Net Neutrality – Bell South Executive Continues Telco Push for “Pay for Priority”

Bell South has joined with other telco companies, including AT&T, in claiming the right to charge content providers, and other users of their facilities, differing amounts for priority access to transmission facilities. So, for example, one web hosting company might pay a higher fee to Bell South than another, thereby ensuring that it had less latency than a competitor. Telcos claim that these charges are no different than search engine “pay for placement” fees, while other observers allege that it challenges the fundamental nature of the Internet as a neutral transmission network. freepress article

Copyright – Sony’s DRM Software May Lead to Significant Legal Issues

As the controversy about Sony’s DRM software refuses to cool down, legal experts have begun to speculate about the breadth of legal claims that might be brought against Sony. The most interesting of these claims may stem from Sony’s EULA which attempted to limit user’s damages to $5.00, release Sony from any damage caused by the Software, and seek judicial assistance to terminate the EULA. These legal issues, along with other issues such as possible violations of open source GPLs point out the limitations that may be imposed on what seem to be unfairly one sided software and click wrap licenses. eweek article