Around the Industry:
Videotron lobbying for Internet ‘transmission tariff'
Internet Bill Of Useless Rights proposed
UK broadband market back on track after hiccups?
Time Warner's gamble on AOL advertising pays off to the tune of 300% profit increase
HBO's bold broadband plans
RealNetworks alums startup GridNetworks promises to halve cost of distributing movies online
SecurityBits:
'Month of Kernel Bugs' launches with new Apple Wi-Fi exploit
Microsoft confirms critical Visual Studio zero-day
Virus writers target web videos
TidBytes:
AT&T: Yeah, Putting Ads In People's Ringtones Sounds Like A Great Idea
Firefox Kid’s New Start Up, Parakey
YouTube hopes to be on mobile devices in 2007

Around The Industry:
•Videotron lobbying for Internet ‘transmission tariff':
With video and music downloads gobbling up Internet bandwidth at an ever-expanding pace, cable company Videotron is pushing for content providers like movie studios to share some of the cost to expand broadband pipelines. Videotron boss Robert Depatie wants the federal government to slap a transmission tariff on providers — like the music and film industry — so they can shoulder part of the burden. In an interview later, Depatie said he merely wanted to put the tariff idea on the table and offered few clues about how his revenue-sharing proposal would work. It's unclear whether such a tariff would be passed on to consumers through higher download fees.
•Internet Bill Of Useless Rights proposed:
Mike at TechDirt comments: "At the big UN conference on internet governance in Greece, some are now proposing that an online bill of rights be created that would go across nations to deal with some online-specific issues. It's clear that there have been problems with local jurisdictions when it comes to global issues online, so it may sound like an intriguing idea to come up with a plan that can reach across the different nations to come to an agreement... but in practice it's likely to amount to a lot of nothing. First of all, countries that don't like it simply won't pay attention to it. Or, they'll pretend that they do. And, of course, none of that will really matter since it's not like the UN has any real say over how these countries act anyway."
•UK broadband market back on track after hiccups?:
The UK broadband market has recovered from what was its lowest quarterly growth rate ever in Q2 2006, according to market researcher Point Topic. “After earlier hiccups, consumer confidence has returned to the UK broadband market. The overall growth rate has improved quite significantly over the last quarter,” said Katja Mueller, chief analyst at Point Topic. The base of DSL lines grew by 8% in Q3, compared to 6.5% at the end of June, according to report from Point Topic. But regional variations in the uptake of broadband services persist. Northern Ireland has the highest DSL growth rate between Q4 2005 and Q3 2006, followed by Wales and Scotland. The North East, West Midlands and North West performed weakly. “Only London scored lower, a region in which BT is losing market share to local loop unbundling ISPs,” said the report.
•Time Warner's gamble on AOL advertising pays off to the tune of 300% profit increase:
Time Warner’s gamble that increased advertising revenues would make up for the loss of subscription fees at its America Online internet arm paid off, as the media giant revealed a near-300% surge in profits. Overall, revenue at AOL declined by 3 per cent to $1.9 billion (£1 billion), but the increase in advertising sales was so large that analysts applauded the move to a free broadband service. Most Wall Street analysts had expected an increase in advertising sales of about 30 per cent.
•HBO's bold broadband plans:
Just about every TV network worth its satellite transponders has rushed to the Internet in recent months. Conspicuously absent from that list: HBO. But that won't be true for long, say sources in media and technology. And if HBO takes on the Internet presence expected in the coming months, it could cause no small dustup with some of HBO's biggest customers—namely the cable and satellite companies that charge fees for beaming HBO movies and shows such as The Sopranos and Entourage into America's homes.
•RealNetworks alums startup GridNetworks promises to halve cost of distributing movies online:
Liz Gannes reports via GigaOm: "RealNetworks alums launched GridNetworks, promising to halve the cost of distributing movies online. GridNetworks is hoping to sign up content distributors and set-top boxes, and already has a few customers using its distributed network, a command-and-control form of P2P that clusters all the bits well enough to do streaming. The company says it can deliver a 1.2GB movie at a cost of 25 to 50 cents, and it will handle packaging, pricing, geographic distribution, release windows, and all the messy stuff involved with selling movies. We think instant gratification for online movie-watchers is a big opportunity. The P2P sector has been quiet recently5, but hopefully companies like GridNetworks and the highly anticipated the Venice Project6 can bring the energy back."
•Minneapolis stops diddling about muni WiFi, actually does something:
Work is scheduled to begin on the Minneapolis wireless network after the signing today of a contract between the city and US Internet of Minnetonka. The network is to be rolled out in stages by geographic area throughout 2007, beginning downtown in early June and wrapping up in the southeast next November. It will offer wireless Internet access to consumers and businesses and will provide the city with a lower-cost alternative for much of its telecommunications. Customers will be able to get service as their segment of the network is completed.
•Broadband costs see Carphone loss, but profits rise 60%:
The cost of launching its free broadband service has pushed Carphone Warehouse into the red, the firm making a £4.6m loss in the past six months. Demand for the service, launched in April, was much higher than anticipated and Carphone has struggled to cope with connecting customers. The firm incurred a £45m loss relating to the launch of the service in the six months to the end of September. Total losses relating to the launch are set to rise to £70m this year, the company said. But excluding this and other one-off costs, profits rose 60% to £59.3m.
•RIAA: If the Mom won't back down, sue the kids:
Patricia Santangelo wouldn't concede in her fight with record companies that accused her of pirating songs over the Internet. Now the companies are hoping for an easier tussle against her kids. Five record companies, represented by the RIAA, filed a lawsuit against Santangelo's son and daughter. It said Michelle Santangelo has acknowledged downloading songs on the family computer and that her brother, Robert had been implicated in statements his best friend made. It accuses the two of downloading and distributing over 1,000 songs. Patricia Santangelo, who a federal judge called "an Internet illiterate parent," drew attention last year when she denied downloading songs and refused to settle with the recording industry, which she said demanded $7,500 to keep her name out of a lawsuit for illegally downloading music. Defenders of Internet freedom helped pay for her attorney. But the question remained whether her children had done it.

