The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice today released a "Competition in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry" report that calls for a repeal of real estate laws, rules and regulations that limit choices for consumers, limit competition for new brokerage models and don't appear to provide any justifiable benefits for consumers. The report also suggests that industry commission rates have been relatively inflexible and calls for an in-depth study of commission rates and fees. (See Inman News.)

An artistic depiction of a bustling city populated by Web site-branded shops.

This is by art/marketing group eBoy (Steffen Sauerteig, Svend Smital and Kai Vermehr), who "create re-usable pixel objects and take them to build complex and extensible artwork." Here's a version of the image with clickable links: http://flickr.com/photos/55518405@N00/312853445/

Of course, eBoy has an official eBoy Shop. One question: Where's Waldo?

Even more so than real estate, the media biz is in a war with itself. For one perspective on how and why, tune into Frontline tonight. Great four-part series on the media -- News Wars. In Tonight's show -- Part 3-- some new media issues are covered.

"In part three of "News War," entitled "What's Happening to the News,"FRONTLINE examines the mounting pressure for profits faced by America's network news divisions and daily newspapers, as well as growing challenges from cable television and the Internet. Bergman talks to network executives, newspaper editors and publishers, bloggers, Wall Street analysts and key players at Google and Yahoo! about the battle for market dominance in a rapidly changing world.
Bergman examines one of the biggest challenges facing the traditional news media: As their core audience grows older, the number of viewers and readers who want their news in a conventional format is shrinking. According to a study by New York University, a majority of Americans under age 25 get their news online or from programs like Comedy Central's The Daily Show. "To the extent that people look to us as a source of news," says David Javerbaum, The Daily Show's head writer, "that is 100 percent indicative of other people's failure and not our success." While the broadcast news networks still command the largest share of the market, they are losing viewers and advertising revenue to cable.
To stop this slide in ratings, network executives are making changes that have rankled some top news anchors. When ABC executives proposed bringing in Late Show with David Letterman from CBS to replace Nightline on ABC, host Ted Koppel decided not to renew his contract. "To the extent that we are now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment," says Koppel, "that may prove to be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American journalism."