Internet – Page 10

No fee for carriage, says CRTC

October 31, 2008July 25, 2009 Danny X CRTC6 Comments

Originally published in Marketing Magazine, October 31, 2008 | By Canadian Press, with files from Chris Powell The CRTC says Canadians will get more choices in the television programs they watch at no additional cost under new rules the broadcast regulator plans to introduce. The federal regulator’s vision of Canadian television in the future would allow cable and satellite operators to provide a wider menu of conventional and specialty channels, as long as the entire package contains at least 51% Canadian content. CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said Thursday there…

CRTC Delays Throttling Decision Until November

October 23, 2008April 17, 2009 Doug Groves 3 Comments

The CRTC has once again delayed it’s decision regarding Bell Canada’s practice of throttling it’s 3rd party DSL wholesalers. We SHOULD be expecting an answer in November according to the CBC, but until then, Bell will continue dialing back bandwidth. CAIP said Bell had broken the Telecommunications Act by changing the terms of its wholesale service without giving its members notice. Bell countered by saying the throttling is necessary to prevent congestion, which is within its network management rights. Of course, as we reported back in the spring, Bell’s claim…

Why It’s Hard to Hate Google

October 9, 2008October 9, 2008 Paul L 2 Comments

Because they do things like this [quoted from the company’s ‘unofficial’ human web portal, Matt Cutts]… Randall Monroe, the creator of xkcd, suggested that if YouTube commenters had to listen to their comments read back to them aloud, it might lead to better discussion on YouTube. Some Googlers thought that was a pretty fun suggestion, so they did it. YouTube now has an audio preview so you can listen to your comment before you post it. I love that Google had the sense of humor to add this feature. Click…

Bill C-61 To Return?

October 8, 2008July 25, 2009 Doug Groves CRTC, online rights9 Comments

(original image found at Wikipedia Commons) Though we try not to stray into party politics, digital copyright and internet issues are important to everyone. With the federal election a week away, it’s worth pointing out where each of the parties stand on the issue. We’ve discussed C-61 before, a nasty piece of legislation reform also known as the “DMCA of Canada”. The Bill caused the formation of a number of groups fighting against it, but ultimately died on the table when a federal election was called about a month ago….

Apple Beset by Criticism From Leading Mac Bloggers

September 15, 2008September 15, 2008 Paul L 37 Comments

When lodestar users like Harry McCracken, Dave Winer, and even John Gruber are gunning for you online, you know your mobile platform has a real problem on its hands. Thus, is Apple reaping what it has sowed with its increasingly pathological obsession with control.

Yahoo’s Homepage to Get Even HEAVIER

September 12, 2008September 13, 2008 Paul L 1 Comment

While Google tries to hold its homepage word count at 28 — that’s right: 28 words — Yahoo suddenly gets it in their heads that what people really want is to download a few more thousand, socially networked words, thus continuing the company’s long-term slide toward forcing you to download the whole internet before you search through any of it.

NDP gets all creative on the Internetz; Google Harper, get an ad for Layton

September 11, 2008September 12, 2008 Danny X 1 Comment

Isohunt Suing The CRIA

September 11, 2008April 17, 2009 Doug Groves 8 Comments

Earlier this year the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) sent a Cease And Desist letter to popular torrent seach site isohunt, demanding that the site be taken down for copyright violation. If founder Gary Fung refused, the CRIA has threatened to sue them to the not so compressed tune of $20,000 per infringing recording. If isohunt were The Pirate Bay, they’d probably try to buy an abandoned oil rig off the shore of Baffin Island, but isohunt is trying something different. They’re suing the CRIA right back. Quoting from a…

Bill C61 Gone For Now

September 9, 2008April 17, 2009 Doug Groves 3 Comments

Though Canada is facing it’s third election in less than 5 years, there are a couple of things to be thankful for. First, is that Canadian election cycles don’t last 3 and a half years, like certain neighbours. Second and arguably more importantly, Bill C61, the ‘DMCA of the North’ championed by Tory Industry Minister Jim Prentice, is dead for now. That doesn’t mean the battle is over. The controversial bill, which inspired YouTube videos and very active groups on just about every social networking site, will probably see new…

Google Chrome: The Zero Day Satire

September 3, 2008September 4, 2008 Paul L 2 Comments

You knew it had to happen. The patronising 38-page webcomic Google had Scott McCloud pen in order to explain, with excruciating deliberation, Google Chrome, has been wickedly lampooned. In this case, by The Register and its readers. This is probably just a small sample of the massive innoculations of irony we will all require if Google’s plans to lay claim to a platform on top of everybody else’s platforms, actually come to fruition. Buy more blue paint, indeed.

DIGG to create Local News options and Forums?

August 28, 2008August 28, 2008 Danny X 4 Comments

RIPPED FROM CNET: Digg has always made its message clear: it’s not social news, it’s democracy. The company’s executive team–founder Kevin Rose, and CEO Jay Adelson–thumbed their noses at the DMCA complaint they received when users “dugg” a crack code for the now-defunct HD DVD technology. They also decided to connect with their users through “town hall” events Webcast live four times a year. So it’s perhaps fitting that for the company’s third quarterly town hall, Rose and Adelson set up shop in the “Big Tent” new-media hall at the…

Rumours of Steve Jobs’ Demise are Greatly Exaggerated

August 28, 2008August 28, 2008 Danny X 7 Comments

From the “oh, crap” files: The Bloomberg Financial Newswire is experiencing a little “send all” remorse today after mistakenly releasing Steve Jobs’ obituary into the wild. The 17-page obit was apparently being updated when the author mistook the “Save” button for the “Freak out shareholders” key and accidentally published the document across the entire newswire. A retraction was published almost immediately, but not before rgbFilter was able to get its hands on a copy of the obituary, which you can see below.