grantus - Slashdot User

Submission + - Google and Verizon net neutrality deal? (computerworld.com)

Submitted by grantus on Thursday August 05, 2010 @02:28PM

grantus writes: There have been reports of Google and Verizon in talks about net neutrality, but what does it all mean? In this analysis, some sources suggest that any private deal between the two companies may not win wider acceptance with the FCC, lawmakers, or other broadband providers. In addition, Google denies it's trying to get special favors from Verizon, and Verizon says it's committed to negotiations taking place at the FCC.

Comment Re:Gasp! OMBFG! You can't sell what isn't yours?!? (Score 1) 120

by grantus on Tuesday July 13, 2010 @09:38AM (#32886362) Attached to: FTC Warns Site Not To Sell Personal Data

One of the targets of the FTC letter is the majority owner of the company that published XY (as the story says). The other target of the letter was an investor in XY. The assert ownership of the data.

Comment Re:Is it a "promise" or a "contract?" (Score 2, Informative) 120

by grantus on Tuesday July 13, 2010 @09:06AM (#32885948) Attached to: FTC Warns Site Not To Sell Personal Data

Nothing except the threat of a lawsuit filed by the FTC. The agency has brought several similar cases.

Comment Re:Promises (Score 4, Informative) 120

by grantus on Tuesday July 13, 2010 @07:06AM (#32885124) Attached to: FTC Warns Site Not To Sell Personal Data

The FTC has actually filed civil lawsuits against multiple companies that the agency thought didn't live up to their privacy promises. The FTC sees the act of breaking privacy promises as a deceptive trade practice that's outlawed in the FTC Act.

Comment May not be a fee on wireless carriers (Score 1) 246

by grantus on Sunday March 01, 2009 @10:07AM (#27029377) Attached to: Spectrum Fees May Preclude US Low-Cost Cellular

This may not be a fee on wireless carriers at all, but on broadcast spectrum, according to some sources.

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/02/27/obama-proposes-spectrum-license-fee

The budget blueprint, released Thursday, provides no more details about the fee. Despite some speculation to the contrary, it may not, however, be a fee on wireless voice and data spectrum, but on spectrum used by U.S. radio and television stations.

The proposed spectrum license user fee, which would be $200 million in 2010 and $300 million in 2011, takes up one line on page 126 of the 142-page budget blueprint.

A similar fee, proposed but not enacted in past federal budgets, has not been for wireless spectrum that companies have purchased in auctions from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, but on TV and radio spectrum that's been allocated to broadcasters, said a government source familiar with past FCC budgets.

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