The FCC released an order yesterday that requires all broadband providers and all "interconnected" VoIP providers to implement CALEA — in other words, law enforcement can snoop on your online conversations, both voice and text. While this is no surprise, it makes encryption for VoIP even more urgent.

The Movielink announcement last month about releasing VOD movies for purchase left me with a lot of unanswered questions. First, who the hell would pay for this? Why would you spend $20 for KING KONG on your computer when you could go to Wal-Mart and buy the DVD for $14 and watch it on your computer, TV, portable DVD player, etc.

After adding BROKEBACK to my shopping cart and completing my purchase, I'm told I need to download an application titled "Movielink Manager," that will essentially manage the download of the file from their server to mine. Easy enough, right?

My download was scheduled to begin immediately after the Movielink Manager installed but never did. I tried again and still no luck.

I'm told my Windows Media software isn't quite up to date and that if I don't update I won't be able to play Movielink files.

Windows Media Player is now updated and I'm prompted to restart my computer. As you might expect, Movielink recommends saving any other documents before restarting. However the dialog box is not letting me click anywhere outside its parameters leaving my only option to restart my computer and lose all my data (including my running diary).

After a refreshing night of sleep, I check the laptop and find that BROKEBACK finally finished downloading earlier this morning at 12:41am. That's 4 hours and 40 minutes after downloading began on a Verizon DSL connection.

According to the EFF, a new Senate bill (S. 2644) sponsored by Senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Graham (R-SC) would effectively ban streaming MP3 for licensed music by requireing 'casters to use the most restrictive streaming format available (e.g., Windows Media or Real) rather than simply the most restrictive features of a chosen streaming format (e.g., Shoutcast or streaming MP3).

The PERFORM Act would ... requir[e] webcasters to use DRM that restricts the recording of webcasts. That means no more MP3 streams if you rely on the statutory license.

The man who judged the provisions of the Geneva convention as 'quaint', US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is apparently planning new legislation to monitor the Internet.

Gonzales is sending to Congress a legislative package that includes greater penalties and "improved cooperation" from Internet service providers.

The laws will mean that ISPs will have to monitor their systems for child porn or else face criminal action for failing to report it.

As part of the lead up to what will be a fairly controversial law, Gonzales is telling the world it needs these them to crack down on crimes against children.

Following last week's Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, apparently today is Obvious Wednesday. First, the news that gee, internet users really do use the internet, and now News.com has an article with the breaking news that kids can figure out how to circumvent web filters their schools use to try to keep them from accessing undesirable sites. The only surprise here is that the reporter seems surprised. What's next? Kids sneaking into R-rated movies? Hiding Playboys under the bed? It's been proven time and time again that filters don't work -- so, again, why not use the time and resources spent on these filters and tracking kids' ways around them on teaching critical thinking and good judgment instead?

Legislators and advocacy groups were surprised at a California Senate committee hearing last week when Goodmail CEO Richard Gingras said its fee-based CertifiedEmail program that AOL and Yahoo are implementing is not meant to reduce spam.

"That's what I thought was the selling point: that it was going to reduce spam and phishing," said state Sen. Dean Florez, a Democrat who chairs the state Senate Select Committee on E-Commerce, Wireless Technology and Consumer Driven Programming.

Rather than helping to reduce spam Gingras claimed that the point is to allow users to verify who important messages are really from, like a message from your bank or credit card company.

After asking EFF to hold back the documents so that it could review them, the Department of Justice consented to EFF's filing them under seal -- a well-established procedure that prohibits public access and permits only the judge and the litigants to see the evidence.

"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.

"More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now," said Bankston.

The NSA program came to light in December, when the New York Times reported that the President had authorized the agency to intercept telephone and Internet communications inside the United States without the authorization of any court.

In a bid to prop up its failed Child Online Protection Act, the US Department of Justice has ordered 34 Internet service providers, search companies, and security software firms to hand over information on its customers' search habits.

The DoJ wants customer search information from AT&T, Comcast Cable, Cox Communications, EarthLink, LookSmart, Symantec, and Verizon. Apparently some have said no and the DoJ is taking them to court too.

The DoJ seems particularly interested in the search engine LookSmart, this is because the outfit runs an Internet content filtering software company called Net Nanny.

One of the reasons that the DoJ wants the data is to prove that such companies are not effective in blocking child access to sites that contain porn or paedophiles.

A novel site that offers free legal movie downloads was launched Tuesday by a Hong Kong broadband provider.

Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd. will make five movies available free of charge to users in the city regardless of their Internet service provider.

The only restriction on the service is an 18-minute download time, which the company said in a news release was easily obtainable by Ethernet with a symmetric upload-download speed of 100 megabits per second. Legacy DSL users can only hit about 640 kilobits per second, a speed that would require 15 hours to accommodate a feature film.

HKBN said its Metro Ethernet service was being expanded to nearly 2 million homes, or about 80 percent of Hong Kong's total population.

Millions of geeks were forced away from their machines over the weekend as their virtual World of Warcraft came crashing around their ears.

There is some confusion as to whether the problems that WoW players faced over the weekend was "routine maintenance" as was claimed by Blizzard Entertainment, which runs the game, or a denial of service attack.

The first reference to an outage was when 'Epifanio', Senior Game Master, told the forums that Blizzard's ISP, which is AT&T, was having some 'significant complications'. As a result the playability on a large portion of realms has been adversely affected, Epifanio said.

It would not be the first time a MMORPG game has been walloped with a DoS attack. Final Fantasy XI has also been hit before.