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Internal strife at Microsoft kills innovation

Update on the Comcast-NBC merger. The deal faces criticism that it could lead to higher cable TV rates, harm competition, and stifle online innovation. Comcast says it won't.

Industry watchers pull varying lessons from the year's retail wreckage, predict return to growth in 2010.

"An article published in, The Guardian, discusses a debate taking place in the British Parliament around a new "digital economy bill. One amendment in particular is stirring a lot of discussion about its impact on content online. The Guardian writes: The new proposal - which was passed in the House of Lords by 165 votes to 140 - gives a high court judge the right to issue an injunction against a Web site accused of hosting a "substantial" amount of copyright infringing material, potentially forcing the entire site offline. Critics say the major problem with this amendment is that ajudge could shut down a Web site because of copyright infringement, even if thesite's manager didn't put the content online."

An article published on Thursday in, The Guardian, discusses a debate taking place in the British Parliament around a new "digital economy bill." One amendment in particular is stirring a lot of discussion about its impact on content online. The Guardian writes: The new proposal - which was passed in the House of Lords by 165 votes to 140 - gives a high court judge the right to issue an injunction against a Web site accused of hosting a "substantial" amount of copyright infringing material, potentially forcing the entire site offline. Critics say the major problem with this amendment is that a judge could  shut down a Web site  because of copyright infringement, even if the site's manager didn't put the content online. What is left unanswered is how a company can be held accountable for every piece of content placed on its site.  Many critics of this bill and others in Europe say it is most likely to result in the stifling of creativity, innovation and free speech. In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act offers some protection against liability to Internet service providers and Web sites that host copyrighted material uploaded by third parties.

""Over the past several decades, our industry has consolidated from literally dozens of independent entrepreneurs and suppliers, including many writer-owners making innovative and groundbreaking programming to a handful of large media conglomerates most often controlling content from start to finish," Wells said. The result, he said, is that decisions on which shows go on television are based more often on money than quality. "

"At first glance of Friday's Los Angeles Times, you might think the Mad Hatter has taken over the newspaper. Johnny Depp's colorful character in Disney's new film "Alice in Wonderland" dominates a faked front page, which includes the paper's traditional flag and two stories that appeared in the paper last month. Los Angeles Times spokesman John Conroy said the "cover-wrap" was an "unusual opportunity to stretch the usual boundaries and design an innovative ad designed to create buzz." Roy Peter Clark, a senior journalism scholar at the Poynter Institute, said tough economic times and lower ads sales have forced newspapers to tear down the ethics wall that separated a paper's front page from advertisers."

Drawing comparisons between postal service and newspaper industry models. The need to digitalize and innovate the system.

Silicon Valley economy is slow to rebound. Concerns re high costs and poor schools. Also less immigration to the valley.

"The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States....The Internet was built on Open Source Innovation. We intend to keep it that way."

With manufacturers rolling out 3-D television sets, the promise of videogames that transport players into deeply immersive 3-D worlds is inching closer to reality.

In March of 2009 when OnLive was first announced, it was deemed to be a questionable but potentially revolutionary change in the direction gaming was headed.

"In its public FCC filing Thursday, Comcast expanded on its previous argument that buying a 51% stake in NBC Uni will not lead it to block out independent programmers and that it will actually have various public interest benefits. Those benefits fall into all areas that the FCC has promoted, such as diversity, localism, competition and innovation, Comcast argued in the filing."

Clear Channel has created mobile "roadblocks" with advertising displays on your mobile device while it is loading applications.

Op Ed Exploring the rates and speeds available in other countries, and the fact that the United States has among the slowest speeds and the highest prices of advanced economies. Also discusses the proposed FCC National Broadband Plan.