Roy Mark

The companies behind the popular “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that they failed to disclose important information about the game’s content. According to the FTC, the content included potentially viewable nude female characters and a potentially playable sex mini-game, to consumers. Take-Two Interactive Software, the game’s publisher, […]

Forget the niche, Internet Protocol-based television (IPTV) is ready to go mainstream, generating up to $55 billion in revenue over the next four years alone. At least that’s the opinion of Washington telecom and technology think tank New Millennium Research Council (NMRC). In a new report published Wednesday, the NMRC said, “IPTV is realizing its […]

WASHINGTON — The moment of truth for network neutrality may arrive as early as tomorrow in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert told reporters today he has scheduled a full floor vote Thursday on the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE), a telecom reform bill that […]

WASHINGTON – Angry veterans aren’t waiting for Congress to take action over the recent Veterans Administration loss of 26.5 million personal records of veterans. Tuesday afternoon, a coalition of veterans groups filed a class action lawsuit demanding the VA name those who are at risk for identity theft. The suit seeks $1,000 in damages for […]

There they go. Again. The allotment of 65,000 H1-B visas for 2007 is already gone, according to the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). The visas — highly favored by the technology industry — are for foreign nationals with advanced degrees in science, engineering and technology to work in the United States for […]

Web surfing may soon become as common as boredom on airline flights. JetBlue Airways and AirCell, a Colorado-based technology firm, are betting on it after the two won air-to-ground spectrum licenses in an auction concluded Friday by the Federal Commissions Commission (FCC). After almost a month of bidding in the auction, JetBlue won 1 MHz […]

Shrouded in secrecy, top tech executives met Friday with the Department of Justice (DoJ) over a proposal that Internet service providers (ISP) retain customer records for up to two years. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales contends the measure is necessary for DoJ efforts to combat online child pornography and terrorism. Currently, ISPs are required to retain […]

Online auctioneer eBay raised its bid on network neutrality this week by sending 1 million-plus call-to-action e-mails to its members. In the e-mail, authored by President and CEO Meg Whitman, eBay urged its members to bombard Washington with e-mails and calls protesting efforts by broadband providers to create a two-tiered Internet. Ebay spokesman Catherine England […]

WASHINGTON — Dialup Internet service: ah, the good ol’ days. Way back in the 1990s, dialup was the only pipe to the Internet. It was a nice dumb pipe with end users sitting on the edge of the network with unfettered access to go and do whatever they wanted on the Internet. The Bells’ copper […]

A Houston federal jury Wednesday afternoon found former Enron broadband executive Kevin Howard guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud and falsification of books and records. Evidence presented during the trial testimony proved Howard deliberately circumvented accounting requirements and misled Arthur Andersen accountants over a video-on-demand (VOD) deal between Enron Broadband Services (EBS) and video rental chain […]

It works so well as a sound bite: “Don’t regulate the Internet!” Opponents to a law mandating network neutrality use it all the time, noting Americans should just say no to government regulation of the Internet. Amazon’s Paul Misener, on the other hand, wants you to say yes to regulation. Misener, Amazon’s vice president for […]

A prominent Washington IT trade group is taking exception to a new government draft report raising privacy concerns over the use of RFID for human tracking. The Department of Homeland Security’s Emerging Applications and Technology Subcommittee said in a 15-page report that the use of RFID in identification cards or tokens could lead to illegal […]