Editor's note: Every other week, The Media Consortium rounds up the latest media policy news in a blog called the The Wavelength, posted below.
Another day, another media mega-merger. The latest? Microsoft is buying Skype, the Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion.
So exactly what does the Skyprosoft deal mean for consumers? That's the eight-point-five billion-dollar question. Public News Service's Mark Scheerer says the deal could be beneficial if – and this is a big ‘if' – "Microsoft will more strongly embrace network neutrality and other policies aimed at keeping the Web free."
Net neutrality is a key component to the merger because, according to the Media Access Project's Mark Wood, "without an open internet, large and anti-competitive carriers like AT&T and Verizon will have the power to cripple potentially competitive services such as Skype's that will depend on access to existing networks."
Source: http://motherjones.com/mixed-media/2011/05/top-media-policy-stories-week
Elisha Cuthbert Ciara Rachel Hunter Heidi Montag Katharine McPhee
