure.

White House Opposes FCC Free Wireless Internet Plan [Ars Technica]

FCC's Martin, White House feud over smut-free broadband [Ars Technica]

FCC cancels meeting for free Internet vote [cnet]

FCC cancels meeting after warning [Computerworld]

Congressional report: FCC's Martin abused power [Computerworld]

Report exposes FCC leadership breakdown [Seattlepi.com]

Broadband is Key to Obama’s Recovery Plan [Gigaom]

Obama stimulus plan aims to boost digital economy [Computerworld]

Obama outlines plan to put every child online [Computerworld]

Story 2 - College Music Fees

Many colleges attach various fees to tuition to cover extracurricular activities. For example all students may pay an "activities fee" with tuition to support a recreational center or fitness center that is open for use by students. What do you think about the idea of a "music fee" that would make it legal to download any music from any source -including P2P networks or your friends, without fear of being sued by the music industry? It appears that this idea is being floated by the music industry, and some colleges are showing interest. The arrangement would make colleges responsible for monitoring music downloads by students, and paying the record labels a per-song rate, which the record labels would then dole out to the recording artists. The cost of the service would, in one way or another, be generated from student tuition or fees. In return, the record labels would offer participating colleges a "covenant not to sue" the students. Apparently this is one of several options being considered to move the Music industry away from its current "litigation-based" approach to music copyright enforcement.

A similar solution to the illegal music distribution problem has been proposed for the Internet in general. In this case, Internet Service Providers would be responsible for the accounting, tracking all music downloads, and reporting them to the record labels. All Internet users would be charged a standard fee, referred to by some as a Music Tax.

In both cases, concern has been raised by privacy groups who worry about the deep packet inspection technology that would be required to track music distribution. The technology could be used to track more than just music files. Users have also raised concerns over the idea of having to pay a flat rate whether you download music or not. ISP's have expressed concern over the resources needed to monitor data packets flowing over the Internet. Finally, many individuals and groups are concerned that the arrangement will continue to increase the wealth of the recording industry without benefiting the musicians.

The take-away from this story is that digital intellectual property is difficult to protect from illegal distribution. These most recent proposals place the bulk of the responsibility for protecting digital music on the shoulders of the network and Internet service providers. The litigation-approach puts the responsibility on the record labels, the government and the laws that protect copyright. Other technology-based solutions, like Digital Rights Management, lock down digital music files so they can only be played on approved players and restrict the ability to make copies. The controversy that each of these solutions have stirred up illustrate how complex this issue is.

Voluntary campus-wide music licenses could stop the lawsuits [Ars Technica]

And that brings us to News Briefs.

Google's Web browser, Chrome, has come out of beta and is available for download for Windows, with Mac and Linux versions in the works.
Google releases Chrome 1.0 [Ars Technica]
The Firefox Web browser 3.1, beta 2 has been released and includes faster Javascript processing and a new "private browsing" feature.
First look: Firefox 3.1 beta 2, now with private browsing [Ars Technic]
Microsoft has released its biggest batch of security patches in more than five years. If you haven't updated your version of Windows you should do so ASAP!
Microsoft warns of new Windows bug, says attacks under way [Computerworld]
Shortly after it released its security patches, Microsoft acknowledged that a critical flaw has been discovered in all versions of Internet Explorer. Users of the Web browser are advised to raise the security level in Internet settings to High, to keep ActiveX controls from running automatically.
Microsoft confirms that all versions of IE have critical new bug [Computerworld]
Google's Open Handset Alliance, the group of mobile technology companies that support Google's open source Android mobile platform, has grown by 14 this week. New members include some big names like Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, and Garmin International.
Open Handset Alliance expands with 14 new members [Ars Technica]
Sony PS3 gamers finally have a chance to try out Sony Home - an online virtual community that allows gamers to interact and play together as avatars - kind of like Second Life combined with Xbox Live.
PS3 Home goes live tomorrow—complete with microtransactions [Ars Technica]
Radio Shack is offering an Acer Aspire One netbook computer for only $100 for customers that sign up for a 2-year data plan from AT&T. Of course the total cost of the data plan and netbook add up to $1540 over the two years.
Almost a stocking stuffer: Radio Shack selling $100 netbook [Computerworld]
Two reports this week show that IT employment continues to face challenges. 34,000 IT jobs were lost in November, and one in four remaining IT jobs could be moved offshore by 2010.
IT employment falls in U.S.; hiring may be stalled for months [Computerworld]
Let’s take a moment of silence to appreciate and reflect on the hard-working, under appreciated computer mouse. Okay that's enough. The Mouse turned 40 years old this week. The first mouse was created by Douglas Englebart at Stanford Research Institute and was demonstrated for the first time December 9, 1968.
The computer mouse turns 40 [Computerworld]
Four weeks since ISP McColo was taken down, and Spam was reduced by 57 percent, spam has risen back up to 63 percent of its earlier volume.
Spam levels climb as criminals replace crippled botnets [Computerworld]
Reports from several computer security research groups point to Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks as primary targets for Internet fraud and crime in 2009.
Cybercrime '09: Too late to save Facebook? [Computerworld]
Google has extended its AdWords technology to serve up ads on the iPhone, T-Mobile's G1, and other cell phones with full Web browsing capability.
Google Launches Mobile Ads for iPhone, G1 [NewsFactor]

That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at coursecasts.course.com. Email us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!