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Listed below are comments made by Improbulus between Thursday, 24th April 2008 and Tuesday, 2nd June 2009.

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• iPlayer: BBC v BT 9:34pm on 02 Jun 2009 I agree with those who make the point that, quite apart from net neutrality, there's a fundamental issue of BT and other ISPs making it clear to customers upfront what speed (with whatever variations) they're getting when they sign up with the ISP, and delivering the speeds that they've led customers to believe they'll be getting.
  
  If ISPs don't do that, the customer should have the right to leave without penalty. It's not right that BT can effectively say (as reported in the original BBC news item yesterday): "But the voluntary code doesn't make us give full details upfront, burying it somewhere on our website is good enough for Ofcom, so that's that" (in fact the info ought to be in a "prominent place" on the website and it clearly isn't if it's buried, so isn't that a breach of the code already?).
  
  Both Ofcom and the ASA have been pretty toothless about all this. The code on broadband speeds needs to be stronger, and compulsory not voluntary - perhaps that will happen only if customers take a stand, complain to the OFT etc and raise the issue of unfair consumer contract terms. Not to mention unfair commercial practices.
• The culture of copying 7:05pm on 30 May 2009 Downloading music etc is inevitable if only as a way to get a "sample" of something before you're willing to part with hard-earned cash for it, given that music & films are "experience goods".
  These aspects were very well written up by economists in the context of why DRM in its current form doesn't work and indeed promotes piracy (I summarised their papers in a blog post on what they call "diginomics") - but I fear it's probably too late for the music industry to adopt a fairer kind of DRM that does work and will be accepted. Ad-supported free music may be the best hope.
• BBC Joins OpenID Foundation 09:20am on 24 Apr 2008 This is great news, Jem! Thanks to all those who've worked to achieved this. Look forward to seeing things develop further.
  In terms of your comment that "Finally I'm wary, as well, that at the moment 99.99% of internet users are completely unaware of OpenID" - I recently tried to do my bit to explain OpenID to non-techies and spread the word, and hope it will be helpful: http://is.gd/8x2

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