Kevin Martin, FCC Chairman
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Maybe it’s wise advice when dealing with other Administration-appointed turds clogging up the works as well. FEMA’s Michael Brown, after doing nobody any favors during the Katrina disaster, finally did us all a solid by resigning. Up next, if we’re lucky, is Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (Mr. The-Economy-Is-Fine), followed by Martin.

Don’t just take my word for it. It’s Wear-All-Black Day at the FCC, the third anniversary of Martin taking over and creating a totalitarian "super-politicized" environment. Maybe he’s not completely to blame; we all know what happens to Administration appointees if they don’t fall in line.

So if Martin’s not at liberty to do the opposite of what he thinks is best, then maybe others will be able to. Martin’s not a fan of Net Neutrality ideas, unless it involves (symbolically) grilling Comcast about it. Verizon and AT&T have yet to take their places in the hot seat, which is pretty par for the course.

But then again, Comcast isn’t projected as winning the bid for all or nearly all of the C-Block spectrum. Comcast also wasn’t doing its "patriotic duty" by bending over for the DOJ like the telecoms. The reward for the telecoms is they don’t get as much flack from the FCC.

Or so the theory goes.

Comcast is suing the FCC, by the way, over an imposed cap on media ownership, which won’t apply to other media companies, for whom Martin wants to relax the ownership rules. Comcast is more than happy to mention how quickly and lovingly Martin’s FCC approved the largest merger in acquisition history regardless of antitrust concerns, the AT&T/BellSouth merger.

Their lawsuit will have to get in line, though, among two-dozen other lawsuits filed against the FCC regarding that same issue. It will be in line also behind a Supreme Court case, scheduled for this fall, regarding Martin’s and the Administration’s hard-line stance against "fleeting expletives" occurring on live television, often beyond the control of the broadcasters. Martin would extend the government-regulation of speech to cable and satellite subscription networks as well.

Martin would have a more difficult time regulating Internet speech, especially in light of his past non-regulation arguments and all those pesky freedom-loving Americans out there. He won’t have to regulate, though, if he gives a free pass to AT&T and Verizon, who seem lately more than happy to regulate speech for him, and who thus far haven’t come under the scrutiny Comcast has suffered.

That’s not a defense of Comcast’s blocking of file-sharing traffic, just to say that what’s good for one should be good for the other.

Perhaps all these abuses will get their proper light with the threatened Congressional investigation into allegations that Martin has abused his power, either in the name of politics, or the name of double-standard stupidity.

And hopefully, that threatened investigation will result in what needs to be done before a new President takes the stage.      
 

Google claimed in an email to Inner City Press that after reviewing the site, it could no longer be included in Google News. The search advertising company alluded to “user complaints,” but offered no specifics.

Inner City Press believes the action came as a delayed reaction to its questioning of Google’s Michael T. Jones in late 2007 at a United Nations Development Program press conference. The question concerned whether or not “if Google was a member of the UN Global Compact, through which corporations sign up to principles of human rights including non-censorship.”

Considering Google’s acceptance of Chinese censorship conditions in exchange for operating its search servers in the country, that little hardball came as a surprise. Jones could not answer the question.

The answer is no, Google is not nor has ever been a member. A Fox News report gave Google’s explanation:

Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker told FOXNews.com that “Google generally does not sign petitions or join coalitions but prefers to support public-engagement and advocacy efforts through the work of Google.org and by leveraging our products, such as Google Earth.”

This quickly takes a turn for the conspiratorial. Inner City Press, long accredited by the UN as well as by US federal agencies, dropped this little bombshell:

In fact, UNDP sources describe communications from the UN system to Google executives, asking that Inner City Press be de-listed from Google News, and that a well-read blog, UNDP-Watch, be striken from that data base.

Recently a whistleblower in UNDP’s legal department had his office computer impounded and was told, you have visited InnerCityPress.com multiple times. While the interrogation reflected contempt for the freedom to read and freedom of the press, the issue goes far beyond the corporate culture at UNDP, to that of Google.

