Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
Here’s yet another group of customers being needlessly antagonized by DRM technology–wealthy audiophiles: Steve Vasquez, the founder of ReQuest, which makes ultra-high end streaming audio networks for homes, says his company struggles with the limitations of DRM-protected audio files. “We have an open system that can stream off a server to another house, but the [...]
Jim Harper of Cato has an interesting exchange with Adam Thierer of PFF on U.S. companies doing business in China. Would a “code of conduct” for U.S. firms doing business there help the cause of human rights? Suppose a firm refused to do business in China, or got booted out for “pushing back” in response [...]
What do the labels think they’re accomplishing with CD-based copy protection? Here’s a story about the first copy-protected CD to reach #1 on US charts: Like other recent copy-protected albums, the Velvet Revolver disc includes technology that blocks direct copying or ripping of the CD tracks to MP3 format. It also comes preloaded with songs [...]
Occasional co-blogger Solveig Singleton has done good work on patent reform, but I think her latest analysis of the RIM-NTP patent dispute rather misses the mark: The patent office is likely to declare all of NTP’s patents invalid in its final ruling. While NTP could appeal, this would take quite a while, plenty of time [...]
So I’ve been following this month’s argument over at Cato Unbound, a site run by my friend and former colleague Will Wilkinson that takes a Big Idea each months and brings in some Smart People to discuss it. I’ve been meaning to jump in when I saw a point where I’d have something to add [...]
(I recently engaged my former Cato Institute colleague and fellow TLF blogger Jim Harper in a dialog about the effectiveness of U.S. engagement with China in terms of broadening human rights and speech rights in particular. I’ve been doing some soul-searching about this recently and asked Jim to help me think through the issue (and [...]
I’m kind of baffled by the network neutrality debate. Take this quote for example: At the end of the day, Google’s Davidson says that his biggest worry is not for Google but for the prospect of bringing fresh innovation to the Internet. After all, if worse comes to worst, Google can pay AT&T or BellSouth [...]
As James mentioned in his blog entry yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee held yet another hearing yesterday about “cleaning up” content on broadcast TV, cable & satellite TV, and the Internet too. One Senator after another, as well as some of the typical media critics who get called to testify at these things, made the [...]
Once again, the topic of the day for the Senate Commerce Committee today was indecency on TV. Following up on two forums late last year on the topic, today’s hearing featured a raft of witnesses–ranging from the cable and satellite TV execs to former superlobbyist for Hollywood Jack Valenti. The quote of the day, however, [...]
There’s a great conversation going on over at Marginal Revolution about net neutrality. As a card carrying free-marketeer I feel I’m expected to support Verizon, AT&T and the rest when they demand payment for use of their pipes. But I haven’t made up my mind yet. While net neutrality looks like forced access redux, I [...]
May 16, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
