Comcast, the U.S’ largest cable company has officially sent in their plans for broadband management to the FCC fulfilling their punishment for breaking net neutrality laws.
The new plan will not ‘throttle’ BitTorrent and other specific applications but instead will slow Internet speeds for the network’s heaviest users when the network is “congested.” We originally reported this in August but Comcast denied.
The filing comes after Comcast tried the new approach in five cities over the last three months. The company added that there were no documented complaints about the the method during the trial and that “less than 1% of customers were affected on a typical day.”
Comcast has been at the center of controversy for some time now after they were found to be illegally “throttling” BitTorrent and P2P users, almost shutting down their internet when they would try to use the file sharing applications. The company was sued and was eventually found guilty of breaking net neutrality laws by the FCC.
Result for: download youtube video
According to a GamePolitics report, Activision has sued at least six US-based video game pirates since 2007 and has won each case so far.
The report says Shawn Guse agreed to pay $100,000 USD to settle his suit, after he was accused of “reproducing and distributing copies of Call of Duty 3 for the Wii and Xbox 360.” Another man, Chris Hyman, settled his case in a similar fashion, but for $25,000 USD. He was accused of reproducing and distributing copies of CoD3 for the Wii and Tony Hawk’s Project 8 for the Xbox 360.
The other cases worked the same, with George Laflin settling for $100,000, Kenneth Madden paying the same amount and finally Maryanne Leach settling for $1000 USD. The final case, against James Strickland is still ongoing.
Making the cases more confusing however, is that GamePolitics has updated their original article with a comment from an Activision lawyer. “While we don’t comment on litigation involving clients, we can advise you that we have never filed any litigation against a file-sharer on behalf of Activision.” The amount the defendants settled for is surprisingly high as well.
We will keep you updated.
Result for: download youtube video
SanDisk and the major record labels have announced a new physical music format which they have called SlotMusic and will begin sales this upcoming holiday season.
Backed by EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, the “new” format will basically be an entire album on a MicroSD card. The large retailers Wal-Mart and Best Buy have already agreed to begin selling the cards starting in November.
While CD sales continue their path to death, this new effort is aimed at all the users of cell phones or MP3 players that have MicroSD slots. The album can be inserted right into the device and played back. The SlotMusic also comes with a USB adapter so you can move the music to your computer.
The press release did not say the bitrate of the music, but it will be DRM-free and in MP3 form.
A WSJ article adds that the “initial release batch will be 29 albums from all four of the involved labels. The releases are mostly by current pop artists including Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Robin Thicke, New Kids on the Block, Weezer, Usher, Chris Brown, Akon and Leona Lewis,” the story stays. “In a nod to older buyers, Elvis Presley is also represented.”
It is estimated the SlotMusic cards will sell for $7 to $10 USD each.
