The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are seeking a preliminary injunction in federal court to stop ASU’s plan to use Kindles in place of traditional textbooks. Their objection was based on the point that it is far from easy for a blind individual to access the Navigation Features of this device.  And they’re right - the “Home Menu” lists the books stored but that order changes as soon as they’re accessed and that list…

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FCC regulators want to provide wider and cheaper broadband access by subsidizing it, raising taxes, and forcing network owners to share their network infrastructure with competitors.

A few things the FCC should consider:

-Subsidies don’t make broadband access any less expensive. They just change who pays for it. In this case, that would be anybody with a phone. Which probably includes you. The great economist Ludwig von Mises observed that “A government can no more determine prices than a goose can lay hen’s…

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The Sunday New York Times ran an article over the weekend that digs into the apparent madness behind cell phone and wireless mobile service pricing. Athour Saul Hansell eschews traditional economics and instead turns to behavioral economic insights to explain consumers’ seemingly irrational behavior when it comes to selecting cell phone plans:

Neither the cellphone companies nor their customers, as it turns out, always act in the rational way that economists might predict. Consumers often put immediate gratification and the avoidance of…

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Over at the Washington Examiner’s Opinion Zone, Wayne Crews and I explain why New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s antitrust lawsuit against Intel is a mistake.

Calling Intel’s business practices “bribery” and “coercion” is little more than argument by assertion. Rebates and exclusivity deals are normal competitive behavior. Not only is Intel facing increasing competition in its home turf, that small segment is hardly the extent of the relevant competitive market. Intel faces an uncertain future as consumer tastes shift to smaller…

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Intel and AMD have announced a settlement in their 4-year legal antitrust battle. As per the agreement, Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion, an amount that’s likely far less than what they would have owed had Intel lost it’s case in court. Intel claims that it will not change its business practices because they were never illegal in the first place.

Hopefully, this agreement between private companies will send a signal to the Federal Trade Commission, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo,…

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As part of the America Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, congress has set aside $7.2 billion for Obama’s national broadband plan. It should come as no surprise that numerous municipalities and telecommunications companies have applied for a piece of the pie. In light of the continuing climb in the unemployment rate (which reached 10.2% in October), the Obama administration has decided to try to put the broadband stimulus money in the hands of developers ASAP, and has announced that…

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CNN reports: “Last summer, Dr. Ronald Herberman, then director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, issued a warning to about 3,000 faculty and staff, listing steps to avoid harmful electromagnetic radiation from cell phones.”

“Electromagnetic radiation” is a fancy way of saying light waves.

Herberman has been on his cell phone crusade for a while now; I diagnosed him with a severe case of The Certainty last year.

Still, let’s assume he’s right that cell phones cause tumors. What actions should be taken?…

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Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is once again proving that she has no understanding of either the wireless phone industry, the rationale behind contract law, or basic economics. Verizon Wireless announced last week that it was changing its early contract-termination fee for smartphone customers from a flat $175 to a pro-rated $350 that decreases $10 for every month that contract is in effect. Sen. Klobuchar sent complaints to both FCC Chair Julius Genachowski and Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. From her letter:

I remain…

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The European Commission is once again targeting an American tech company with an antitrust investigation. This time the EC has its sights set on Oracle and it’s $7.4 billion bid for Sun Microsystems. In short, the worry is that if Oracle acquires Sun, along with it’s popular open-source database software MySQL, that somehow competition in the database market will become nonexistent.

But as Matt Asay at Cnet.com pointed out this week, competition is alive in well in the database market. Amazon recently announced…

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A statement from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo this morning announces the launch of an antitrust lawsuit against chipmaker Intel. Intel supposedly is “bribing” and “coercing” computer manufacturers like Dell, HP into using its chips.

Intel gives them money and rebates to use Intel chips. Think about that; they don’t have to pay as much, and get paid themselves, to use Intel chips rather than AMD ones.

I like it when I get rebates and cash, myself, but I’m just crazy.

