Consumer organizations, it seems, are more concerned with their Web-surfing freedom than seeing too many ads. A coalition of legal scholars and watchdog groups on Thursday filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission over Internet service provider Comcast's admitted interference with subscribers' file-sharing. The AP report points out that this becomes "the first real test" of the FCC's stance on so-called "Net Neutrality"--or the idea that all ISPs treat Web traffic equally, regardless of how much bandwidth a given site requires. Nothing has been passed that makes Net Neutrality a law, although the FCC has said it supports the …

During a speech in New York last night, Associated Press CEO Tom Curley personified "the schizophrenic state" of news media outlets everywhere, says PaidContent.org's Rafat Ali: "hope and despair all wrapped into a nervous bundle." From the transcript of Thursday's annual Knight Bagehot dinner: "We--the news industry--have come to that fork in the road," Curley said. "We must take bold, decisive steps to secure the audiences and funding to support journalism's essential role in both our economy and democracy, or find ourselves on an ugly path to obscurity....The portals are running off with our best stuff, and we're afraid or …

The advertising industry will watch with bated breath as the Federal Trade Commission holds key talks today and tomorrow about online privacy. Among the scariest issues being raised is a proposed Do-Not-Track Registry, which like the Do-Not-Call registry that keeps out telemarketers, would allow Web users to opt out of being followed around by behavioral tracking programs online. Separately, Time Warner's AOL yesterday volunteered to let users opt-out of the tracking programs deployed across its content and publisher networks. The FTC's decision to review online privacy comes in the wake of several acquisitions by major Web firms that …

Few independent ad networks remain after the acquisition tear earlier this year by Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN, but among the biggest is Specific Media -- which according to CEO Tim Vanderhook, thoroughly plans to keep its autonomy. On Thursday the company announced it would put its new (and massive) $100 million round of funding from Francisco Partners toward other ad network acquisitions in anticipation of a future IPO. Why wouldn't Specific Media want to cash out like its competitors? Because Specific and its investors think those that cashed out to major Web firms left …

NBC Universal continues to clean house with online properties that are either no longer necessary or no longer working out. DotComedy is the latest to receive the axe following minimal interest. In the coming months the company says it plans to fold the comedy site's content into NBC.com. Mediaweek says it's unclear whether or not the DotComedy brand will retain its own channel. It turns out the one-year-old comedy site, which featured original content produced by video bloggers, never really gained much traction, falling below Nielsen/NetRatings' minimum traffic reporting threshold twice in the last three months. The …

The world's largest online company. at more than $700 per share, is now worth more than Warren Buffet's massive investment firm Berkshire-Hathaway. The Web giant's continued growth is staggering, considering that the company went public just three years ago at $89 per share. The company's share price this year has surged 54% from $460.48 at the end of 2006. In the last six-and-a-half weeks, the company has tacked on an additional $55 billion to its market cap, which now stands at around $220 billion, beyond Warren Buffet's investment empire and approaching that of Microsoft. Like Buffet's Berkshire-Hathaway, Google …

Ad Age weighs in on the debate about whether consumers really care about online tracking. The trade pub's answer, more or less, is no -- unless privacy groups and bloggers make a big enough stink about a given topic. Even privacy advocates contend there ought to be a bigger consumer outcry over Web tracking. Of course they say there would be if the average consumer understood the process better. For consumers, it depends on whose hype you believe. Advertisers repeatedly claim that tracking is anonymous and thus, harmless. Privacy advocates think consumers should be able to make …