Free Republic

It is about to get a bit more difficult to illegally download TV shows, movies or music online. A new alert system, rolling out over the next two months, will repeatedly warn and possibly punish people violating digital copyrights. The Copyright Alert System was announced last July and has been four years in the making. If you use AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, or Verizon as your Internet service provider, you could receive the first of one of these notes starting in the next two months. The Internet provider is delivering the message, but the legwork is being done by...

Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other Internet service providers (ISPs) in the United States will soon launch new programs to police their networks in an effort to catch digital pirates and stop illegal file-sharing. Major ISPs announced last summer that they had agreed to take new measures in an effort to prevent subscribers from illegally downloading copyrighted material, but the specifics surrounding the imminent antipiracy measures were not made available. Now, RIAA chief executive Cary Sherman has said that ISPs are ready to begin their efforts to curtail illegal movie, music and software downloads on July 12.

Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers' activities for one year--in case police want to review them in the future--under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today. The 19 to 10 vote represents a victory for conservative Republicans, who made data retention their first major technology initiative after last fall's elections, and the Justice Department officials who have quietly lobbied for the sweeping new requirements, a development first reported by CNET. A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers' names, addresses,...

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 19-10 for H.R. 1981, a data-retention bill that will require your ISP to spy on everything you do online and save records of it for 12 months. California Rep Zoe Lofgren, one of the Democrats who opposed the bill, called it a “data bank of every digital act by every American” that would “let us find out where every single American visited Web sites.”

I’ll be the first to admit that anti-trust law is not my strong suit. The myriad implications of cable giant Comcast’s proposed acquisition of NBC are complexities beyond the grasp of most mortals. Legions of attorneys will put legions of children through college with the fees that this transaction will generate. This is the kind of stimulus that will inject much-needed capital into the private country club sector of the economy. I’ll be the first to admit that anti-trust law is not my strong suit. The myriad implications of cable giant Comcast’s proposed acquisition of NBC are complexities beyond the...

I need to install new software on a Mac for my (80 yearold friend)so she can get her grandchildrens email and play bridge on the internet. I would greatfully accept any help. Thanks....GrandMoM