WebProNews

Tweens Prefer iTunes To P2P

We're not sure we believe it, but a new study by the NPD Group claims that purchasing music from Apple’s iTunes Store is more popular with tweens (kids 9-to 14) than "illegally"  downloading music. The report says 70% of tweens now use legal services with iTunes grabbing 49%, Limewire still commands 26% and MySpace is used by 16%.

FCC To Investigate Comcast, Verizon

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin says the regulatory agency will investigate allegations that Comcast interferes with p2p Internet traffic. He also said Verizon Wireless would be under the microscope after complaints the company blocked text messages from an abortion rights group.

Looking Back on CES

I 'm now back from CES. Here's a quick roundup of highlights that you probably won't find elsewhere: Best Schwag

EFF Strikes Back Against ISP Interference

The Electronic Frontier Foundation stepped up its criticism of traffic shaping practices by Comcast and others with a new initiative aimed at broadband customers.

French, Canadians, (Mark) Cuban Go After P2P

Torrents and peer-to-peer networks have had a rough couple of weeks lately. In addition to Cox and Comcast's recent blocking of torrent sites, file-sharing has been under assault in France and Canada, not to mention from billionaire Mark Cuban.

Whispers Emerge Of A Torrent-Free Future

Closing up parts of the BitTorrent protocol may have been a necessary business decision by Bram Cohen and company, but it's motivated the people behind The Pirate Bay to start working on a new protocol to replace torrents.

Ad Supported P2P Networks

Close to three-quarters of U.S. Internet users are open to viewing ads in exchange for free downloads, according to the Intent MediaWorks "P2P Usage Survey" from May 2007.

NBC Gets Corny With P2P Fight

Let's hope the FCC is smarter than this. Wait, which FCC? Oh, crap. In a filing with the FCC, lobbyists for NBC Universal recently made this anti-piracy claim (paraphrased): Piracy hurts corn farmers and farm equipment manufacturers.

YouTube Comprises 10% Of All Internet Traffic

For the first time in four years, HTTP (Web) traffic has overtaken peer-to-peer (P2P) applications in bandwidth consumption, according to data released by Ellacoya Networks. YouTube takes the biggest chunk of all of them.

File-Sharing Could Get University Funding Cut?

So as state-funded university tuition rises faster than the inflation rate, grants are becoming nonexistent, and students are actually looking abroad to complete their education cheaper and in half the time, Congressmen cozy with the RIAA are threatening to cut their funding more if they don't play ball with the recording labels.