Netflix’s Comcast Deal: Internet Fast Becoming Playground for Digital Superpowers

MEDIA | By Brent Lang on February 24, 2014 @ 2:53 pm 199t

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Previously the lone holdout among internet giants to not pay for direct access, Netflix is expected to make similar deals with AT&T and Verizon

By paying Comcast to improve its internet streaming service in anew deal announced this weekend, Netflix is setting the stage for similar agreements with the likes of AT&T and Verizon, as broadband access becomes the province of a group of digital superpowers.

“It sets a new business model in place,” Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott, told TheWrap. “Anybody who is sending a lot of data through the internet will presumably have to pay more.”

Netflix is one of the largest consumers of bandwidth over the Internet, and the deal makes other pacts seem inevitable in the increasingly competitive video streaming arena. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told CNBC on Monday that a deal with Netflix is already in the works.

Also read: Why Comcast Always Wins: Money, Friends and Influence

However, the arrangement has little to do with the core issue of net neutrality, because it is not an example of a company paying more for better placement of digital content. In a release touting the deal, Netflix made a point of stating it will receive no preferential treatment on Comcast’s network.

Netflix ponied up to improve its streaming service, but companies such as Google pay fees to directly connect their content delivery networks to internet service provider’s networks. Others, such as CBS and Fox pay third-party networks to link up to providers’ architecture, as analyst Dan Rayburn notes on his blog.

“The concept of net neutrality refers to the non-discriminatory treatment of traffic within a given carrier’s network,” Craig Moffett, an analyst with MoffettNathanson, wrote in a note. “Contrary to what has been reported, the deal has nothing to do with paying for speed or network access; rather it is simply a commercial payment to Comcast to open up additional ports to allow traffic to flow in excess of the settlement-free ratio.”

Netflix was the lone holdout among the internet giants in refusing to pay for direct access. Seeing that Comcast was poised to dominate the bulk of the major media markets, Netflix had little choice but to capitulate and pay the fees.

The deal is further evidence that Comcast, which stands to be the high-speed internet provider for nearly 40 percent of American homes if its deal to acquire Time Warner Cable is approved, has an enormous amount of leverage when it comes to negotiations. It is yet another indication, as if more were needed, that the internet is becoming a battleground largely reserved for new media and technology titans with money and access.

“It’s a game of elephants,” Paul Saffo,a technology forecaster at the investment firm Discern Analytics, said. “The vision of an open internet in which everyone is equal is in danger of disappearing.”

Also read: Why Comcast’s Time Warner Cable Purchase Could Choke Internet Access

Many analysts believe that Netflix may benefit from the deal, because it unfolds over many years, during which time streaming video seems likely to continue growing in popularity and choking up more and more bandwidth.

“By going straight to Comcast’s network, Netflix knocks out the intermediaries,” Saffo said. “It saves on costs and Comcast makes money by having them connect directly. The net effect on consumers is minor.”

Also read: Netflix Antes Up for Direct Access to Comcast Broadband

Yahoo and Google have already paid for direct access, but the fees that exist across America’s broadband infrastructure point to a troubling reality: These costs are nothing for wealthy companies such as Netflix or Google, but the barriers to entry are becoming steeper for new players who might be interested in video or disseminating other high capacity content. That creates a playing field that is less meritocratic and harder for entrepreneurs to access.

“The plan that the cable providers, the monopolists had, is coming together,” Vivek Wadhwa, a fellow at Stanford University and a technology entrepreneur, said. “America is at a big disadvantage because the internet availability is poor, pathetically slow and expensive.”

That in turn, could provide more of an impetus for the expansion of alternatives to cable internet, such as fiber-optic cable, which carry with them more bandwidth and speed. That’s something that Google has been investing heavily in, announcing last week that will roll out its high-speed internet service, Google Fiber, to as many as 34 new cities.

For Wadhwa, the Comcast deal with Netflix is an example of the short-sightedness that is prompting customers to abandon cable for the internet as a means of cost savings. It may lead them to migrate towards fiber-optic services.

“The cable industry is accelerating its own demise,” he said. “They’re doing the same monopoly garbage that is hurting cable. These companies don’t get it. They’re living in the past.”

