Hitler on Google, China, parody and corporate interests

Its about copyright, fair use and YouTube, but you get the point about it being pertinent to net neutrality. Magnificent Hitler comment: "I thought they were supposed to be all 'Don't be Evil'".

Brit ENArquiste Madelin replaces Colasantology

Just about to take an Easter break when I see that Fabio Colasanti has finally retired and will be replaced by English Francophile Robert Madelin, who is from High Wycombe (Wasps rugby home), and educated at Magdalen Oxford and Ecole National d'Administration. Watching the Great Man's sighs and eye-rolling as he had to repeat Mme Reding's policies was always a transparent guide to whether he agreed (Romanian regulators told me about body language being more important than rhetoric, based on old regimes, and I called it 'Colasantology').
New DG Madelin was in Leon Brittan's Cabinet at both DG COMP and DG Trade (External), and was then a Director both there and finally DG of Consumer Affairs. So he has a very wide set of very relevant experiences. This promises well. I hope he may have even read the Oxford-edited Journal of Consumer Policy, and my piece on corporate governance, global governance, competition and the Information Society - all in his previous interests: 'he had the chance to work on a range of issues, including: access to medicines, agriculture, biotechnology, corporate responsibility, food and product standards, global governance, intellectual property, investment, services, sustainable development, and relations with the Asia-Pacific.'
P.S. Ignore much of the Googleballs being talked about the First Amendment being rolled back in China as well as Turkey, Thailand etc. The Chinese politburo is about to have several retirements, and the current Colasantis and Redings will not be there in 2 years - so they are cracking down on dissent now. Besides, as Dave Bustein picks up from PointTopic, 300m broadband and 20m fibre users will not be as easily censored in future.

20 Years of Solicitude, and Commissioner Kroes, An Apology

As HPL points out in the comment on my previous post, I intimated too much credit to Commissioner Kroes, she merely appended some words to the June 2009 mobile roaming regulation. I look forward to giving her more credit when prices are reduced from 20,000%+ above wholesale cost, in the near future.
But lets give her credit where its due. In 1990, the Federal Trade Commission began its inquiry into Microsoft Windows pricing/bundling policies. In 1997, the great State of Texas (full disclosure: I am an honorary citizen), began its landmark antitrust action against Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer into Windows95 -  which it fought to the bitter end in 2004, even though Dubya's DoJ spat the dummy.
Today marks the day that Microsoft finally is giving consumers a (somewhat redundant and almost mandatory) choice of browser under settlement of the EC case which began in 1993 (Novell) and again 1998 (Sun). Its in your Update - I keep having to stop it happening as I use Chrome - that address/search bar is bundled genius.
And just as the Roaming Regulation is carried over from Commissioner Reding, so this remedy is carried over from Commissioner Kroes. So well done!
That brings me to the complaint against Google. I am expecting 20 years of activity on this, too - though as with Microsoft and its Passport/.NET case, I expect Google to find its relations with privacy law - yes, Mme Reding - to become sticky long before any antitrust action. I have a research student engaged in research in this field, and its only tangentially relevant to net neutrality (its a counter-attack aided by Vodafone and Microsoft if you believe the rumours and of course the Barcelona speeches at the Congress).
Gloves are off, battle will commence.

Google and Italy: its not unusual...

I have blogged on my freedom of expression blog about yesterday's case, but one important point needs to be made: this is not an isolated example of a crazy judge and prosecutor, but part of a worldwide trend away from Notice and Take Down and towards raising the costs of content hosts by requiring pre-screening of illegal content. Turkey and Germany (maybe!) are amongst countries to do so recently. A worldwide catalogue is being published by the Open Net Initiative in April.