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Show www.dailyutahchronicle.com Anonymity can be dangerous People must be accountable for activity on the Internet T W/f Monopoly is in the air Combining satellite radio services XM and Sirius would be bad news for their everyday customers A fter more than a year of stalling, the Justice Department's antitrust division has finally granted its long-awaited blessing to the marriage of XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. The forthcoming XM-Sirius monopoly, which almost no one but consumer advocacy groups is calling a monopoly, needs only the the Federal Communications Commission's approval at this point. Aside from the obvious concerns of the monopolistic, anti-competitive overtones in a deal between the only two satellite radio providers on Earth, there is a larger source of conflict delaying the merger: its effect on terrestrial, or traditional, Al^l/EM radio, .^,. The National Association of Broadcasters Ts'brie'of the mbsf "" prolific and undeniably powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill and has a vested interest in keeping satellite radio at bay. With satellite providers' multitude of high-quality programs streaming commercial-free to those subscribers willing to pay, XM and Sirius are unquestionably able to provide something terrestrial radio long ago left by the wayside—variety. Although I would normally avoid siding with any Washington radio represents what cable and satellite television did many years ago. LAUREN There was a time when having more than 12 television channels MUELLER was considered superfluous. However, our need for new media grew and evolved into something more sophisticated and, yes, gluttonous. lobby (let alone the NAB, which From broadcast television came has a stranglehold on conventional cable, digital, TiVo and so on. This media), this merger is a terrible fragmentation of the market made it idea. Supporters of the deal who possible for consumers to pick and are looking to dispel claims of an choose which services they wanted antitrust violation have often and without worrying that any one merightfully pointed to the fact that, dium would usurp the rest. Satellite thanks to the NAB, terrestrial radio radio fragmented, as well, with XM is largely controlled by five major and Sirius dividing everything, all conglomerates. The portion of the way down to equipment-comtheir argument.that goes unnoticed patible automakers. or unspoken is that satellite radio Now satellite will grow as one "coul'd'much more "easily" succumb to" corporateT)eHemoth, consuming 100 the same fate, if this $5 billion deal percent of the bandwidth and promis any indication. ising customers low prices that will What was once a niche luxury skyrocket in a couple years' time. item is now a staple of at least 17 Satellite will evolve wJth more million American homes, and the dynamic programming, and we'll be numbers are growing every day. forced to pay whatever XM-Sirius Herein lies the problem. Many supdecides is fair. porters of the merger contend that ' All this will be a result of this a commodity item is intrinsically merger-happy climate where vertiexempt from traditional laws and cal integration is king and anyone attitudes barring monopolization. who longs for corporate competiHowever, one could—and should— tion is considered anti-business. make the argument that satellite letters@chronicle.utah.edu he Internet has many faces. It is used for shopping, research and writing, among many other things. These meaningful applications have woven the 'net into an integral part of our daily lives. But another face reveals a dark and addictive side that can turn ugly. Just this week, a 15-year-old Arizonian teen murdered his father. His excuse? Because his father took away the Internet and access to the teen's coveted MySpace page. The teen told investigators about the feeling of being stripped from the Internet. "It felt like I was stabbed with a knife and it went straight through and...no matter how hard I pulled, I couldn't pull out the knife," he said. This hyperbole would be funny if the consequences weren't so serious. In 2006, a Missouri teen committed suicide after a boy befriended her on MySpace. The two communicated often, but the relationship turned sour when the boy spewed insults. It turns out the boy never existed and was the creation of a next-door neighbor. These are just a few examples of the addictive power of the Internet and the cyber harassment that can plague the 'net, like spam offering riches from Nigerian Kings. The questions that need to be answered are, when does free speech become harassment and how does a useful tool become addictive? The reality is that simple solutions,to complex, problems aren't likely to be found. For the Missouri State Legislature, the answer is in committee hearings and putting another law on the books. But harassment and stalking are already punishable offenses, as Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is aware. His response to repeated unsolicited pornographic e-mails to his staff