2012 July InfoTech & Telecom News

The July issue of InfoTech & Telecom News reports taxpayer funding for public broadcasting once again is under scrutiny as Congressional leaders seek to stem the growth of the ballooning national deficit. Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Doug Lamborn are exploring whether to eliminate the entire $445 million annual budget requested by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Also in this issue:

• A retransmission dispute resulted in program blackouts in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Bartlett Cleland, policy counsel to the Institute for Policy Innovation, observes: “Given all the marketplace and technological changes that have taken place since 1992, it’s worth the effort to come up with a legislative solution that stops relying on a 20-year-old regulatory structure.”

• Copyright enforcement against The Pirate Bay has prompted the host of mostly pirated free music and videos to advise visitors to make use of VPNs that give them anonymity.

• Seattle, Washington has ended its municipal wi-fi experiment after seven years of trying to make free broadband work.

• The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review the case of a Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading 30 songs.

• Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette reached an agreement with eight Internet Sweepstakes Cafés to shut them down.