Greetings. Well, we're at the end of another really fun year, and just like the routine Fall fires we had here in L.A. recently, we're now being treated to yet another round of cable carriage disputes. But some new techniques are being used to editorialize about them this time.

You've already no doubt heard that Time Warner Cable (my happy local cable TV provider, as it happens) is threatening to pull all Viacom channels off air at midnight tonight over a contract dispute. Some observers speculate that if TW follows through on this, they may unwittingly help drive more subscribers to online TV offerings. Of course TW is ready for that eventuality with their upcoming bandwidth caps.

But there are other similar disputes, including one between BendBroadband of Oregon and KFXO-TV. This morning I received a screenshot of what greeted a BendBroadband Internet subscriber today -- a long message embodied in a "splash" screen that intercepted his initial attempt to reach an unrelated Web site.

In general, I view ISP stand-alone "splash" pages, which don't modify other pages, nor prepend (or append) themselves onto other pages, as a lessor evil when it comes to ISP alterations of user Web browsing. In this case though, BendBroadband went way beyond a simple service-related informational message stating that a dispute exists, and instead used their PerfTech intercept system for a long editorial tirade that included accusing KFXO of holding programming "hostage" for commercial gain.

As it turns out, the intercept page is currently accessible outside of BendBroadband's service space, so you can see it for yourself (I've replaced the original user's URL with the NNSquad home page for this example).

One assumes that KFXO wasn't offered equal time for a response in the same manner.

BendBroadband appears to have clearly gone "over the top" in this case, and has provided an object lesson demonstrating how easily such IP interception capabilities can be abused.

And so it goes ...

Best wishes for 2009!

--Lauren--