Yeah! Reply is no longer at the bottom! And rounded corners. :)
Monthly Archives: November 2006
Talk Radio Host Promotes Denial Of Service Attack
In effect, this is what conservative radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham initiated when she suggested her listeners call a hotline set up to report a toll-free voter protection hotline. (tip)
… This is what I’m thinking. Tell me if you think I’m crazy. This is what
I’m thinking. I think we all need to call 1 888 DEM VOTE all at the
same time. And, by the way, when you call, when you call the number —
and remember, it’s ‘Dem Vote’ not ‘Dumb Vote’…
CERT provides background on Denial of Service Attacks, "an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service." The proposal Ingraham made on the air falls in the first category of attacks: "attempts to ‘flood’ a network, thereby preventing legitimate network traffic."
If behavior like this isn’t sue-able, it should be. At a minimum, the
FCC should fine the stations and consider this inappropriate use of
public airwaves when license renewal comes ’round again.
Edited to add: Their website lists Seattle AM1300 as KOL-AM (three letters?!?) … but in 1975, KOL-AM changed its call letters to KMPS-AM. There is no KMPS-AM affiliation noted on the KMPS-FM site … and Google brings up nothing. No one local to write to, I guess.
Economics of Scarcity
Chris Anderson points me to Ethan Zuckerman‘s excellent summary of a talk he gave last month: “What Happens When Things Get Free?” This is tres timely for me, as I’m talking to my class tomorrow night about how digital goods change the economic model of scarcity.
Wired Shut
Notes on Tarleton Gillespie lecture – Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture – Communications Dept, Monday @ 3.30.
Lessig on Net Neutrality
Lessig has a nice piece in the Financial Times about network neutrality. (The Financial Times? I love the paper …but it’s not exactly a mainstream American paper. Apparently domestic media don’t care. But I digress.)
His analysis focuses on YouTube’s success. I agree with him 100% until he gets to the bit about broadband competition. Then I disagree because of this:
In the US, at least, broadband competition is dying. There are fewer
competitors offering consumers broadband connectivity today than there
were just six years ago. The median consumer has a choice between just
two broadband providers. Four companies account for a majority of all
consumer broadband; 10 account for 83 per cent of the market.