justice

FCC: Ready for reform yet?

commentary In a surprising and disturbing break with long-standing agency practice, the FCC on Tuesday released a draft report on the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile prepared by its staff--days after the parties withdrew their application with the agency.

The move could fuel calls for serious reform of the agency's increasingly free-wheeling behavior.

The two companies withdrew their application on Thanksgiving, following word that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski planned to ask the other commissioners to refer the merger to an administrative judge for a hearing.

That step, agency officials made clear, signaled the chairman's belief … Read more

AT&T to FCC: You're totally 'one-sided' on T-Mobile deal

AT&T didn't hold much back in a withering response to the Federal Communications Commission report that slammed its proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA.

The Dallas telecommunications giant, struggling to save its $39 billion deal, called the FCC report "one-sided" and suggested that the regulators went into the process looking to sink the merger.

"The document is so obviously one-sided that any fair-minded person reading it is left with the clear impression that it is an advocacy piece, and not a considered analysis," Jim Cicconi, head of external and legislative affairs for AT&… Read more

Dentist charges patient for negative Yelp reviews, suit says

Online reviews are sticky little things.

I recently stayed at a hotel that someone on TripAdvisor had described as having filthy--in fact, sticky--conditions and I found it perfectly nice.

So one wonders about all the ramifications surrounding the case of New York dentist, Stacy Makhnevich. She is alleged to have gotten her teeth so deeply into a patient that she began charging him $100 a day for negative Yelp reviews.

The way TechDirt examines it, Makhnevich requires patients to sign a form handing her copyright to any online reviews.

Should the reviews not glow in the dark, she allegedly has … Read more

FCC to reveal its concerns with AT&T's T-Mobile deal

AT&T suffered a minor blow to an already-hobbled campaign to acquire T-Mobile USA today, when the Federal Communications Commission decided that it would share its concerns about the deal.

The FCC plans to release a staff report detailing the concerns, according to The Wall Street Journal. AT&T did, however, win approval from the FCC to withdraw its application for the $39 billion acquisition.

The decision comes after AT&T on Thursday opted to withdraw the application and take a $4 billion charge to cover the possibility that the deal falls apart. The move sparked a … Read more

So what's T-Mobile's backup plan?

With AT&T's deal to acquire T-Mobile USA on life support, T-Mobile may need to start considering a Plan B.

By itself, T-Mobile is a wireless operator struggling to keep its best customers from leaving. Over the past several months, the carrier has aggressively cut prices and made itself a haven for bargain seekers--all for the sake of sparking a little growth. As a result, it resembles more of large prepaid carrier than one of the traditional national players.

But with the promised breakup fee from AT&T if the deal isn't approved, including $3 billion … Read more

DOJ reportedly close to approving Google's Admeld buy

The Justice Department is on the verge of approving Google's $400 million acquisition of Admeld, according to AllThingsD.

The Web site cites "industry sources" as saying that regulators will "approve the deal in the next couple weeks, perhaps as early as this Friday." The report notes that it's unclear if the Justice Department will impose any restrictions on Google as part of its approval.

Google announced plans to buy the New York yield-optimization firm in June, in order to boost its display advertising business. Six weeks later, the Justice Department submitted a second request for information … Read more

The 404 948: Where we're in some deep dish (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 Podcast episode:

Congress is proposing a school lunchroom bill that would allow as little as two tablespoons of tomato paste on a frozen pizza to be classified as a proper weekly serving of vegetables for students. Fries and tater tots also count as vegetables. The U.S. Department of Justice wants to make it a crime to lie on social networks like Match.com, Facebook, and OKCupid--if the fib in question violates other laws outside of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This holiday season, the Salvation Army send its volunteers into the streets with a new way to accept donations using credit card-reading hardware provided by Sprint/Nextel and Square. The program will join Girl Scout troops and The U.S. Army in pushing the next generation of mobile payments. A digital experiment from the artists at Wemakecoolsh.it enables subway denizens on the L-Train to access Wi-Fi and communicate with one another secretly using their self-powered "NOTwork." The enclosed system will run the week of November 14th on L-Trains going in and out of the Brooklyn and Manhattan boroughs. AOL resurrects its Instant Messaging service AIM with new features that even the score with sites like Meebo and Adium, and Jabber that already let you log chat histories, sign into multiple social networking accounts, and view multimedia like video and Twitter messages directly in the message window. An attack on online copyright infringements is in in progress, spearheaded by an initiative called the Stop Online Privacy Act, or SOPA that aims to blacklist sites that allegedly violate existing copyright laws. As of last night, however, the opposition is gaining powerful allies across the Web, including big names like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga. Bathroom break video 1: Star Wars Rogue Squadron - Cheers Bathroom break video 2: Turkish Ice Cream Follow Jeff, Wilson, Justin, and The 404 Twitter pages for a chance to win Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, and Uncharted 3. Check out this post for how to enter.

Click through to stream or download today's 404 podcast episode!… Read more

AT&T: Sprint's public, private claims are two-faced

AT&T's fight with Sprint Nextel over its right to buy T-Mobile USA keeps getting uglier.

The latest move by AT&T: claiming Sprint is two-faced, pointing out contradictions between its publicly made arguments and its confidential responses to the Federal Communications Commission. AT&T won the right to access Sprint's confidential documents because it needs to prepare for its defense against the Department of Justice. AT&T filed a document pointing out the difference in opinion to the FCC.

The war of words has gotten increasingly bitter, as AT&T scrambles to … Read more

Should lying online be a crime?

Google lets you remove your Wi-Fi info from its location database, iTunes Match goes live, and the Department of Justice pushes Congress to make it a felony to use a fake name on a social network or lie on a dating-site profile.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

DOJ: Lying on Match.com needs to be a crime

The U.S. Department of Justice is defending computer hacking laws that make it a crime to use a fake name on Facebook or lie about your weight in an online dating profile at a site like Match.com.

In a statement obtained by CNET that's scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, the Justice Department argues that it must be able to prosecute violations of Web sites' often-ignored, always-unintelligible "terms of service" policies.

The law must allow "prosecutions based upon a violation of terms of service or similar contractual agreement with an employer or provider," Richard … Read more