Antitrust Laws: AT&T Swallows Yet Another Media Company - by Mark Fior

We have to decrease competition in order to increase competition! Sit back, relax and get ready for humongous corporations to explain how fewer choices mean more and better choices. (Or so goes one of the arguments in support of the AT&T and DirecTV deal.)

It seems like another telecom merger is happening every day and soon there will be one gargantuan company that is in charge of every single cable, phone and internet connection in the United States.

These mergers wouldn't bother me if they involved companies making things like toasters or cars, but these are the guys who control the flow of information.

They already wield enormous power and that power is consolidating. Sure, we may have super-duper high speed connections and the convenience of a single (overpriced) bill, but at what cost?

Read more: "Antitrust Us!" AT&T Swallows Yet Another Media Company | Alternet

P2P Blog : EU study: Online content needs to be free, outlawing P2P isn't working

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EU study: Online content needs to be free, outlawing P2P isn't working

A vast majority of Internet users isn't paying for online content, according to a new study commissioned by the European Union, and most of them aren't willing to change this behavior even if sources for free content disappear. The European Commission's annual Digital Competitiveness Report got published today (PDF), and it highlights a number of issues related to IT policy in Europe from broadband penetration rates to the use of social networks and health information online.

One chapter of the study deals with online entertainment and its impact on content makers, and the results aren't really all that encouraging for the entertainment industry. Less than three percent of European Internet users had paid for online content during the three months preceding the survey the study is based on, and not many users are willing to bust our their credit card in the future.

NYT: Europe Says It Leads U.S. in Broadband Use- by James Kanter

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Europe Says It Leads U.S. in Broadband Use - by James Kanter

The European Union has re-established its lead over the United States in the use of high-speed computer connections, making the Continent “the world leader in broadband Internet,” the European Commission said on Tuesday. Europe’s broadband lead over the United States narrowed to about one percentage point after 2004, when poorer countries from Eastern Europe joined the bloc, said Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for Ms. Reding. The European Union has since regained a lead of three percentage points over the United States, with 23 percent of European homes and business using fixed-line broadband, compared with 20 percent in the United States, Mr. Selmayr said.

Viviane Reding, the commissioner who oversees the Internet, said that the spread of the technology could help power the European economic recovery and that continuing the development of high-speed Internet could create two million jobs by 2015. But she also warned that obstacles needed to be overcome to maximize the economic benefits from digital networks. In particular, Ms. Reding said, European Union member countries should make it easier for new entrants in telecommunications markets. “Governments must show leadership by adopting coordinated policies that dismantle existing barriers to new services,” she said. Despite Europe’s leading position, a third of European Union citizens have never used the Internet, and only 7 percent have bought goods or services online from a vendor based in a neighboring country, Ms. Reding said.

CafeBabel: ‘I know what it's like to be prejudiced, drunk, imprisoned - by Nabeelah Shabbir,

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‘I know what it's like to be prejudiced, drunk, imprisoned - by Nabeelah Shab

‘I don’t like most journalists,’ grumbles John Bird. He has just rounded up an editorial meeting at Ponti’s café, above platform seventeen in London’s Liverpool Street station. ‘They don’t think analytically.Meet the founder of The Big Issue (TBI), an entertainment and current affairs street weekly which is also a ‘social business’. Written by professionals, it is distributed in five regional editions by the homeless. Badged vendors buy the magazine from The Big Issue Foundation (which funds programs for the homeless) for 70p (90 cents) and sell them on the streets for £1.50 (2 euros), thus making a profit of 80p (1 euro) per copy. ‘I’m not a particularly good editor,’ Bird admits over a second ‘bucket of tea’, as the city suits criss-cross and trains rumble in the station below. He left the post in 2006. ‘Writing is a good way of sharpening up your ideas and that shit. If you’re a very good conductor you might not be good on the violin. But I’d rather play it.’

Telegraph.co.uk: Vladimir Putin to spy on his dog from space - by Will Steward

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Vladimir Putin to spy on his dog from space - by Will Steward

Vladimir Putin's dog, Connie, is to be fitted with a "satnav" collar so that the Russian president can monitor its every movement. Mr Putin reportedly asked about the possibility of tracking his dog ahead of the launch of a Proton-K rocket, a key component in the country's satellite navigation system. The dog has a habit of escaping from Mr Putin in search of adventures in the woods around the president's official dacha outside Moscow. The Russians hope their system, can compete with the US GPS network, and Europe's Galileo system.

Science Centric: Two years in space for Galileo satellite

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Two years in space for Galileo satellite

Since January 2006, Galileo signals have been broadcast by GIOVE-A, and received all around the globe. At ESA’s research and technology centre in the Netherlands, a laboratory is checking both the instruments on board the spacecraft that generate the signals and the receivers on the ground. This testing and calibration has allowed the specialists to confirm the success of the mission, which is a good sign for the rest of the programme.To reach operational status, Galileo needs a constellation of 30 satellites and an associated network of ground stations spread all around the globe. This phase has just been confirmed with the decisions taken by the European Union, which has agreed on a financing package of 3.4 billion Euros and proposed to entrust ESA with the full deployment of Galileo by 2013.

Chinaview: Turkey to rely on own satellite system to gather intelligence

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Turkey to rely on own satellite system to gather intelligence

Turkish Armed Forces would soon be able to gather intelligence through surveillance by Gokturk, a Reconnaissance and Surveillance Satellite System, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday. The Gokturk project, which was expected to cost around 200 million U.S. dollars, would be concluded in three months, said the report. The project would provide high resolution imagery for military intelligence from any place in the world without any geographical restriction, it added. Gokturk, which would be capable of detecting the movements of objects smaller than one square meter, would help to prevent the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels from infiltrating into Turkish borders, said Murad Bayar, Undersecretary of Defense Industries.