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The Telecom Digest for July 1, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 116 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Massachusetts high court orders suspect to decrypt his computers (Monty Solomon)
In Aereo's wake, Fox targets Dish's TV streaming service (Monty Solomon)
Yup, 1-800-COLLECT is still in business-and charging massive fees (Monty Solomon)
Unlocking your phone still illegal while carriers meet "voluntary" rules (Monty Solomon)
Pornographer gets to see six strikes copyright warnings of accused infringer (Monty Solomon)
After Supreme Court Ruling, Aereo's Rivals in TV Streaming Seize Opening (Monty Solomon)

====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using any name or email address included herein for any reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to that person, or email address owner.
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime.  - Geoffrey Welsh

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest. 




Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:47:56 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Massachusetts high court orders suspect to decrypt his computers
Message-ID: <p06240812cfd65509f220@[10.0.1.7]>

Massachusetts high court orders suspect to decrypt his computers
Suspect told cops: "Everything is encrypted and no one is going to get to it."

by Cyrus Farivar
June 25 2014
Ars Technica

Massachusetts' top court ruled, in a 5-2 decision on Wednesday, that 
a criminal suspect can be ordered to decrypt his seized computer.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (MSJC) ruling only applies 
to the state. Various other courts at the state and federal level 
have disagreed as to whether being forced to type in a decryption 
password is a violation of the Fifth Amendment right to protect 
against self-incrimination and its state equivalents (such as Article 
Twelve of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights). For example, more 
than two years ago, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a 
defendant was not obliged to decrypt his hard drive, as doing so 
would violate his Fifth Amendment rights. However, that ruling only 
took effect in the 11th Circuit, which covers parts of the 
southeastern United States. Just last year, a federal judge refused 
to force a Wisconsin child pornography suspect to decrypt his laptop. 
Overall, cases involving decryption are still relatively new and 
rare. The first known one only dates back to 2007.

...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/massachusetts-high-court-orders-suspect-to-decrypt-his-computers/




Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:47:56 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: In Aereo's wake, Fox targets Dish's TV streaming service
Message-ID: <p0624080ecfd6530779a8@[10.0.1.7]>

In Aereo's wake, Fox targets Dish's TV streaming service
Broadcaster says Supreme Court ruling killing Aereo also dismantles 
Dish Hopper.

by David Kravets
Ars Technica
June 27 2014

Having just buried broadcast streaming service Aereo under a Supreme 
Court victory, Fox is invoking that high court precedent in a bid to 
shutter another television platform.

Fox and others won a high-profile copyright case against upstart 
Aereo on Wednesday, in which the Supreme Court held in a 6-3 vote 
that Aereo was offering services akin to a cable company and 
therefore needed the broadcasters' permission to retransmit their 
content to online viewers. Armed with that decision, Fox told a 
federal appeals court that the high court's decision means Dish's 
Hopper DVR sideloading platform and the Dish Anywhere streaming 
platform should also be declared illegal.

...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/in-aereos-wake-fox-targets-dishs-tv-streaming-service/




Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:46:58 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Yup, 1-800-COLLECT is still in business-and charging massive fees
Message-ID: <p0624080bcfd64fdcbbb7@[10.0.1.7]>

Yup, 1-800-COLLECT is still in business-and charging massive fees
$42.55 for a 6-minute collect call? It happened to one Ars reader.

by Nate Anderson
June 28 2014
Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/yup-1-800-collect-is-still-in-business-and-charging-massive-fees/




Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:47:56 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Unlocking your phone still illegal while carriers meet  "voluntary" rules
Message-ID: <p06240811cfd654a9dbaf@[10.0.1.7]>

Unlocking your phone still illegal while carriers meet "voluntary" rules
As lawmakers argue, carriers have until 2015 to unlock all off-contract phones.

by Jon Brodkin
June 26 2014
Ars Technica

A bill slowly working its way through Congress would once again make
it legal for consumers to unlock their cellular phones so that they
can be used on other carriers' networks.

While lawmakers dither, a "voluntary" agreement the carriers signed
under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission is paying
off for some customers, but not all.

The guarantee signed in December should force the carriers to unlock
phones, albeit only when a consumer has paid off his or her contract,
and in many cases not until early next year.

The bill moving through Congress is stronger because it would let
consumers unlock their phones at any time, even before they've paid
off their contracts. That wouldn't free consumers from having to pay
their bills, but there are reasons to want an unlocked phone even
while you're paying a monthly fee to your primary provider. For
example, a trip overseas could be a good time to swap out a phone's
SIM card and connect to a local network in order to avoid a US
carrier's international data and voice charges.

...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/unlocking-your-phone-still-illegal-while-carriers-meet-voluntary-rules/




Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:46:58 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Pornographer gets to see six strikes copyright warnings of  accused infringer
Message-ID: <p0624080acfd64eda7f3c@[10.0.1.7]>

Pornographer gets to see six strikes copyright warnings of accused infringer
Six strikes was not designed to provide courtroom evidence of infringement.

by David Kravets
Ars Technica
June 27 2014

Comcast must surrender to a porn studio any so-called "six-strikes" 
copyright infringement notices it may have sent an Indianapolis woman 
whom the pornographer is accusing of illegally downloading skin 
flicks, a federal judge ruled.

The Wednesday decision marks what is believed to be the first time a 
court has ordered that the notices be produced in a copyright 
lawsuit. That's significant because the six strikes program was not 
designed to provide courtroom evidence of infringement. Instead, the 
stated goal behind the notices, which are sent to suspected 
infringers, has been "educational" in a bid to get pirates to knock 
off their infringing activities.

The notices are part of what is known as the Copyright Alert System, 
which began in February 2013 and includes five participating ISPs: 
AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon. 
The US program was strongly backed by the Obama Administration and is 
run by the newly-created Center for Copyright Information.

...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/pornographer-gets-to-see-six-strikes-copyright-warnings-of-accused-infringer/

Here's what an actual "six strikes" copyright alert looks like
Ars asks and Comcast obliges, giving us copies of Alerts 1, 2, 4, and 5.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/heres-what-an-actual-six-strikes-copyright-alert-looks-like/




Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 18:16:10 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: After Supreme Court Ruling, Aereo's Rivals in TV Streaming Seize  Opening
Message-ID: <p06240803cfd640711e89@[10.0.1.7]>

After Supreme Court Ruling, Aereo's Rivals in TV Streaming Seize Opening

By EMILY STEEL
JUNE 29, 2014

Mark Ely saw an opportunity, and he took it.

The day after the Supreme Court ruled against Aereo in a copyright 
case brought by the nation's major broadcasters, Mr. Ely was trying 
to scoop up Aereo customers by promoting his start-up, Simple.TV, on 
social media. "Former Aereo customer? Join the Simple.TV Family," the 
company wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

"We're telling Aereo customers: 'Your favorite service is going away. 
Here's an idea that isn't,' " Mr. Ely, who started his company in 
2011, said in an interview.

The television establishment still has much to worry about after its 
Supreme Court victory on Wednesday over Aereo, the digital start-up 
that had threatened to upend the economics of the media business.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/business/media/after-supreme-court-ruling-aereos-rivals-in-tv-streaming-seize-opening.html






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