(Click on the chart for a bigger version.)

For $20, Yahoo will give subpoena-wielding authorities your basic user ID information. For $30-$40, that jumps to the contents of subscriber accounts, including email. And for $60, police basically own the place. Full contents and logs of Yahoo Groups are at their disposal.

Of course, it's good that Yahoo keeps these prices in check, only charging authorities cost for retrieving records (meaning your taxes pay Yahoo less than they could). Then again, it's flat-out alarming to consider the data trail we all leave, its surprising permanence and the ease with which it can be accessed.

And if you really want to be freaked out, Cryptome is assembling these lawful spying policies by company. Their list already includes communication providers Cox, SBC, Sprint and AT&T.

What do you have to use this day and age to be dishonest? Snail mail and walkie talkies? [Cryptome via Slashdot via boingboing]

Just imagine trying to write on a table that's vibrating with sound. Or how tense you'll get every time someone rests a drink on it, coaster or no coaster. Or how futile it'll be to try to fit this into the decor in your home. There's a reason speakers and tables are separate pieces of furniture. Don't rock the boat. [LuxuryIssues via BornRich]

Here's the chronology: Cox, the cable and internet provider, announced plans to start a wireless network; Cox then clarified, stating that they actually meant that they were, at least for the time being, partnering with Comcast and Time Warner to piggyback off of Sprint in a venture called Pivot; this dissolved. Now, Cox is going it alone.

The announcement spares us the useful details, like when the network will go live, or what the flagship handsets or handset manufacturers might be. They are promising some kind of mobile TV, a carrier-wide app store, and mobile broadband, but none of these things are revolutionary, or even particularly exciting. But we really shouldn't be sour about this. New competition, even if it's from a stodgy old cable company like Cox, is more than welcome in the lumbering wireless industry. [WSJ]

AT&T says they're not doing any of the actual spotting—the RIAA is handling that part—they're just "forwarding notices from content providers to our customers" to edumacate them. Cnet's Greg Sandoval reports that a Comcast executive said that they've sent customers two million warning notices about infringement. [A Comcast spokesperson later added that these letters weren't part of any new campaign, see below.]

What happens if you ignore AT&T's notices? Will they disconnect you? Here is their lovely wishy-washy answer that really doesn't say anything at all: "We are not suspending or terminating our customers' service. With that said, we do refer customers to our Acceptable Use Policy, which governs use of our service." Just keep in mind, it's the same AT&T that was plotting a massive, intelligent anti-piracy dragnet that would sweep their entire network for pirated content.

Update: Comcast adds via spokesperson that nothing's changed:

"Comcast, like other major ISPs, forwards notices of alleged infringement that we receive from music, movie, videogame, and other content owners to our customers. This is the same process we've had in place for years - nothing has changed. While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy."

Probably not a distinction they want, but since they're the only major ISP that's not seriously clamping down on bandwidth usage and hanging out with the RIAA at bars—the RIAA's new buddy group reportedly includes AT&T, Comcast and Cox—Verizon still looks like the best ISP around for people moving around less-than-legally shiny material (i.e., everyone on the internet), especially if you get FiOS. [Cnet via CrunchGear]

COX TO LAUNCH NEXT GENERATION BUNDLE WITH WIRELESS IN 2009
Company Sees Opportunity in Deeply-Bundled Customer Relationships,
Integration & Simplicity

ATLANTA – October 27, 2008 – Today, Cox Communications announced its plan to add wireless offerings to its bundle of award-winning entertainment and communications services, such as digital cable, high-speed Internet and telephone in 2009. The company is delivering on its promise to enable residential and business customers to take their Cox services with them wherever they go. Today’s news marks another innovative milestone in the company’s history. In 1997, Cox was the first company to introduce a voice, video and data bundle to the marketplace. Today, more than 64% of Cox customers buy multiple services from Cox and one-third subscribe to all three products.

“Wireless service will be a key driver to Cox’s future growth,” said Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications. “As wireless communications enters the new generation, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the entertainment and communications services our customers want, whenever, however and wherever they want them. Our bundled customers will become even ‘stickier’ as we offer them the best customer experience. To deliver the best customer experience, we will manage every aspect of the service, from product development to marketing and sales to back-office operations and customer support and billing.”