Let’s…

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Rumors abound that graphics chip maker Nvidia is getting set to enter the x86 processor market. Recall that, according to AMD’s lawyers, the processor market is uncompetitive and being unfairly monopolized by Intel.

Now, if the antitrust lawyers are correct, and the CPU market is uncompetitive and needs government intervention, then there must be some barriers to entry that are keeping other competitors out of the market, allowing Intel to reap outrageous profits. However, if Nvidia can and does enter the processor market…

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The Motion Picture Association of America has come out against net neutrality… sort of. In its filing with the FCC[PDF] late last week, the MPAA reminded the commission of the importance of content companies in driving new infrastructure technologies, and claims that protecting these content companies (i.e. forcing ISPs to filter out file-sharers) is vital for the future health of the internet.

It would seem fair to speculate that file sharing, contrary to the both the MPAA’s and the RIAA’s earlier…

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TorrentFreak reports that a new “network-aware” version of the BitTorrent protocol is being beta-tested. The new client, µTorrent 2.0 or µTP, will be able to regulate its own bandwidth usage (”throttle” itself) to avoid interference with other applications. According to a BitTorrent spokes person, the network-friendly redesign will slow uploads if congestion is detected on a network, but should leave download speeds unaffected in most cases.

The new client also has a feature that will enable users to stop all downloads if…

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Wired reports that a Maryland woman recently lost her job due to an error in the FBI’s criminal database. Eschol Amelia “Amy” Studnitz, formerly a senior accountant for Corporate Mailing Service, was required to undergo a background check after CMS won a contract to handle mail for the Social Security Administration. She was fired from her job after the FBI’s criminal database deemed her “unsuitable” for level-1 security clearance. Studnitz was not given any details regarding her background check.

Two weeks later,…

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This month’s issue of Info Tech & Telecom News contains an article by yours truly on certain states’ attempts to collect sales taxes from out-of-state businesses. Key point:

Economists have known for a long time that when you tax something, you get less of it. Apparently some state legislators want less commerce in their states.

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Net Neutrality’s opponents are fighting back. Last week it was John McCain’s “Internet Freedom Act,” and yesterday, Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced a house version of the bill that would prohibit the FCC from imposing any regulations whatsoever on the internet or internet service providers. From her press release:

“The internet is the last truly open public marketplace. Its openness is the key to its efficiency and success. Not all public spaces need to be regulated spaces. Indeed, federal regulation has a long history…

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The New York Times reports that several cell phone manufacturers are turning to Google’s free operating system, Android, to run on their upcoming smartphone models. The switch to Android is likely to hit Microsoft and its clunky Windows Mobile platform the hardest, as companies that previously used Windows for their high-end PDA-phones seek to cut costs and offer consumers a more customizable product.

With Google joining the ranks of Nokia, Research-in-Motion, Apple, and Microsoft developing in mobile phone operating systems, the big…

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Senator John McCain introduced a bill yesterday to combat the FCC’s push for Net Neutrality.  The “Internet Freedom Act of 2009″ would limit the FCC’s legal authority to impose Net Neutrality rules on internet service providers. McCain’s statement says:

Today I’m pleased to introduce ‘The Internet Freedom Act of 2009’ that will keep the Internet free from government control and regulation. It will allow for continued innovation that will in turn create more high-paying jobs for the millions of Americans who are…

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Why didn’t the Federal Communications Commission impose net neutrality a decade ago? We don’t need all this multimedia and advanced services. They finally caught on yesterday and realized the Net is fine the way it is and doesn’t need to improve anymore, hence “neutrality” in 2009 rather than, say, 1996.

OK seriously, read our critique of yesterday’s FCC vote to impose what is “not neutrality” by any stretch of the imagination.

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The blogosphere has been up in arms over the last two weeks, ever since the Federal Trade Commission issued an update to its “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” In the past, these guidelines have determined the kinds of research claims companies or celebrity endorsers can make about products in advertising. With the recent update, though, the FTC has chosen to extend its reach onto the Internet, applying its regulations to blogs, Facebook pages, even Twitter feeds.…

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