Educause. A Blueprint for Big Broadband. (.pdf) January 2008. America’s standing in global broadband access and speed continues to plummet, and American consumers continue to pay more per capita for slower and less available broadband. (See data from the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development for more information.) Educause blames America’s position on this country’s lack of a national broadband policy. (Foreign Affairs magazine addressed this issue in late spring 2005.)

Educause commissioned a white paper paper that proposes creating a Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) that will provide “open, big broadband networks of at least 100 Mbps … to every home and business by 2012.” Educause estimates the cost for this effort will approach $100 billion, but the organization proposes a public‐private partnership approach followed in Canada.

Why is this important? Simply, without widely available broadband in the States, all measure of technological innovation gets hampered. Hampered technological development means a slower economy; a slower economy means fewer jobs; fewer jobs means more unemployment; more unemployment means … well, you get the idea.

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Anna Ringstrom. Sweden to Charge Pirate Bay in Copyright Case. Yahoo! News. Jan. 28, 2008. Sweden’s involvement in enforcement efforts on the entertainment industry’s behalf is related directly to the Special 301 process and Sweden’s fear of being placed on a priority list (penalties for which include trade sanctions).

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On Copyright Reform. (.mp3) The Ottawa Citizen sponsors an hour-long debate on copyright reform in Canada. Lots of shouting and interrupting, but may be worthwhile listening if you want to hear frustrated content industry discuss the state of their nation. Check out, however, Michael Geist’s analysis of this session, in which he contends Canadian Recording Industry Association president Graham Henderson and others give tacit support to ISP filtering, which AT&T reportedly is considering.

(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in Site Check 2.03.)

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Paul Davidson. Google Could Cause a Stir in FCC’s Airwaves Auction. USAToday.com. Jan. 24, 2008. This story, and the coverage at InfoWorld, provide good introductions to the wireless spectrum auction and how it may affect everyday people. The airwaves that the Federal Communication Commission is auctioning are the leftover spectrum that will be made available once television becomes a digital-only proposition in 2009. (In other words, this year is the final year you will be able to use “rabbit ears” to watch television.

Starting in 2009, it’s either digital television or a subscription option, such as cable.) Google has won a petition to ensure “C” block spectrum airwaves are available to any wireless provider a subscriber wants to use. This allows Google to act as a service or application provider even if it does not win the auction. The spectrum auction began Thursday, Jan. 24 with more than 200 bidders — including Google, Verizon, and AT&T — submitting sealed bids. Winning bids could be revealed any time between late February and late March.

(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 29, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)

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BBC News. Net Body Issues Plea for Liberty. Jan. 24, 2008. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) likely is the most important quasi-government agency about which most Web users know nothing. It is, however, a critically important organization whose core mission — coordinating the Internet’s domain name system — essentially runs the Web. ICANN operates as a private-public partnership with the U.S. government. (ICANN receives oversight from the U.S. Department of Commerce.)

Over the last few years, this arrangement has become more problematic to foreign countries, which claim that an like ICANN should not be so intimately tied to the government of any single country because that gives such a country an unusual amount of influence over what is an international network. As a result, ICANN’s request (.pdf) to separate itself from such close contact with the American government is a significant development.

(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 29, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)

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If there’s any single writer that can make copyright humorous, it is William Patry. When describing the push to equate copyright (a relatively minor issue in the broader scheme of world affairs) with human rights (an extraordinarily important issue), Patry comments with typical sarcasm: “I confess to being moved to tears by European human rights attorneys taking up the cause of very large U.S. broadcasting corporations: Donald Rumsfeld was so wrong.”

Seriously, though, the injection of copyright into international affairs has been steady and dangerous since the trend results only in more rights for multinational corporations. Talk about “authors” and “creators” has little to do with individuals who create original works fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Those words merely are code designed to make readers think Grandma needs more rights to protect her cross-stitch designs. In reality, “Grandma” is a global commercial behemoth with business presences on all continents that is hell bent on leveraging copyright and other intellectual property schemes to foster dollar-driven hegemony.

(Well, perhaps not the dollar these days. Substitute the Euro.)

In fact, one could argue reasonably that here in the U.S., the effort to move copyright past what Patry calls its “current Incredible Hulk level” is occurring at least as much on the international and local levels as it is in Congress. We have reported several of the entertainment and content industries’ lobbying efforts have resulted in a sort of “paracopyright” at the state level. (California’s passage of AB 307, which ties school funding to a copyright “education” program influenced by the RIAA, is one example.)

And, of course, we have chronicled at several junctures the Special 301 process under the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The Federal Register notice that effectively asks multinational corporations and their trade groups to tell the Trade Representative which countries have failed to draft (or enforce) copyright law at America’s “Incredible Hulk level” was published last week. It is due on Monday, February 11. The copyright choke hold is in full effect and running on all eight cylinders.

The Patry Copyright Blog. Appeals to Human Rights: The Next Battlefield? Jan. 17, 2008.

(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 22. 2008 edition of Copycense Clippings, and it was an Article of the Week selection.)

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Brooks Boliek. Berman to Exit Çopyright Role. The Hollywood Reporter. Jan. 15, 2008. California Rep. Howard Berman‘s likely departure to chair the House Committee on Foreign Affairs would leave an opening atop the House committee that is responsible for considering intellectual property legislation. The void would be notable under any set of circumstances, but the timing is important because it is a presidential election year and the final year of Term 110. History has shown the content and entertainment industries often try to slip in protectionist legislation during this period while others are paying attention to other, broader issues.

(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Jan. 22, 2008, edition of Copycense Clippings.)

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