Week in review: A virtual gold mine

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In a case with a slightly comical twist, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are apparently being dragged into the copyright fight between their employer and Google. Entertainment conglomerate Viacom, the company behind The Colbert Report and Stewart's The Daily Show, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google last year, accusing Google and YouTube of "massive intentional copyright infringement."

The two companies entered the names of people they each wish to depose in court, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Google, which acquired YouTube in October, wants to depose at least 30 people in addition to Colbert and Stewart. However, Viacom could argue that interviewing Stewart and Colbert is irrelevant to the case and could try to persuade the judge that deposing them is unnecessary.

Access for all
For some companies, it's all about making a connection.

While EarthLink and Google are still hammering out details of their citywide Wi-Fi contract with San Francisco officials, a company called Meraki plans on blanketing the city with free Wi-Fi using volunteers who will deploy and manage the equipment themselves. The company, which sells indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi routers, will expand its free Wi-Fi router giveaway in San Francisco starting Wednesday in an effort to create a free community-based citywide Wi-Fi network throughout the entire city.

Meraki's indoor and outdoor routers typically cost $50 and $100, respectively. The company sells its routers to individuals or businesses who want to set up community Wi-Fi hot spots. The routers come with software that allows people to either charge for the service or offer it for free.

Meraki's routers are already being used to provide free Wi-Fi to 6,500 residents and businesses in San Francisco's Mission, Haight and Alamo Square neighborhoods. But now the company wants to expand this network to as many neighborhoods in San Francisco as it can.

Rail passengers on the London-to-Scotland east coast main line will get free Wi-Fi as part of National Express' winning bid to run the franchise. The company completed the approximately $6.5 million installation of Wi-Fi broadband connectivity on all 41 of its east coast trains last year, and although the service has been free for first-class passengers, those in standard (coach) are charged either $5.96 per half hour or $20.11 for a full day's use.

But in addition to faster journey times, National Express has also promised to extend free Wi-Fi to passengers in standard class as part of its seven-year contract.

Meanwhile, a Silicon Valley start-up is pressing federal regulators to rule on its long-standing request to build a free, ad-supported wireless broadband network that could reach most Americans within a decade. More than 15 months have passed since M2Z Networks first petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for a 15-year exclusive, nationwide license to build and operate in the 2155MHz-to-2175MHz spectrum band, which currently lies fallow.

The wireless industry strongly opposes the idea, arguing that the law requires unused airwaves to be opened up for auction and that M2Z's proposed service would provide "limited" consumer benefits.

M2Z, based in Menlo Park, Calif., claims that under federal law, a decision about whether the proposal satisfies the "public interest" should have been issued within a year of its first petition, or by May 6. The company said it plans to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to force the FCC to make that determination.

Also of note
Dell's finance department was apparently willing to fudge numbers to ensure it would hit or surpass its quarterly earnings forecasts...Businesses that had been thinking of a quick move to Windows Vista may be rethinking things a bit, according to a new study by Forrester Research...Microsoft has completed the largest purchase in its history, sealing its $6 billion takeover of Internet advertising firm Aquantive.

[kieranmullen]

News.com reporters suing?

Why can't they just move on? Why do they need financial compensation? Was something taken from them? They still have their jobs dont they? Does news.com not pay its employees enough or is the employer just using this as a reason to get its name in the media more? One might claim their names were tarnished, but lets be honest. How many readers actually make not of who wrote the articles they are reading anyway?

KieranMullen
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://360oregon.com" target="_newWindow">http://360oregon.com</a>