The Government Accountability Project also criticized Google for delisting Inner City Press.

“Google’s reference to ‘user complaints’ is disturbing,” said Bea Edwards, International Director. “We can’t help wondering who is complaining about Inner City Press. Considering their continuing coverage of U.N. whistleblower issues, it

The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention was formed in September to take on growing corruption scandals involving government and Communist Party officials.

The Web site was set up Monday allowed the public to leave comments about the governments work, but the number of visitors disabled the site Tuesday, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The site was back online Wednesday and had 16 pages with more than 250 comments, with a variety of complaints such as the promotion of public officials to criticism about the Web site itself. "The corruption problem in China is a fatal illness, establishing more institutions can not solve the problem," one comment read.

The ruling Communist Party has been hit by a number of high-profile scandals. Former Shanghai Communist Party boss, Chen Liangyu, is awaiting trial following his arrest in September 2006 for allegedly misusing the city’s pension funds.

Last year, more than 90,000 officials were reprimanded, but it only accounted for 0.14 percent of the total number of the CPC members.
 

And that means that independent web radio stations are not exempt from royalty rates, recently hiked, even if the artist never intended for there to be a royalty in the first place.

As "DJ ProFusion" at DailyKos wrote:

SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free.

Live365 reports that over 55 percent of music played over Internet channels come from independent artists (non-RIAA), compared to just 13 percent over the conventional airwaves. And though the solution was offered that webcasters only play independent music, they will not be exempt from royalty collections.

How does this happen?

TechDirt’s Mike Masnick sums it up well:

The RIAA tells people that simply listening to music without paying for it is a terrible crime that people should be punished for. Yet… the RIAA getting money for non-RIAA music and not paying the deserving artists that money is perfectly legal? Damn, the RIAA lobbyists are good.

In fact, DMOZ is usally considered the most important of all internet directories.

I recommend submitting your blog to DMOZ for both the incoming link value and for potential visitor traffic.

The Open Directory Project has become much more blog friendly in the past year. There is even a special category for blogs.

I provide information on successful submission to the Open Directory Project in several different posts. They range from basic DMOZ directory submission to advanced DMOZ directory submission

That said, there are allegedly some internal problems at DMOZ, that if they are even partially accurate, could spell some problems for the directory in the near future.

A new blog called Corrupt DMOZ Editor (via Search Engine Guide) alleges bribery of editors to gain entry into the directory, to charges of editors sabotaging competitors sites entry and existinglistings, and possible rampant editor corruption.

Other blogs and websites continue in the same vein.

A DMOZ Editor Speaks is a small website where a former editor makes similar claims. In a blatant take off from the DMOZ site design, the parody site called NMOZ sends all links back to Corrupt DMOZ Editor.

I am not sure if the sites are related in any way.

Another blog that picks up similar themes is My DMOZ Fan Page where even more editor corruption is alleged.

There is also a post presenting the author’s opinion of why it takes so long for a site to be listed in DMOZ.

If any of these allegations are even remotely true, there might indeed be some problems with some of the volunteer editors at the Open Directory Project.

Note that all editors at DMOZ are unpaid volunteers.

While there might be a few bad apples, the vast majority of editors are hard working and contientious at their job. They work hard to create the best possible directory, including as many deserving sites as possible.

Regardless of the alleged improprieties, I still recommend submitting your blog or website to DMOZ.

Don’t worry about charges of corruption, as it’s highly doubtful they will affect your site submission in any way.

I recently submitted a client’s site to the Open Directory Project, and it was accepted into the selected category, in about four weeks time. In fact, the editors used my entered site description word for word, without any changes at all.

Entry into DMOZ is an important step toward high search engine rankings and more visitor traffic to your blog or traditional website.

It’s definitely worth the time and effort of submission.

.

Link: DMOZ integrity

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