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Mother Gilchrist in Florida - 2014

Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)

Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)

20 Black Brook Road, Aquinnah, MA 02535-1546 ph: (508) 645 9265 fx: (508) 645-3790

History & Culture

AQUINNAH WAMPANOAG The last great North American glacier began its retreat some 10,000 years ago, leaving behind the accumulation of boulders, sand, and clay that is now known as Martha's Vineyard. The ancestors of Wampanoag people have lived for at least 10,000 years at Aquinnah (Gay Head) and throughout the island of Noepe (Martha's Vineyard), pursuing a traditional economy based on fishing and agriculture. The Aquinnah Wampanoag share the belief that the giant Moshup created Noepe and the neighboring islands, taught our people how to fish and to catch whales, and still presides over our destinies. Our beliefs and a hundred million years of history are imprinted in the colorful clay cliffs of Aquinnah. Some 400 years ago Europeans reached Noepe in sufficient numbers to leave a record, and by the 1700's there were English settlements over most of the island. Our presence was quickly felt, and between, the dislocation from land dealings, and the influence of disease, our populations were reduced and our territories constricted. By the 1800's there remained but three native communities on Martha's Vineyard: Aquinnah, Christiantown, and Chappaquiddick. Aquinnah being the most populous and organized, we were able to maintain control over our land, despite intense efforts by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to end our existence. Over the past 100 years more and more native land has been lost as changes in the local economy forced tribal members to sell their lands, move to other parts of the island, or to leave the island altogether. Aquinnah was at different times in history referred to as a "praying town," an Indian District, and an incorporated town. Throughout it all we remain a sovereign tribe. TRIBAL GOVERNANCE In 1972 the "Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head, Inc." was formed to promote self-determination, to ensure preservation and continuation of Wampanoag history and culture, to achieve federal recognition for the tribe, and to seek the return of tribal lands to the Wampanoag people. The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) became a federally acknowledged tribe on April 10, 1987 through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). TRIBAL LANDS The Wampanoag trust lands are located in the southwest portion of Martha's Vineyard Island in the town of Gay Head. In accordance with 1987 Settlement Act with the federal government there are approximately 485 acres of Tribal Lands purchased (160 acres private and approximately 325 acres common lands). The common lands include the Gay Head Cliffs, Herring Creek, and Lobsterville, and the private lands include parcels I, IIA, IIB, and III (see map). Other land owned by the Tribe include parcels in Christiantown and Chappaquiddick. A master plan of Wampanoag Tribal Lands was developed in 1993 for approximately 160 acres of the Wampanoag Tribal Trust Land, comprising of parcels I, IIA, IIB, and III. The Master Plan followed several years of investigative efforts and illustrates the present vision of the future tribal community in Gay Head. TRIBE/TOWN EMERGENCY SERVICES AGREEMENT The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and the Town of Gay Head entered into agreement in June of 1995 to jointly provide for the health, safety and welfare of persons on Tribal Lands by providing for the use of police, fire, and medical personnel and resources in the event of disaster, disorder, fire or other emergencies arising on Tribal Lands. The Town is working with the Tribe to make trained and experienced Public Safety Officials and personnel readily available on Tribal Lands to provide increased protection for persons and property on Tribal Lands, until such time as the Tribe can provide these services for its tribal members. The Tribe's Aquinnah Rangers are EMT certified and provide services for both Tribal Lands and the up-island communities.

Crispus Attucks

 

<sup>Crispus Attucks (c. 1723 – March 5, 1770) was an American slave, merchant seaman and dockworker of Wampanoag and African descent. He was the first casualty of the Boston Massacre, in Boston, Massachusetts,[2] and is widely considered to be the first American casualty in the American Revolutionary War.

Little is known for certain about Crispus Attucks beyond that he, along with Samuel Gray and James Caldwell, died "on the spot" during the incident.[3] Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre, both published in 1770, did not refer to Attucks as a black man or "Negro"; it appeared that Bostonians accepted him as mixed race. Historians disagree on whether Crispus Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave; but agree that he was of Wampanoag and African descent.

While the extent of his participation in events leading to the massacre is unclear, Attucks in the 18th century became an icon of the anti-slavery movement. He was held up as the first martyr of the American Revolution along with the others killed. In the early 19th century, as the abolitionist movement gained momentum in Boston, supporters lauded Attucks as a black American who played a heroic role in the history of the United States [4] Because Attucks had Wampanoag ancestors, his story also holds special significance for many Native Americans.[5]

Considerable uncertainty still remains about Attucks' origins and early life. He appears to have been born a slave in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1723, possibly on Hartford Street. Framingham had a small population of black inhabitants from at least 1716. Attucks was of mixed African and Native American parentage and was descended from John Attucks, a Massachusett who was hanged during King Philip's War.[6]

In 1750 William Brown, a slave-owner in Framingham, advertised for the return of a runaway slave named Crispus. Attucks' status at the time of the massacre as either a free black or a runaway slave has been a matter of debate for historians. However, his descendants maintain he was a slave and ran away sometime in his teenage years.[citation needed] What is known is that Attucks became a sailor and he spent much of the remainder of his life at sea often working on whalers which involved long voyages. He may only have been temporarily in Boston in early 1770, having recently returned from a voyage to the Bahamas. He was due to leave shortly afterwards on a ship for North Carolina.[7]

In the fall of 1768, British soldiers were sent to Boston in an attempt to control growing colonial unrest, which had led to a spate of attacks on local officials following the introduction of the Stamp Act and the subsequent Townshend Acts. Radical Whigs had coordinated waterfront mobs against the authorities. The presence of troops, instead of reducing tensions, served to further inflame them.

