The U.S. Court of Appeals just handed down a decision today reversing the earlier District Court ruling that required Verizon to release the identities of suspected file sharers.

From the decision: "We conclude from both the terms of s 512(h) and the overall structure of s 512 that, as Verizon contends, a subpoena may be issued only to an ISP engaged in storing on its servers material that is infringing or the subject of infringing activity."

There is a ton of good coverage on Google News right now, listed under the science & technology topic. ZDNet has a FAQ for filesharers. The article also includes a link to the decision (pdf).

This article in Friday's LA Times says that while Verizon is touting itself as a protector of consumer privacy and is fighting the RIAA's efforts to subpoena information about file-sharers, the company actually did offer to divulge customer information during negotiations with the RIAA. Verizon figured sacrificing the few could save the many - and keep a scary precedent from being set. In the end the RIAA didn't bite, so Verizon comes out of this looking like some kind of consumer advocate.

The whole situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth, a sentiment shared by many at Zeropaid, where this link was posted.

One more Media Culture article from AlterNet: In "The Death Of The Internet," Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, argues that a restrictive, tiered pricing system may place a stranglehold on Internet users, in effect killing the Net as we know it.

While this arrangement may be anathema to many users, it will certainly benefit the medai conglomerates. Practices such as file sharing will be restricted, and Internet radio and other bandwidth-intensive applications will be similarly affected.

The end result?

"The consequences are cultural and will affect the pace and character of progress in the early 21st century. If the communications companies impose tolls, roadblocks and dead ends on the information ‘superhighway,’ they will be robbing public trust resources in much the same way 19th century mining companies pilfered public lands and 20th century radio and television networks privatized the public’s airwaves. "

This AlterNet article, "TECHSPLOITATION: The Lego Mystique," takes us on a tour of the famed MIT Media Lab. The author argues that the Lab is now more open, less revolutionary, and heavily funded by industry.

The MIT Media Lab figured centrally in the early development of media and technocultural studies. What will be the effects of these shifts?

"While it may be a Faustian bargain these Lego freaks have struck, at least they don't hide their funding sources. Nor do they pretend to be anything other than corporate-sponsored. Laboids make demos, not theories. Now only one question remains: What comes after Media Lab culture? "

Good question.

This Salon article, "Weapons of mass instruction," describes ""Naqoyqatsi," the third film in director Godfrey Reggio's Qatsi trilogy. This third film, and the trilogy as a whole, present the view that "nature and our self-created world (call it human nature) are so irreconcilable that we live our daily lives in a perpetual state of imbalance. "

The film, which is comprised mainly of digitally-altered stock footage, is being promoted through a low-tech flyering campaign, an interesting juxtaposition.

The author of the article writes, "Technology is not outside of us -- it's who we are. In the end, the means of conveying the message -- the fast-paced and disfiguring computer-tweaked visuals -- is the message. In other words, social commentaries on technology can only be properly explained through that very technology. "

This article from the Northern Illinois University campus newspaper describes the technology focus of the campus's Deaf Awareness Week. This year's program focuses on improvements in communications technologies of which hearing people are unaware.

The folks over at Zeropaid recently pointed out that the recording industry has put together a website to educate people about the evils of p2p and unauthorized downloading.

The site is http://www.musicunited.org/, and represents the views of songwriters, producers, and the labels. Not only is this site an interesting industry respose, but it's also ripe for rhetorical analysis!

This article in the NY Times discusses Slashdot as a model for Internet publishing, and discusses its community/fan base as well as Slashdot "profits". NY Times author John Schwartz asks: "Could it be that this is the 21st-century model for Internet publishing?"

The N.Y. Times reports that the F.C.C. approved a means of providing digital radio yesterday, and that they also endorsed a patented technology for doing so in what the Times calls "a move likely to speed adoption of the technology."

Those concenred about the technoogy include smaller broadcasters (college radio, etc) and nonprofits that use certain frequencies to provide services to the visually impared.