Congrats to FCC Commissioner McDowell

It’s tough to stand up to your boss, yet FCC commissioner Robert McDowell did just that when he rightfully abstained from voting to determine the fate of the proposed AT&T-BellSouth merger. McDowell, who used to work for Comptel, an association with former business relationships to AT&T and the telecos, refrained from voting on the merger citing obvious conflicts of interest.

FCC chairmen Kevin Martin ordered McDowell to weigh in on the proposal despite the conflicts, yet McDowell refused. Looks like McDowell has narrowly escaped the large lump of coal he was most likely set to receive this holiday. Martin will most likely end up with the unexpected surplus.

Net Neutrality Vid

Video from the folks at Save the Internet:

Bones vs Bones

Last month, Bones, a punk band out of Baton Rouge received official notice from myspace.com that their url had been changed from http://myspace.com/bones to www.myspace.com/7483383. Apparently, the address was needed to promote the television drama Bones of the Fox network. Strangely enough, Fox is owned by News Corp., who last July purchased myspace for $580 million. Saucy forensic anthropologist Bones beats nerdy jazz punk Bones every time in the media synergy game. No surprises here.

Less than 24 hours after notification of the change, the band received this correspondence from Tom Anderson, co-creator and president of myspace. From the bands myspace blog:

“i heard about what happened with your URL. i gave it back to ya.. sorry about that! as we grow in size, sometimes people make decisions i don’t know about. this was obviously the wrong decision. the bones URL is yours once again.”

Even if this was an act of damage control, it reveals that for the time being, Anderson respects the independent net presences that helped him cash in. As of this inaugural post, Anderson has 140,515,252 user profiles listed as friends on his own myspace account. Among them remains Bones, punk band from Baton Rouge.

Tip: Cool’Eh editorial Vol.2, Issue 6.