Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
Recent news accounts on Steve Ballmer’s visit with Europe’s top antitrust official, Neelie Kroes, again brings to light the concept of software bundling. With Microsoft’s Longhorn operating system still 18 months away, we’ll have a little reprieve at least from more antitrust actions directed against MS (maybe). But what the operating system bundles (and what [...]
“Clear Channel to Dismantle Media Empire.” That’s the headline from pg. B1 of today’s Wall Street Journal. In the article, Sarah McBride reports that the media giant plans to spinoff its entertainment division “in the latest example of a media company deconstructing an empire built during the late 1990s.” As I’ve noted in previous posts, [...]
My latest C:\Spin article, The Public Interest Tax on Communications, corresponded with last week’s National Association of Broadcasters show in Vegas. In this article I go after a weighty subject that is somewhat abstract but directly relevant to today’s communications industry – the “public interest” legal standard. Regulations predicated upon the public interest are essentially [...]
Last week was the annual National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas. I was fortunate enough to attend, and having finally accustomed to Eastern Standard Time, here are my thoughts: Every regulator needs to attend these trade shows, which represent market forces working to meet whatever needs or perceived needs exist. I was truly [...]
No longer just a place for “conservatarian” icons to smoke pot or a hunting ground for modern-day pirates, the international waters (just off the shore of California) will soon harbor an innovative software engineering firm, according to a great post over at CNet’s News.com. Due to ridiculous limits on H1-B visas and other regulatory hurdles, [...]
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts (here and here), the potential for cell phone content regulation is something worth monitoring. There have been some rumblings in Washington already about the need for the wireless industry to take steps to shield children from potentially objectionable material even before it hits the market. And you’d have to [...]
[[cross-posted from the PFF Blog]] There’s a crowd of people out there who still think that nothing has changed in our modern media world. They think that the same old newspapers, television, and radio outlets that dominated the media marketplace 30 years ago are still the only media outlets of importance today. For example, Farhad [...]
Yesterday’s House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing confirmed some of my worst fears about government regulation of new technologies / media, which I had discussed on Tuesday in this post. Today’s Broadcasting & Cable includes a story about the hearing with the perfect title: “Hill Ponders Regulating Convergence.” That’s exactly what’s going on here with Congress and [...]
PFF has just released my new PFF paper on the rising threat of cable and satellite censorship. In the paper, I provide a section-by-section analysis of the leading pro-censorship measure, S. 616, the “Indecent and Gratuitous and Excessively Violent Programming Control Act of 2005.” My analysis of the bill can be summarized as follows: Section [...]
A story linked from Drudge describes a new service that Google is offering: saved search history. Create a Google login, and the search service will keep track of all your searches, as well as the results that you’ve clicked-through to access. Anyone who has used Westlaw or Lexis-Nexis will find the idea familiar–those services have [...]
February 13, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
