In a recent filing with the FCC by The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (which represents Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and other broadband providers throughout the U.S.) the trade groups claims that ISPs are worried that Netflix will start charging them for access. Ironically Comcast and Verizon are currently in deals with Netflix to provider faster access to their customers.

A new Senate bill may force lawmakers to agree to expand the reach of sales taxes on out-of-state retailers, or see the end of a law that forbids states and cities from imposing a tax on internet access. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, this choice for lawmakers is due to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s handling of a bill called the Internet Tax Freedom Act.

Popular YouTube group Yogscast told Yogventures Kickstarter backers that developer Winterkewl Games "have stopped work on Yogventures - but this is actually a good thing." The Kickstarter, heavily promoted by Yogscast, raised $567,665 from over 13,000 backers.

Companies would like to believe that the people who invest in them understand the business they are trying to make a return on and that they believe in it to some degree, but the sad truth is that for every shareholder who understands what they are putting their money into there might be one that doesn't have a clue or doesn't care beyond the financial return or loss.

Security firm Malwarebytes has uncovered a phishing scheme on Instagram that may have already claimed some victims. The scam takes advantage of the World Cup going on this week, by pretending to be EA support on Twitter and lures people to an Instagram page offering new / exclusive FIFA 14 characters for free as long as you visit the link in the profile.

One of the games that will not be affected when GameSpy's multiplayer services goes dark is Halo, its demo, and multiplayer-focused Halo: Custom Edition. Thanks to the hard work of matchmaking server software maker GameRanger, all the multiplayer functionality in Halo will be intact. Additional features including friends lists and messaging will also remain functional in the games. Bungie will be releasing a 1.0.10 of Halo PC and Halo CE update soon that will provide a workaround for the game's lobby as well.

Net Neutrality - the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally as it flows to consumers - took a fatal blow today. So what happened to the grand promise of a free and open Internet in one day? Well, word leaked out that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to allow content providers such as Disney, Google, Amazon, Netflix and others to pay Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon for special, faster lanes to send video and other broadband consuming content to their customers under new rules.

The last vestiges of the web site and the technology fostered by Mark Surfas in the late 1990s is officially dead. GameSpy owner Glu announced via the GameSpy Technology site that it would shut down all "powered by GameSpy" hosted multiplayer services at the end of May. The shutdown will affect a lot of popular games. On a related note, Bohemia Interactive announced that it is already working on alternatives for Arma 3 and Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead.

Cisco Systems, one of the companies mentioned in a Der Spiegel report on the NSA's catalog of backdoors into various networks and technologies, said that it is investigating if the NSA has in some way compromised the networking hardware equipment it provides to companies throughout the world.

By all accounts online retailer Zavvi made a mistake when it mailed out a PlayStation Vita and Tearaway bundle to UK customers who simply ordered only the PS Vita game, but the company's response to customers is what's making news this morning. According to Eurogamer, the retailer has sent customers who received the PS Vita bundle by accident emails filled with ultimatums and legal threats.

Fox Nation report highlights a recent conversation between Fox & Friends morning show co-host Gretchen Carlson and Dr.

Update: Rich Ferraro, Vice President of Communications for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), was kind enough to offer his opinion on the WBC's planned protest of GaymerX. He also confirmed that members of his organization plan on attending the event.

According to Polygon, the iOS version of Eidos' and Square Enix's Deus Ex: The Fall disables firing on jailbroken devices. Fans who just happen to have jailbroken iOS devices complained about the problem on the game's product page and in this Reddit thread.

Like a few other game developers who have crowdsourced a project or made a lot of money through PayPal transactions, Skullgirls developer Lab Zero Games found themselves unable to pay employees during the weekend because the online money transfer service froze the developer's account.

Blizzard Entertainment passed along a reminder that tickets go on sale for BlizzCon later this week in three different allotments. The tickets for the annual fan gathering put on by Blizzard Entertainment (November 8 and 9 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California) sell out very fast, so being prepared is essential to getting your hands on them.

On the heels of revealing its full year results, social game maker Zynga announced that it would close three of its games - CityVille 2, The Friend Game and Party Place. All three games launched in the last quarter, though other games that launched at about the same time will remain active - CoasterVille, Bubble Safari Ocean and Ayakashi. No word on when these games will go offline...

According to this Reddit thread Sega has been forcing YouTube users to remove videos relating to the Sega Saturn hit strategy RPG Shining Force III. Many are speculating that Sega is doing this to prepare for the launch of a new PSP installment in the Shining series, Shining Ark, which will launch in Japan in February.