After dusk on March 5, 1770, a crowd of colonists confronted a sentry who had chastised a boy for complaining that an officer did not pay a barber bill. Both townspeople and a company of British soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot gathered. The colonists threw snowballs and debris at the soldiers. Attucks and a group of men led by Attucks approached the Old State House armed with clubs. A soldier was struck with a piece of wood, an act some witnesses claimed was done by Attucks. Other witnesses stated that Attucks was "leaning upon a stick" when the soldiers opened fire.[9]

Five colonists were killed and six were wounded. Attucks took two bullets in the chest and was the first to die.[10] County coroners Robert Pierpoint and Thomas Crafts Jr. conducted an autopsy on Attucks.[11] Attucks' body was carried to Faneuil Hall, where it lay in state until Thursday, March 8, when he and the other victims were buried together in the same grave site in Boston's Granary Burying Ground. He lived for approximately 47 years.</sup>

Pussy Riot band members released after being detained in Sochi

Dan Wolken and Elena Vlasova, USA TODAY Sports9:38 a.m. EST February 18, 2014

(Photo: Elena Vlasova, USA TODAY Sports)

SOCHI — Two members of the punk band Pussy Riot have been released by police, about three hours after they were detained and questioned about a theft at a Sochi hotel.

Nadezha Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and three others walked out of the police station chanting a song about Putin and wearing neon balaclavas in pink, blue, green and yellow. They were quickly engulfed by journalists waiting outside the police station in Adler.

The five quickly ran away on foot, followed by the press, cars honking, creating a chaotic scene.

"It is clear that in Russia activists are treated like terorrists," said one of the five, who was wearing a pink balaclava. "Inside we were beaten because we didn't want to say anything without our lawyer. In Russia there's no law.

"We were stopped in our hotel, told that somebody had stolen some money, but they detained us for being activists. We did not protest, but they said we planned to."

Upon her release Tolokonnikova tweeted: "Putin will teach you to love the motherland. That's what makes the Olympics."

The duo first were detained Tuesday afternoon while walking through downtown Sochi.

The town of Sochi is just 20 miles from the main Olympic venues.

Attorney Alexander Popkov, who represents the two Pussy Riot band members, told USA TODAY Sports that the duo were beaten by police before his arrival at the station.

Tweeted Tolokonnikova, via a translation: "Lawyer came, the police became more affectionate."

She, Alyokhina and about 13 others were being questioned by police about a theft at the Malakhit Hotel in Sochi, where they were staying.

"Social media has given them (Pussy Riot) the ability to express themselves. Social media exploded," said Yelena Goltsman, founder and co-president of RUSA LGBT a New York City-based group for Russian-speaking Americans, of Tuesday's events.

Goltsman said she was not surprised that protests have been minimal until now.

"I am not surprised. This is not Russia," she said. "This is a city that is made up. It was leveled, then created into theme park. The city is surrounded by blockades."

Tolokonnikova sent a series of tweets detailing the duo's activities and revealed that they also had been detained for about seven hours on Sunday and 10 hours on Monday, when they were held by the FSB, the Federal Security Service.

Tolokonnikova said she and Alyokhina were in Sochi to carry out a Pussy Riot action _ the song "Putin will teach you to love the motherland."

Q: Get the latest updates from Sochi

OLYMPICS: Full coverage of the Games

She said the song is dedicated to the corrupt Olympics, ecologist Yevgeny Vitishko and suppressed freedoms in Russia. Vitishko wrote a report by the Echo Watch North Caucasus group about environmental damage caused by Olympic construction. He was arrested in early February and charged with swearing in public.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Tolokonnikova said by telephone that she and Alyokhina were told they were being held in relation to an alleged theft at their hotel.

"We, Maria Alyokhina and the anonymous members of Pussy Riot, came to Sochi to organize a protest and express our political views but at the time of our detention [by the local police] we were just taking a stroll minding our own business when we got picked up by the police and shoved into a police van," Ms. Tolokonnikova said. "We've been detained like anybody who's made an attempt to criticize authorities during the Olympics. Authorities treat local guests and athletes nicely but not those who are attempting to organize a protest."

