FCC Lifts AOL IM Limits

TypoNAM writes "'The Federal Communications Commission has agreed to lift restrictions that have barred AOL Time Warner from offering advanced instant messaging services including videoconferencing, according to a source familiar with the decision.'" A couple of years ago, the FCC made a big fuss about how it was watching out for the public interest in approving the AOL/TW merger.

Comments

Interoperability won't happen with this FCC

[FreeUser]

I really hope that AOL interoperates with iChat AV.

Unlikely in the extreme.

As another, very informative post in this thread pointed out was noted in the dissenting FCC opinion, AOL-Time Warner has had the option to deploy instant messaging for the last two years, with all of these features, provided it interoperates with others (such as iChat).

They have chosen not to do so, because they anticipate greater profits through customer lockin despite the fact that it has taken them two years to buy off the FCC.

Hell, iChat already uses the AOL protocol and everything... What are they waiting for???

The FCC to lift the modest restrictions they have placed on AOL-Time Warner, so that they can break interoperability with those protocols, locking in their own customers (and those of their "strategic" partners) while locking the rest of us out. Apple may or may not be on the losing side of that equation, but rest assured that the internet at large, and the software, information, and communications freedom it has come to represent, most assuredly is on losing side, thanks to yet more bad governance from Baby Powell, the FCC, the Baby Bush administration, and Washington in general.

As a cynical aside, I do not expect to see good governance in this country again in my lifetime (and I am reasonably young).