As is usually the case with UK paper The Daily Mail, they have taken a new study from the University of Pittsburgh about the relationship between sleep and insulin production and turned it into a commentary on how games are bad. In their headline they proclaim "Staying up all night playing video games 'puts teenagers at greater risk of diabetes.'" The horror.

Variety reports that G4TV owners NBC Universal are going to revamp the popular tech and geek culture channel to be more "GQ," catering to the "modern male." Details on the revamp, set to happen in early 2013, have not been revealed, and many in the gaming, geek and technology culture of the internet are concerned that NBCU will dump the decent programming G4TV offers such as extensive event coverage. G4TV has always had a strong presence at events like Comic-Con, E3, and GDC.

Even though its investors are pretty much left holding the bag and most of its employees have lost all their stock options and unceremoniously shown the door, OnLive CEO Steve Perlman will hold onto his position at the company.

In a statement to OnLive Fans a company rep said that Perlman was still with the company:

Earlier reports from various media outlets today had indicated that BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk had left the company. The confusion (on the media's part) was that Zeschuk was leaving BioWare Austin to return home to Edmonton. This led many in the media to interpret that his exit as the head of the studio responsible for Star Wars: The Old Republic in Austin meant he was leaving BioWare altogether.

Gamers who bought the PlayStation 3 version of Konami's game, Silent Hill HD, got a patch last month that dealt with a number of frame rate and audio-sync issues. Good service. But those who bought the game on the Xbox 360 have pretty much been told to "go pound salt." Konami issued a brief statement this week noting that it wouldn't be releasing an update for Xbox 360 gamers who bought the game. Bad service.

Australia New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione is taking a lot heat for comments he made recently blaming the rise of teen knife-related crimes on playing violent video games. Scipione recently told The Daily Telegraph that teens were being desensitized to violence by playing violent video games that reward them for "killing and raping people." Obviously a tired trope related to Grand Theft Auto spewed by politicians.

Microsoft has a new Xbox 360 bundle that costs $99, but consumers that buy it will have to commit to a two-year contract for an Xbox Live Gold membership. And that two year membership will cost you about $15 a month. While the idea might be to subsidize or finance the console as a trade-off for the low price point, the move also smacks of false advertising because the console will ultimately cost consumers $99, then 24 months of paying $15, for a grand total (not including sales tax) of $459 (24 months x $15 = $360, plus the price of the console at $99).

Comcast has dropped the term "Private Network" from the Xfinity On Demand on Xbox Live FAQ. The company did this after several sites - including VentureBeat (the source of this story) - called the company out on it. Comcast claimed that it used Xbox Live (which it described as "private network") to deliver its video content, but critics pointed out that the public internet and private networks are delivered over the same broadband infrastructure.

According to PC Gamer, you'll get a pretty lousy ending if you don't play multiplayer in Mass effect 3. Apparently BioWare decided that the best way to "encourage" co-op play in the game was to tie it to the single-player ending. As the player engages in a war with the Reapers, he or she earns what the game calls "War Assets" and "Readiness."

Online file-sharing company RapidShare has apparently slowed down the connection of users who are not registered members. These free users have been complaining about reduced download speeds during transfers. Some users have reported speeds as slow as 30/kbs. RapidShare says that the reason for this is simple enough: Throttling these users drive pirates away from their service. They claim that, since the close of MegaUpload, they have seen a major uptick in traffic, and some of it is only interested in sharing and downloading illegal software.

A documentary that aired on Britain's ITV channel Monday night called "Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA" has a problem with reality. Apparently the makers of the documentary promised footage linking Libya's Colonel Moammar Gadhafi and the IRA, but mistakenly included video from a video game. The documentary claimed that the Libyan dictator gave the IRA tons of military hardware, and purported to show the IRA members using it to shoot down a helicopter in 1988.

This morning Kotaku pointed out a video from Germany's RTL Television in which commentators took great delight in mocking what they characterized as the "computer freaks" that they filmed at last week's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Today the show, apparently embarrassed (and likely humbled by fans that were pissed off at their mean-spirited characterizations) is now apologizing for their bad judgment in airing the report.

One year after acquiring webOS from Palm, HP has decided that the mobile OS is no longer worth the effort. Hewlett-Packard officially announced this week that support for webOS will soon come to a screeching halt. The company announced via a press release that "it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward."