Roy Mark

A broad coalition of some of the Internet’s leading brand names, public advocacy groups and grassroots organizations called on Congress today to immediately adopt a national broadband policy. The goal, the group said, is universal, affordable broadband for all Americans. Noting that the United States has slipped behind many industrialized nations in broadband penetration and […]

BetonSports, the British-based online gambling company that ran afoul of U.S. authorities last summer, pleaded guilty today to federal racketeering charges. The company admitted it conducted an illegal enterprise in the U.S. through a pattern of racketeering acts, including operating an illegal gambling business, repeated mail and wire fraud, money laundering and violating multiple state […]

Verizon today urged a federal appeals court to reject Vonage’s contention that a recent Supreme Court decision on obviousness justifies the reversal of a $58 million infringement judgment against the Internet telephony company. The nation’s second-largest telephone company also asked the appeals court to reinstate a permanent injunction against Vonage using any of Verizon’s infringed […]

The ban on Internet access taxes would be extended for another four years under legislation introduced today in the U.S. Senate. The current ban, originally passed in 1998 and extended twice since then, is set to expire on Nov. 17. The Internet Tax Freedom Extension Act of 2007 narrows the definition of access to a […]

Bowing to pressure from Congress, performance rights association SoundExchange offered small webcasters royalty rate relief through 2010. Large webcasters, though, still face a tripling of their rates on July 15. Under the new proposal, small webcasters would continue to pay the same rates they have since 2002: royalty fees of 10 percent of all gross […]

For the third time in three congressional sessions, the U.S. House approved legislation today aimed at curbing spyware and other malware, including phishing and pharming scams. The Internet Spyware (I-SPY) Prevention Act of 2007 would impose prison terms of up to five years for placing unauthorized code on a computer that mines personal information about […]

WASHINGTON — With the federal ban on Internet access taxes set to expire on Nov. 17, a longtime simmering feud between the states and Congress is beginning to warm up again. A U.S. House panel began hearings this afternoon on the fate of the Internet connection tax moratorium. Congress has renewed the ban twice since […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) predicted today that patent reform “won’t be easy” in the 110th Congress given the diversity of industries weighing in on the increasingly controversial topic. Nevertheless, Schiff, a member of the House Judiciary Committee overseeing the Patent Reform Act of 2007, said he was optimistic “we’ll finally pass patent […]

The Supreme Court ruled today that a class-action lawsuit alleging antitrust behavior by the nation’s largest telephone companies failed to prove a conspiracy existed to limit competition. The lawsuit focused on local calling and high-speed Internet services. In a 7-2 decision, the high court said the plaintiffs did not provide proof in Bell Atlantic v. […]

Alltel, the nation’s fifth-largest mobile carrier, agreed Sunday to a $27.5 billion cash buyout from investment firms TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners (GSCP). The deal calls for TPG and GSCP to acquire all outstanding shares of Alltel   for $71.50 per share. The price per share represents a 23 percent premium over Alltel’s closing […]

Motorola continued its expansion into IPTV today with the acquisition of Modulus Video, a privately held maker of MPEG-4 advanced video coding (ATV) compression systems. Founded in 2002, Modulus’ ATV encoders will provide Motorola with a software-centric platform that manages bandwidth, delivering standard- and high-definition services for the IPTV, cable, broadcast and satellite markets. The […]

Patent reform wobbled out of a U.S. House subcommittee Wednesday afternoon with even those voting for it demanding changes before a full House Judiciary Committee vote. What those changes will be, the lawmakers didn’t say. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 calls for a first-to-file standard for the rewarding of patents, bringing the U.S. in […]