Vulcan Flipstart, Verizon and YouTube

This is a busy news week with announcements and commentary from virtually all areas of communications and technology. Starting small, Gary Krakow has a review of the Vulcan Flipstart which is a company founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Gary seems to like the device and one feature in particular he draws attention to is the small computer’s ability to be rebooted with a single button. There is a bit of irony in that the Microsoft co-founder “innovated” by allowing a Microsoft computer to be rebooted more quickly. All kidding aside, the market for such ultra-portable computers seems to be growing quickly and in fact I have been testing a Nokia N800 tablet computer for many weeks and so far I am very impressed with it.
 
In other news, Andy Abramson had a story on whether Verizon is blocking CallVantage. Interestingly last week I was at a dinner with someone in Dallas who told me their Vonage service has started to sound terrible on Verizon FiOS these past months. Is it a Verizon problem? Who knows.
 
Then there is the story about Google’s YouTube getting sued over and over. The scary part for Google is some of the people suing are those who the company recently had a good working relationship with such as NBC.
 
YouTube argues that it’s protected from culpability under the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
"YouTube cannot qualify for safe harbor because it is not the type of Internet service provider contemplated by Congress," attorneys with Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp wrote on behalf of clients Viacom and NBC Universal.
YouTube also doesn’t fulfill the requirements for protection, according to Viacom and NBC Universal, because the video-sharing site "has a direct financial interest and the ability to control infringement that takes place on its own Website and through its own server."
There is lots more to write about of course but with all this great content on YouTube that isn’t supposed to be there, I better take a break from writing and check some of these videos out before they are gone forever. 🙂

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