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Canada's second largest telecommunications company, Telus, has ordered YouTube to take down 23 videos that highlight the company's poor labor relations, and that Telus say violate copyright restrictions. YouTube has complied. Last year Telus made news when it blocked 766 websites in order to prevent users from getting to a union web page.
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Michael Geist has commentary on the Telus case here. Geist points out that Telus once argued argued the notice-and-takedown system it is now using against the union, saying that that it leads to a “voluminous level of automated, illegitimate and time-wasting claims.”
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The FCC ruled that VoIP services must support disability access requirements like 711. VoIP companies like Vonage will join traditional phone providers in contributing to the Telephone Relay Services (TRS) Fund, which is spent on disability services like paid operators who type conversations for the hearing impaired.
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And speaking of VoIP, Techdirt reports that Skype is exaggerating its user base by reporting only the number of people who have downloaded its software and registered on the network, while refusing to disclose the number of actual paying customers. Techdirt argues that playing loose with these figures may hurt the provider's business:
…if the company keeps claiming that its user base is exploding (when going by the downloads number), but its revenues, and more importantly, profits aren't keeping pace, eBay investors aren't likely to look too favorably upon Skype, or the billions eBay paid for it.
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