Regulators, Mount Up: A Look At IPTV

Everybody knows you can see anything you want on the Internet. Thus far, the medium has been a bastion of free expression. But already Congress and attorneys look to limit that expression, first through the court system and then the legislature - and this is just the beginning.

WebProWorld The convergence of the Web and TV, if wasn't obvious before, is now an inevitability. What's not obvious is the future role of the FCC in this televised revolution. As more daring content is scared off to the Web, and conventional media disappears, what will happen to the censors? While the FCC's function covers much more than just regulating decency in society, a chunk of the agency may face a situation where public demand (and lack of fine-based revenue) could turn the government watchdogs onto the Internet. After all, the Internet, within the next 10-15 years, will be become our television and radio. Last week, the FCC Parents' Television Council, where you'll find the raunchy petition too for more clips and Penthouse Forum, er, PTC descriptions.) But actually, the PTC's ahead of the game. Huge fines like the one levied on CBS are what the WB is hoping to avoid by moving an unedited version of its new show, "pitched a fit over a Saturday Night Live sketch entitled "Lazy Sunday" which was viewed over 5 million times on YouTube, and demanded the clips be taken off the site. But YouTube founder Chad Hurley says that instances like this are not always caused by regular users. "There's been a few examples of marketing departments uploading content directly to the site, while on the other side of the company their attorney is demanding we remove this content," Hurley told the here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") Yahoo My Web