SecurityBits:
•'Month of Kernel Bugs' launches with new Apple Wi-Fi exploit:
Metasploit founder HD Moore has released an exploit for an unpatched vulnerability in the Apple Airport driver that ships with some PowerBook and iMac computers. The exploit kicks off a new project called Month of Kernel Bugs and follows a heated debate over the existence of 802.11 flaws affecting Mac OS X systems. Moore said the exploit is not related to the Wi-Fi driver flaws discovered and discussed in Aug. 2006 by researchers David Maynor and Jon "Johnny Cache" Ellch at the Black Hat Briefings. "This exploit is one I found over the weekend, using the new 802.11 fuzzer modules in the Metasploit Framework," Moore said, referring to a new version of the point-and-click hacking tool that will ship with Wi-Fi exploits.
•Microsoft confirms critical Visual Studio zero-day:
An "extremely critical" vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 could put users at risk of remote code execution attacks, the company confirmed. According to Microsoft, the vulnerability is caused due to an unspecified error in the WMI Object Broker ActiveX Control (WmiScriptUtils.dll), which is used by the WMI Wizard in Visual Studio to instantiate other controls. The company said an attacker could use the flaw to "take complete control of the affected system."
•Virus writers target web videos:
The growing popularity of online video has caught the attention of malicious hackers and hi-tech criminals. Security firms are reporting more and more instances of booby-trapped Windows codecs required to play some video formats. Some of the codecs let users play types of net-based video, but also have spyware and adware wrapped inside. Others, say experts, are outright fakes that just want to infect victims with data-stealing programs. The upcoming Halloween holiday is already being exploited by malicious hackers who are baiting websites with viruses and trojans.

Hardware, Software, and other TidBytes:
•AT&T: Yeah, Putting Ads In People's Ringtones Sounds Like A Great Idea
•Firefox Kid’s New Start Up, Parakey
•YouTube hopes to be on mobile devices in 2007
•Sony to Sell World's Lightest Notebook
•Wii prepares to mop up the competition