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Congress investigating general revamp of telecommunications law
We never had any doubt that Comcast's anti-net-neutrality court victory would prove to be more of a defeat in the long run, and that's exactly how it's shaping up: some 74 Democratic members of Congress have voiced concerns about the FCC's plan to re-classify broadband as a more highly-regulated "telecommunications service" instead of as an "information service" in letter sent to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski today, and a group of Democratic senators and representatives are planning a series of meetings in June with the goal of revamping US telecommunications law in general. According to Senate staffers who spoke to the Washington Post, the idea isn't to pre-empt the FCC's plan, but rather to bring the law into alignment with the modern market instead of trying to fit a round peg into a square hole -- our current telecom law was enacted in 1996 and is based on law written in 1934, so a more modern revamp could bring sweeping changes to the way broadband providers are able to sell and manage their services. We don't know what the specific agenda is yet, but we'd bet the FCC's recent finding that there's no "effective competition" in the wireless industry is sure to play a big part in these discussions, and we wouldn't be surprised to see some serious talk about cable providers and set-top hardware as well. Whatever happens, we'll be keeping a sharp eye on these meetings -- this is the first time we've seen the government take up the issue of modern telecommunications policy with this level of interest and momentum, and we've got a feeling some big things are afoot.
The Virtual Whirl: News of the Whirl
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're having our monthly roundup of news items. Things that got missed, things that didn't make the cut, things that got buried under the Star Trek Online launch, and things that really should have gotten your attention anyway.
ESA applauds formation of Dept. of Justice Task Force on Intellectual Property
With last week's announcement by the US Department of Justice of the formation of the Department of Justice Task Force on Intellectual Property, the ESA this weekend released a statement celebrating the DoJ's decision. "We applaud the Justice Department for its commitment to protecting intellectual property and commend the Attorney General for his leadership," said ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher. "Intellectual property is the lifeblood and backbone of entertainment software," Gallagher continued. "... consumers benefit with the lower cost, high-quality and more diverse title offerings that are made possible by strong measures protecting the creative works of our industry's artists." Intellectual property rights and the policing of them has been a point of contention with distributed media (from film to games to books, and everything in between) and the publishers of said media since the invention of the printing press (and likely before that!), so it'll be especially interesting to see how the US government handles such a hefty issue in the burgeoning digital world. As strict opponents of game piracy ourselves, we wish them the best of luck. They're going to need it.
US government launches Distraction.gov, wants to scare you straight (video)
European countries may have long ago banished the use of cellphones while driving to the dark side of the law, but many of the United States persist in allowing their citizens to talk while driving. One reason for their reluctance may be that outlawing something that has become second nature to most people would be both unproductive and tough to enforce. So what do you do? The natural alternative to forcing people to drive attentively is educating them of the reasons why. Never mind the fact that we all kinda, sorta know the risks we undertake while operating a Droid and a Dodge concurrently. The newly minted Distraction.gov is chockfull of scaremongering statistics, topped by a truly epic video which we've handily stashed for you just after the break. Go get it while it's hot.
House representative speaks out against 'Virtual Army Experience'
Ohio Democrat and US House rep Dennis Kucinich has got some serious beef with America's Army (the game, not the US Army) and the US government's "Virtual Army Experience." Billing the recruiting center-cum-arcade as a "high-tech traveling exhibit" and saying it advertises to "children as young as 13-years-old," Kucinich requested a variety of improvements be made to the experience -- for instance, not targeting the experience at people under 18 years old.The House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton acquiesced to Mr. Kucinich's requests in monotonal agreement, matter-of-factly stating, "I support the VAE -- at the same time, I know it can be improved." To see the entire thrilling exchange play out on C-SPAN, check it out after the break.[Via GamePolitics]
The U.S. Army to enter the WoW botting business
The United States government, in an effort to establish credible and human-realistic AI for their newest literal killing machines, is looking to test the "humanity" of this AI in popular MMOs. According to a recent article, two named MMOs that have been cited as examples for this project include World of Warcraft and EVE Online. "We want to use the massively multi-player online game as an experimental laboratory to see if they're good enough to convince humans that they're actually human," says Dr. John Parmentola, Director of Research and Laboratory Management with the Army's science and technology office.Regardless of the dozens and dozens of jokes we could easily throw out there (feel free in the comments though!), doesn't it seem odd that U.S. tax dollars are going towards government-issued spam-bots that would essentially violate the Blizzard/CCP EULA? How would you feel knowing that there's a potential government-created Terminator in your guild or raid group? Reserve your Sarah/John Connor character names now![Via Brokentoys]
Linden Lab sets sights on government
Not all that long ago, if you wanted a piece of Second Life Linden Lab would be just about the last organization to deal with you. Linden Lab was all about the platform. If you wanted help setting up shop, or a marketing presence, to the Lab you were no different from any other customer. Those days, apparently, are over. Linden Lab has partnered with Rivers Run Red, and is now in the business of marketing and selling solutions. While a jump in new sales and marketing staff (like European Marketing Director, Clare Rees) are now old news, Linden Lab has a new hire from Washington DC. That's Scott Sechser, former Operations Manager at the White House. That's the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW.
Report says Nextel waived early termination fees for the government
Want to get around those costly, annoying fees the telcos hit you with if you break your cellphone contract early? Get a job with the US government. According to internal emails from Nextel which were uncovered by the Associated Press, the company debated whether it could charge the folks in power early termination fees (ETFs), with then-vice president Scott Wiener arguing that "the government will never, never accept such penalty amounts." Nextel ultimately decided to forgo the charges for Uncle Sam, while continuing to bilk its average users without as much as a batted eyelash. The FCC is currently taking a look at the fee situation -- let's see if they can give end users a fairer shake than the providers.[Thanks, Travis]
Criminal profiling is coming to a MMOG near you
With an uprising of terrorists and other criminals playing MMOGs like Hello Kitty the U.S. Government believes it is essential that Gnomeland Security monitors online behavior in virtual worlds. Humor aside, I'm not making this up. The U.S. intelligence community wants to employ counter terrorism measures by utilizing data-mining and profiling software in various online spaces such as video and even online gaming. In the unclassified Data Mining Report Act, (pdf) one initiative called the Reynard project would determine the feasibility of detecting suspicious behaviors and actions in a virtual world that could indicate a threat to national security. You read that right. "Reynard is a seedling effort to study the emerging phenomenon of social (particularly terrorist) dynamics in virtual worlds and large-scale online games and their implications for the Intelligence Community.""The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."This is probably a good time to stop referring to my spells as WMDs, and reciting The Communist Manifesto in guild chat. I don't want to end up in a secret prison somewhere drinking a lot of water because I'm obsessed with engineering and PvP. What the CIA should do is recruit top ranked WoW Arena players to infiltrate the Chinese servers to steal gold farming secrets. [via Wired]
Thrall gets a new big brother: US government wants to search for terrorists on WoW
The Rogue in your next instance or battleground may just be a spy- not from the opposite faction, from the United States Government. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence submitted a report to Congress [Via Wired] on their plans to use data mining in virtual communities to root out spies. The project will involve sifting through vast amounts of data, looking for suspicious behavior and actions. The Intelligence Community wants to target MMOs because they typically fall outside the purview of study. The spying project would only use publicly available data. The findings of the endeavor would not be classified. Data mining is the process of going through large amounts of information for specific relevant information. This is a process that has long been used in the business industry for product and market research. The government plans to use these same techniques to root out terrorist messages in online content.