Tolokonnikova's first tweet, sent at 2:50 p.m. local time, revealed they had been detained near the seaport of Sochi on suspicion of felony. In following tweets, Tolokonnikova accused the police of using force during the arrest and wrote that at the moment of detention they had not carried out their action but rather were walking, emphasizing the walking.

About 90 minutes after tweeting that she had been detained, Tolokonnikova tweeted that she was forced to testify without a lawyer.

TIMELINE: From protest to prison

The 24-year-old Tolokonnikova and 25-year-old Alyokhina were released Dec. 23 following a 21-month imprisonment for a protest performance in a Moscow cathedral that led to charges of hooliganism and blasphemy.

The band's third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on suspended sentence shortly after all three women were found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to two years in prison in August 2012.

Appearing at an Amnesty International concert in Brooklyn in early February, Tolokonnikova called for a boycott of the Sochi Olympics, ranging from not attending the event to giving it no media coverage.

"We want Americans to keep their eyes open," she said through an interpreter, "and not buy whole what (Vladimir) Putin is trying to sell them."

Asked where they intended to go after being released, Alyokhina, said they would go back to Russia: "It is our country, and we want to make it a free country."

During the games, Russian officials have designated an official "protest zone," roughly seven miles from any Olympic venues. Anyone who wanted to voice his dissent over anti-gay laws, the treatment of migrant workers who constructed the Olympic venues or environmental concerns would be free to do it in the protest area.

Officials designated "Khosta" as the protest area, which has been ignored for the early part of the Games.

Protests outside the zone have begun to grow.

On Monday, a well-known Italian activist for transgender rights was escorted out of Olympic Park after attempting to enter one of the hockey venues.

Vladimir Luxuria, a former member of the Italian parliament, was in the park for more than an hour Monday wearing a rainbow-colored outfit and yelling "It's OK to be gay," according to the Associated Press.

Luxuria told AP she was not detained, but her Olympic spectator pass was taken away and she was released after being driven away from the park.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the organization does not tolerate demonstrations within the venues "whether we are sympathetic or not."'

"I understand she was in the park for a good hour, maybe two hours walking around talking to spectators and people," Adams said. "Some people were pro, some people were against, some people were very against, but I know her stated aim was to demonstrate in the venue. I believe after a couple hours when she finally got to the venue she was escorted from there peacefully, not detained and even herself tweeted that it had all been very polite."

A Group Call "Death" - The First Punk Band

Death is a garage rock and protopunk demo band formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1971 by brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar), and Dannis (drums) Hackney. The African American trio started out as an R&B band but switched to rock after seeing The Who play.[1] Seeing Alice Cooper play was also an inspiration.[2] Music critic Peter Margasak retrospectively wrote that David "pushed the group in a hard-rock direction that presaged punk, and while this certainly didn’t help them find a following in the mid-70s, today it makes them look like visionaries."[2] The band broke up by 1977 but reformed in 2009 when the Drag City label released their 70s demos for the first time.[3] In 1964, the three young Hackney brothers (David, Bobby and Dannis) were sat down by their father to witness The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The following day, David found a discarded guitar in an alley and set about learning to play. Brothers Bobby and Dannis soon followed suit and they began playing music together. The brothers practiced and recorded early demos in a room in the family home and performed their earliest gigs from their garage.[4] Originally calling themselves Rock Fire Funk Express, guitarist David convinced his brothers to change the name of the band to Death. "His concept was spinning death from the negative to the positive. It was a hard sell," Bobby Hackney recalled in 2010.[5] In 1974 at Detroit’s United Sound Studios with engineer Jim Vitti, they recorded seven songs written by David and Bobby. According to the Hackney family, Columbia Records president Clive Davis funded the recording sessions, but implored the band to change its name to something more commercially palatable than Death. When the Hackneys refused, Davis ceased his support.[6] The band only recorded seven songs instead of the planned dozen. The following year they self-released (on their label Tryangle) a single taken from the sessions: "Politicians in My Eyes" b/w "Keep on Knocking," in a run of just 500 copies. The Hackney brothers ended the band in 1977. The brothers then moved to Burlington, Vermont and released two albums of gospel rock as The 4th Movement in the early 1980s. David moved back to Detroit in 1982, and died of lung cancer in 2000. Bobby and Dannis still reside in Vermont and lead the reggae band Lambsbread.[7] In 2008 the sons of Bobby Hackney (Julian, Urian, and Bobby Jr.) started a band called Rough Francis, covering the songs of Death after discovering the old recordings in their parents' attic.[8] In 2009, Drag City Records released all seven Death songs from their 1974 United Sound sessions on CD and LP under the title ...For the Whole World to See. In September 2009, a reformed Death played three shows with original members Bobby and Dannis Hackney, with Lambsbread guitarist Bobbie Duncan taking the place of the late David Hackney.[9] In 2010, their song "Freakin' Out" was used in an episode of the television program How I Met Your Mother entitled "False Positive" (Season 6, Episode 12).[10] During a 2010 performance at the Boomslang Festival in Lexington, Kentucky the band announced that Drag City would release a new album with demos and rough cuts that predate the 1975 sessions. The album Spiritual • Mental • Physical was released in January 2011.[11] In 2011, their song "You're A Prisoner" was used in the film Kill the Irishman. [12] An independent documentary film about the band titled A Band Called Death, directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino, was released in 2012.[1]