Cox will utilize the Nationwide Sprint Network to quickly enter the market in 2009. At the same time, Cox is concurrently building its own 3G wireless network for additional market launches in 2009. Cox will also test 4G technology utilizing LTE (long term evolution). Earlier this year, Cox joined CTIA (the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry), the Rural Cellular Association and CDMA Development Group (CDG).

In recent years, Cox successfully acquired wireless spectrum in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auctions. “We’ve already invested more than $500 million to acquire wireless spectrum and to develop the infrastructure and human resources needed to architect our own advanced wireless service,” said Esser. “Our commitment is firm, and the wireless services we deliver will further the Cox experience. As consumers are increasingly adopting a mobile lifestyle, we will continue to deliver in ways that are uniquely Cox – offering the first truly integrated bundle that is easy-to-use, reliable and supported by the best customer service available.”

“Cox understands the importance of leveraging content across the television, computer and mobile device,” said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.d, vice president & chief analyst, Mobile and Wireless at Frost & Sullivan. “Given its existing business operations, Cox is well positioned to extend its local market assets for wireless and leverage its existing customer relationships in the markets it serves. This strategy is very similar to the company’s successful entry into the landline telephone business more than 10 years ago.”

Cox research indicates that consumers want a simple and easy-to-use wireless service that will integrate easily with their lifestyle. Management and delivery of converged content is at the core of Cox’s wireless strategy. Cox customers will be able to use their mobile phone to access television favorites, program their DVR, access content saved on their home computer and simplify their lives with enhanced voice features.

“We are in the business of making it simpler and easier for people to enjoy communications and entertainment,” said Dallas Clement, senior vice president of strategy and product management. “Ten years ago, only Cox, a cable company, had the flexibility to introduce simpler telephone plans to the marketplace. And now, with wireless, we have the flexibility yet again to introduce a simpler and better wireless offer, making it easy for consumers to continue to choose Cox as their trusted provider. It’s an exciting future for our customers.”

Cox has a long history of innovation and customer service excellence. When Cox launched telephone service in 1997, it became the first company to deliver digital video, high-speed Internet and telephone service via a single network. This innovation and focus on customer service has earned the company many prestigious awards. In the last six years, Cox has received highest rankings in 15 J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction studies for telephone, video, high-speed Internet and commercial data. Cox is the only cable or telecommunications provider to earn highest satisfaction ratings across all product lines, including commercial data services.

If you recall, the SDV switch jacked Time Warner, Cablevision and Cox customers out of channels if they had CableCard sets or boxes that couldn't be updated. A dongle was promised, but it's taken it's sweet time making its way to the market, in part because it needs to pass CableLabs testing.

Well, the argument that CableLabs kept making didn't seem to work with the FCC, who said this specifically in the Cox fine:

Taken to its logical conclusion, Cox’s reasoning would permit an MVPD [cable operator] to move all of its programming to an SDV platform without regard for the impact its actions would have on customers using or wishing to use CableCARD-equipped UDCPs [one-way devices]. Such an outcome would be fundamentally at odds with the Commission's goal of protecting cable subscribers' ability to view signals through the use of commercially available navigation devices offered in a competitive market.

The fines, levied against Time Warner and Cox (no mention of Cablevision), were mere slaps on the wrist—$60,000 a piece, pertaining to just three markets where formal complaints were brought up. But it's good to know that the FCC isn't the lapdog of the cable biz, especially when we hardware junkies want more out of our TVs than what the cable co's box alone can deliver. [Ars Technica]

Update: According to the unofficial TiVo Blog, Time Warner sent a note that 34 "lesser viewed" channels—including BBC America and Universal HD, among other nerd favorites—would no longer be viewable without the TiVo dongle, which would be available "later this year." So they are firm on when they will cut off their poor subscribers, but not so firm on when a return to service will come, and at what cost. Real cool, TWC—you deserve more than a $60K fine for this chicanery. [TiVoBlog]

The move shouldn't be all that surprising if you kept up with the 700 MHz spectrum auction earlier this year. During the auction, Cox dropped $304 million for its piece of the wireless pie. Esser noted that the company plans on investing a total of $500 million in wireless spectrum before all is said and done. No doubt they will need every penny (and probably more) if they want to make a mark in the highly competitive wireless business. [PC Mag]

This might seem like an odd topic for Giz Explains, our weekly "WTF is that?" series, but a bunch of comments last week revealed a need to plainly explain the tussle going on between internet service providers, the Federal Communications Commission, content providers and you, and how it's shaping the way you'll use internet over the next couple of years. First, a quick primer.

