Kenneth Corbin

Microsoft has joined forces with a host of advocacy groups to form a new organization dedicated to promoting broadband access in community anchor institutions. The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition, launched today, plans to press policy makers to deliver high-speed Internet access to public facilities that support activities such as distance learning and telemedicine. […]

Craigslist, the wildly popular classified site, is a closely held company that nurtures an image of community spirit and an aw-shucks ethos of just helpin’ people connect with people. Peel that back, and you’ve got an extremely profitable company, according to research from the Advanced Interactive Media (AIM) Group. Earlier this week, AIM’s Classified Intelligence […]

WASHINGTON — A senior member of the House is planning an inquiry into the compensation artists receive when their content is transmitted over the Internet through on-demand streaming services, setting the stage for a legislative battle that would pit new-media services like Apple and Amazon against the old-guard of the entertainment industry. Judiciary Committee Chairman […]

WASHINGTON — With two hurdles to clear before it can set up its Book Search project under the terms of a major settlement with authors and publishers, Google is on a bit of a public relations jag to defend the deal against its critics. The settlement agreement, reached in October, resolved a three-year-old copyright dispute, […]

WASHINGTON — To effectively combat digital piracy, the United States needs to rethink its education efforts and band together with the international community, Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., said today. In a luncheon keynote here at the Global Copyright Summit, an international forum for rights owners and copyright advocates, Wexler said that the approach copyright defenders […]

WASHINGTON — Intellectual property is shaping up as a contentious political battleground this legislative season. Flush with disagreement over who should get paid and who should get sued, and packed with political maneuvering as competing interests claw at the scraps of what seems an ever-shrinking digital pie, the intellectual property fights are headed to Capitol […]

The tech industry ought to like this one. The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Finance Committee today introduced a bill that would make the tax credit companies enjoy for research and development permanent. This is a long-simmering issue for tech companies, who maintain — quite reasonably — that greater tax incentives for research and development […]

As the federal government prepares to kick off the first round of applications for broadband stimulus grants, nine leading civil rights groups have joined forces to advocate for funding for programs to serve minority communities. The groups, which include the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Asian […]

Remember that e-government pipedream of writing legislation on a wiki? MixedInk, a startup dedicated to bringing the collaborative Web 2.0 ethos to the political process, is trying to make it happen. Previously, [MixedInk](http://mixedink.com/main.php) (profiled here) has enlisted its community to work on the Democratic Party platform and draft an inauguration speech for Barack Obama. Now […]

Amid all the hand wringing over the future of newspapers, industry executives held a semi-secret meeting last week in Chicago to discuss how to better monetize their content on the Web. A tricky question, to be sure. One of the favorite taglines of the escalating debate is that the Internet has turned newspapers’ print ad […]

The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection has scored a couple of victories in Internet-related cases concerning security and privacy, convincing a judge to shut down a “rogue” ISP for distributing malware and reaching a settlement with Sears over a longstanding complaint over deceptive data collection practices. A federal judge in the U.S. District […]

WASHINGTON — Members of a House panel grilled the head of the organization responsible for assigning Internet names today, airing complaints about the group’s lack of accountability and its efforts to combat cyber-squatting. In one testy exchange, Florida Republican Cliff Stearns took aim at the finances of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers […]