Domain Tasting: yummy web spam!

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

I just read a very interesting historical account of the practice of domain tasting, whereby priveleged parties register huge number of expiring domain names and sample their traffic to determine their value, usually determined by monetizing the traffic using AdWords. Unsuspecting vistors find themselves at a destination designed to direct ...

Freeconomics and the copybot: consequences for intellectual property

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

Chris Anderson of Long Tail fame "cheekily" coins freeconomics as shorthand for his more recent thesis on "economics of abundance". (I should mention that he does so with apologies to Freakonomics) Anderson points out how technology that was once scarce is fast becoming a cheap enough commodity to be offered ...

Alternatives to DRM? [Updated: YouTube’s perfect storm]

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

UPDATE: Google has bought YouTube for 1.6+ Billion and there is a hell of a debate going on surrounding Mark Cuban's criticism of Google's purchase and the actual value of YouTube given that it does not use DRM, therefore requiring copyright holders to monitor the site themselves and constantly ask them ...

Solutions to Net Neutrality

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

I recently discovered Farber's "interesting people" discussion list: a bunch of fascinating folks debating (primarily) internet issues. A few months back Bob Cringely highlighted Bob Frankston, one of the list members, in one of the most lucid articles about network neutrality. In a message to the IP list, Frankston debunks ...

Emerging from the Chaos…

Sunday, July 2nd, 2006

Adam over at Emergent Chaos clarifies some Network Neutrality concepts for his readers in his post Innovation, Emerging From Chaos. He points out that "the regulatory apparatus has fairly clearly been captured by the regulated". Basically the big telecom corporations have learned how to thrive on regulation, and this has implications ...

Cory on Neutricide

Thursday, June 29th, 2006

Cory Doctorow, famed for his debunking of DRM technology, writes an excellent article on the net neutrality issue, or "internet freedom" as I like to call it. He drives home some important points: ...there are few industries that owe their existence to regulation as much as the carriers. These companies are ...

The Internet Wants to Be Free

Sunday, June 4th, 2006

In my previous post I argue that internet neutrality legislation could help ease the transition to an internet society and economy. On further thought and debate I'm not really sure that regulation would be the most constructive response to the threat of network discrimination. The internet has a long history ...