Verizon, Redmoon Each Independently Decide to Be Evil, Find Sneaky Ways to Display Ads
Here's a pair of head-shakers for you. Verizon is starting to test a service where mis-typed domain names will instead present search results, much like Verisign's SiteFinder service that caused angry mobs to all but go to the company's offices with torches and pitchforks. The service works at the DNS level meaning that Verizon customers would not be able to bypass it. The biggest problem with this is the impact on tools that look for non-existent DNS records as a way to combat spam and could break other search tools you have on your computer. The obvious motivation is to sell ads on the new "Did you mean…?" screens to make a quick buck. (See full article here.)
And speaking of making a quick buck from ads, Texas ISP Redmoon has found a way to insert ads into web pages that never originally had them at the ISP level. You wouldn't be able to bypass this and it would be a wholesale violation of the intellectual property rights of website owners who spend countless hours building content and arranging it just so. These aren't pop-ups: they're displayed right in the page, modifying the source to insert them. It's also worth noting that this is a paid ISP, not a freebie like Juno or Netzero. (See full article here.)
Hopefully both Verizon and Redmoon will realize that they're on the verge of summoning angry mobs and angrier hackers.
Governor's Group Want Internet Tax Ban to Stay Temporary
The National Association of Governors warned Congress that making the current ban on taxing Internet access permanent is a Bad Thing(TM). Their contention is that keeping it temporary gives the government a nice big stick to carry around in case any ISPs start acting up. I can certainly see that taking Teddy Roosevelt's advice to heart is usually a pretty good idea, though I have to wonder if a club does much good if you never use it once in a while.
(See full article here.)
FTC Excuses Itself from the Net Neutrality Debate
In a move that sounded a lot like a collective "not my job, not my problem," the FTC decided to downplay network neutrality concerns and get itself onto solid, er, neutral ground. In a recently released report, the FTC chose to take no position on network neutrality and downplayed it as not really being all that important. In the process, they urged legislators to move with caution on the issue. Even though this doesn't outright cave in to the wants of the telcos, they'd all prefer the status quo of ambiguity so they can quietly start enacting their own two-tier Internet and deny they're up to anything.
Users of UTOPIA and iProvo, however, have little to fear. Both systems have built-in network neutrality requirements for all providers, so you're not going to face the possibility of having to pay for some kind of "premium" tier to get your BitTorrent on.
(See full articles here, here, here, here, here and here.)