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Anna Gordy Gaye, ex-wife of Marvin Gaye, dies

Anna Gordy, ex-wife of Marvin Gaye, dies

By Faith Karimi, CNN

updated 6:09 AM EST, Sat February 1, 2014

(CNN) -- Anna Gordy Gaye, the sister of Motown's founder and ex-wife of late legendary singer Marvin Gaye, has died.

She was 92.

Photos: People we lost in 2014

She died early Friday surrounded by relatives, her family said in a statement.

Her 14-year marriage to Gaye ended in divorce, but not before she inspired some of his songs, including "Pride and Joy" and "You're a Wonderful One."

The couple divorced in 1977 but remained friends until his death seven years later, the family said. He was shot by his father with a gun he'd given him for safety.

She is survived by a son, Marvin Gaye III, and two brothers, including Berry Gordy, who founded the Motown record label.

Anna Gordy Gaye, Ex-Wife of Marvin Gaye, Dead at 92

Sister of Berry Gordy inspired one of music's strangest backstories

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By JASON NEWMAN

January 31, 2014 5:45 PM ET

Anna Gordy

PoPsie Randolph/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Anna Gordy Gaye, older sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy and ex-wife of Marvin Gaye, died today at age 92, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Gordy Gaye played a key role in Marvin Gaye's life, both personally and professionally. The pair met during a performance at Berry Gordy's house in 1960 and married three years later. Early in his career, Gaye worked as a drummer for Anna Records, a record label founded by Anna and her sister Gwen with songwriter Roquel "Billy" Davis. His early singles "Pride and Joy" and "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" were dedicated to Anna.

The Spirit, the Flesh and Marvin Gaye

Gordy Gaye herself cowrote three of Marvin's songs:  “God Is Love” and “Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)” from 1971's landmark album What's Going On and “Just to Keep You Satisfied” from 1973's Let's Get It On.

Gordy Gaye's marriage to Marvin was one of the most turbulent in music, marked by frequent fighting and infidelity. (Gaye fell in love with 17-year-old Janis Hunter during the recording of Let's Get It On). When Anna filed for divorce in 1975, the proceedings lasted more than two years before the marriage was officially dissolved.

"The marriage was troubled from the start," Marvin told biographer David Ritz. "There was tremendous love between us, and tremendous need for one another. But I couldn't be controlled – not by a wife, not by a manager, not by a record company. I was born a ram and a rebel."

The divorce became the cornerstone to one of the stranger creation backstories in music.  With little cash to pay for back taxes and Anna's divorce settlement, Gaye agreed to pay Anna $600,000, with the first $307,000 coming from an advance against royalties off his next album and the remaining $293,000 to be paid from any future royalties. Gaye began work on Here, My Dear, a brutally honest autobiographical account of his relationship with Anna; its titles –"When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You," "Anger" – exemplified the album's personal themes. Here, My Dear told specific stories about the duo's past, causing Anna to consider a $5 million invasion-of-privacy suit against Gaye.

"I figured I'd just do a quickie record – nothing heavy, nothing even good," Marvin told Ritz. "Why should I break my neck when Anna was going to wind up with the money anyway? But the more I lived with the notion of doing an album for Anna, the more it fascinated me. Besides, I owed the public my best effort. Finally, I did the record out of deep passion. It became a compulsion."

Critically maligned upon its 1978 release (disco fans did not want to hear a double-album about breakups and heartache), Here, My Dear has since became an essential album in Gaye's catalog and is often cited as one of his best works. Gordy Gaye and Gaye reconciled in the early 1980s, with Anna by Marvin's side at the 1983 Grammy Awards. She later accepted his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Anna Gordy Gaye is survived by her brother, Berry, and her son, Marvin.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/anna-gordy-gaye-ex-wife-of-marvin-gaye-dead-at-92-20140131#ixzz2s4gr3kNV 
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