On today's podcast, we discuss Fox's efforts to increase piracy, BART shutting down cell phone service, the Understanding 9/11 project, and the MP3Tunes decision.  Then we talk about how three artists - Rana Santacruz, April Smith, and Mates of State - are finding new ways to reach out to fans.

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On today's podcast we discuss the Google-Motorola merger, copyright termination rights, AT&T's new plan to raise text message prices for customers, and encouraging developments in the publishing industry. 

You can download the audio directly by clicking here (MP3) or stream it using the player below:

Want to subscribe to our podcast? Click here for the MP3 feed.

Late last night AT&T confirmed that they are once again raising the price of text messaging on consumers.  The current $10/1000 message plan is being eliminated, leaving only the $20/unlimited plan for consumers who do not want to pay $0.20 per message.  This change follows AT&T’s announcement in January that it was eliminating both the $5/200 plan and the $15/1500 plan. 

At the very least, this constitutes a 100% increase in text messaging prices for the over 70% of adults who send and receive less than 1000 text messages per month.  It is a 400% increase for customers who send and receive less than 200 messages per month (over 50% of adults send and receive 300 messages or less per month, so that number is not insignificant).

One of the hardest things about growing up is learning how to face hard problems.  The easy impulse is always to try and ignore a hard problem and hope that it goes away.  The flaw in this strategy is that it almost never works.  In fact, it usually only makes the problem worse.  Oftentimes, it makes the problem worse in ways that you never could have expected.  Eventually there is a moment where you realize that the only way to solve the problem is to face it head on, even if that means making some hard decisions.  That is the moment you grow up a little bit.

And thus, we find ourselves considering today’s filing by Public Knowledge and the National Hispanic Media Coalition about text messaging and the Universal Service Fund.

T-Mobile recently informed companies who use short codes to connect with T-Mobile customers that the process for code approval is going to change.  The good news is that there is now an option to speed up the process.  The bad news is that if you are not a Fortune 500 company, it is going to cost you.

As regular blog readers will remember, one step in the long, expensive process of activating a short code (those five or six digit numbers you use to text donations to charities or votes for American Idol) is getting individual approval from each of the carriers to access their subscribers (you read that right).  With T-Mobile, this part of the process takes about 30 days and costs $500.

Earlier today, the Mobile Internet Content Coalition (MICC) filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to act to make certain that text messages can “flow without interference.”

The MICC release, with a link to a letter filed with the FCC, is here.

The following statement is attributed to Michael Weinberg, staff attorney for Public Knowledge:

“This latest filing again demonstrates that it is far past time for the Commission to act on our petition to protect text messaging.  Arbitrary price increases and unwarranted content restrictions threaten the health of a vibrant sector of our economy.  Consumers and free speech will be the losers if this trend keeps up without any Commission action.”

Last week, Senator Barbara Boxer sent a letter to the CEOs of the nation's four nationwide wireless carriers.  Responding to a petition started by law student Masaya Uchino, Senator Boxer asked the carriers to accelerate the process of delivering Japanese relief funds donated by text message.  As both the petition and Senator Boxer's letter correctly point out, most SMS donations take approximately 90 days to actually make it from donor to recipient organization.

While it is commendable that both Senator Boxer and Mr. Uchino are urging carriers to accelerate the donation process in the case of Japan, we must also step back and ask why this dysfunctional system continues to exist at all.

Today AT&T announced that it was offering a new feature to some of its subscribers: unlimited calling to any mobile number.  This comes after the news that they were also offering free microcells  (little boxes that boost reception in your home) to some iPhone users, and that Verizon was offering unlimited wireless data to its own iPhone subscribers.  Why is this flood of enticements evidence that there is not very much competition between wireless companies?

Today marks the day that the two organizations that control the world of text messaging – CTIA-The Wireless Association and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) – recognized they have a problem.  The system they created to handle short codes (those five or six digit codes used from everything from American Idol voting to donating to your favorite charity) that has allowed the blocking of political speech, fundraising for Haitian earthquake relief, and opt-in messages from businesses is broken.  The CTIA and MMA announced that they would form a “joint task force” to examine some of the problems.

Background:  CTIA, The Wireless Association and its affiliate Mobile Marketing Association this morning announced plans for a task force to work on two issues related to short codes.  The announcement is here.

The following is attributed to Michael Weinberg, staff attorney for Public Knowledge:

“We are encouraged that the wireless industry has at last recognized that there is a problem with the long time it takes to obtain a short code, and has set up a group to work on the issue.