was n Homeland Security subpoenas to locate the sender. The result was a knock on the door, handcuffs, five counts of stalking and a class A misdemeanor for the alleged sender, Rachel Guyon. ^ ^ ^ - ^ ^ ^ ^ g ^ ^ On "Spitzer can't be blamed" (James Sewell, Mar. 26, 2008) Opinion Doucheku posted 3/26/08 @ 12:06 PM MST Maybe you're missing the point, fellas. If you want one or three women at once, or one prostitute for that matter, why in the hell would you COMMIT yourself into marriage?!? Someone who commits themselves to ANYTHING but then cannot follow through is kind of a pussy. Therefore, we cannot have these types of people running our cities. What he should have done is been an honest, confident man and told his wife and child that he no longer wanted to be a part of a family but would rather be a single man so that he could go get his rocks off instead of secretly hiding his prostitutes. You can't trust someone who can't be loyal to his/ her family, dudes! A real player lets It be known and doesn't need to hide the fact that he/she has one, two or more sexual partners. I find that commendable. On "Virtual violence is still wrong" (Ben Bailey, Mar. 26, 2008) Opinion . Dumbazz posted 3/26/08 @ 12:00 PM MST I appreciate that you call for action without demanding that the government step in to fix it (through censorship in this case). There is certainly a need for better parenting in many cases, and we should encourage that without turning to the heavy hand of government intervention. Although Shurtleff can and should be castigated for the questionable tactics of his relentless pursuit, the case raises another Internet complication— that of anonymity—and it can't be solved simply by Googling. For some, the anonymous nature of the Internet is appealing. Presidential candidate Barack Obama has been the victim of an e-mail smear campaign identifying him as a Muslim. (Although Obama is a Christian and not a Muslim, this raises questions of the religious bigotry in this country, as if being a Muslim was an insult.) These smear campaigns have traction beyond the Fox Noise channels and other right-wing megaphones, such as the Drudge Report, that report rumors and innuendo as news. "Barack Obama Muslim," according to Google, is the third most-searched term in regards to the presidential hopeful. As Shurtleff found out, tracking down the source can involve extraordinary measures, and even then the veracity of the source can't be verified. As Paul Smith, a software developer for EveryBlock.com, told The Nation, "That's why there is spam. I could construct an e-mail from scratch and deliver it and have it seem like it was coining from Steve Jobs, and for all intents and purpose the receiver would have no way of knowing it wasn't." A simple answer is to take away the anonymous nature and replace it with accountability. This is something from which the journalism industry has already learned. As journalists, each piece or opinion we write carries a byline that attributes the author and gives accountability as to veracity of the writer. Computer programmers and companies should work on a system or a registry that allows users to track the owners of e-mail accounts, much like Whois.org works for websites. As for the addictive nature of the Internet? That's anyone's guess. letters@chronicle.utah.edu ^ Definitely a violent child posted 3/26/08 @ 11:52 AM MST Good thing $1.5 million in studies and an entire book published on the subject is around for Bailey to check his facts (www. gamecouch.com/2008/02/interview-dr-cheryl-olson-co-authorof-grand-theft-childhood). Oh wait... he didn't. He's just talking about how he feels, again, without looking into it in anyway. Just telling us he's worried, again. If you're so concerned about all these supposed issues you write on, maybe, instead of telling people they should change what they're doing because the face value of an idea bothers you, you should actually look a little deeper into these problems or even talk to the people involved to alleviate these concerns you have. shporq posted 3/26/08 @ 2:34 PM MST "I do think, however, that it has an influence." It's fine for you to think that. Many people think that the earth rotates the sun. Many children(of similar intelligence and research skills as the author) think that the moon is made of cheese. Research, however, disproves all these theories. There is this novel practice called 'science' wherein Ideas are proven to be true or false. Practitioners are often referred to as 'scientists,' and can be observed carrying out 'research' to validate or invalidate wild claims such as yours. Guess what said research has concluded? The opposite of what you'think.' Clearly, the situation you've described with the 7-year old'1 laughing at the pain he inflicts on others should be discouraged and frowned upon. Responsible parents will teach their children not to inflict harm upon others, and certainly to not laugh at others' misfortune and pain. However, this simple truth should be obvious, and not backed up by unfounded and disproved claims. ) > • i 4 3 •i I x |