Comcast was caught slowing down BitTorrent traffic last year by the Associated Press. It (re)sparked cries for government-mandated net neutrality—treating all internet traffic equally, whether it's email, Skype or a bootleg of The Dark Knight over torrent. While that didn't happen, a complaint against Comcast went through the FCC, which ruled against it last week, saying that slowing down BitTorrent was a naughty thing to do, and that they must disclose all management practices to subscribers.

In the meantime, a different network management trend started to emerge among the major ISPs: metered broadband, aka data caps. It's like dial-up service or wireless data: After reaching your alotted amount of data for the month, you pay extra, maybe through the nose, as our northern neighbors in Canada are familiar with. Conveniently, it's "net neutral," since it doesn't discriminate against particular kinds of traffic, and it's fully disclosed to subscribers so it satisfies guidelines discussed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. In case you're looking to file a complaint, Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Fred Von Lohmann told us, "There's certainly nothing to stop them from pricing that way if they want to."

Time Warner was the first major to float the plan, which is currently in testing, with a 40GB cap at the high-end. Comcast is considering a metered approach as well, its spokesman has confirmed. AT&T is the most recent major ISP to jump onboard, and it'll be testing caps in the fall. Not to mention Cox Cable and a whole mess of regional ISPs already implement them.

Here's the rub: The P2P apps ISPs point to as pillaging their networks are increasingly a nonexistant bogeyman. Video is now the actual bandwidth monster, and it's only getting hungrier and hungrier.

The thing about all that video is that it competes with what your ISP is probably delivering to your other screen in the living room. Why watch 30 Rock on your couch at specific time when you can grab it on demand on your laptop with Hulu, or on a Netflix Roku box? That awesome Vudu box you bought? Pulling in Transformers in HD uses your cable provider's pipes, but it doesn't see a dime from the transaction.

Suppose you decide to be pseudo-green and opt for an all-digital approach from Vudu or Apple TV, and you have a moderate habit of two movies a week. A 90-minute movie running at a constant bitrate of 2.5 megabits per second (you're talking HD here) will swallow 1.69 GB. If you've got a 40GB cap, eight movies will eat over a quarter of it. And that's just your rental habit, with today's specs. The 1080p flicks they'll be streaming tomorrow will be even more bandwidth intensive.

More importantly, today's geek frontier is tomorrow's mainstream playground. Like game demos on Xbox Live? Or games-for-purchase on Steam? Those are a gig or two a pop, and as more and more games are distributed digitally, the gigs will add up. Which is also part of the problem as far as the ISPs are concerned: AT&T's tech chief glibly notes that "traffic on our backbone is growing 60 percent per year, but our revenue is not."

While I wanted to tell you that data caps will destroy the internet as we know it, really video is what's actually facing the greatest threat. Time Warner has openly said content providers can't have it both ways. And the EFF's von Lohmann told us that while he hasn't "seen any evidence that [metered broadband] will radically change the internet" he is "worried that companies that have their own video they're delivering over the same pipe they deliver internet service will have an incentive to reduce caps" and it's a "valid concern worth watching." It would effectively have us paying twice for video delivered over the internet. Most people can barely stand paying for it once.

TiVo Coming To Cox [ZNF]

Let's listen in, shall we?

As you may or may not know, Cox offers DVR service. The DVR is built into the Cox digital receiver box and is operated using a Cox digital service remote control. While Cox currently offers its own DVR service, the Cox DVR may soon be powered by TiVo, and include the features that TiVo owners have come to expect. If Cox were to offer digital cable service with a TiVo branded DVR for about the same price as you are currently paying for satellite service each month, how likely would you be to switch from satellite TV to Cox cable that featured this TiVo branded DVR service?

Cox is asking a lot of questions about TiVo... [TivoCommunity]