Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
This week, the Senate Commerce Committee will apparently be considering S. 602, the “Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007,” which was introduced by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) earlier this year. The measure marks an important turning point in the ongoing battle over content regulation in the Information Age–in one way for the better, but in [...]
On the one hand, I’m glad Kip Hawley took the time to answer some skeptical questions about the TSA’s security regime. On the other hand, I don’t find this remotely reassuring: Bruce Schneier: You don’t have a responsibility to screen shoes; you have one to protect air travel from terrorism to the best of your [...]
After weeks of intense lobbying, the FCC today set rules for the auction of former UHF TV channels 60-69 (in the prime 700 MHz range of frequencies). The full details are not yet out, but the decision seems to be largely what was expected: a “public-private partnership” for newly-allocated public safety spectrum, and — for [...]
I’ve written here before about the Clear card, which allows people to prove their membership in the Transportation Security Administration’s Registered Traveler program without telling TSA who they are. I disapprove of Registered Traveler, but if it’s going to exist, the Clear card system’s restrictiveness with users’ identities is a key anti-surveillance feature. Today, the [...]
Good piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday by Dennis Patrick (former FCC Chairman) and Thomas Hazlett (former FCC Chief Economist) on the Fairness Doctrine. In their editorial entitled, “The Return of the Speech Police,” they argue that the Doctrine represented “well-intended regulation gone wrong” and that “re-imposing ‘fairness’ regulation would be a colossal mistake.” [...]
Commentary on recent real estate woes in Second Life. I’ve been thinking of opening an office there. Sort of a retreat. An asylum, as it were.
Voting machine vendors are their own worst enemies: The study, conducted by the university under a contract with Bowen’s office, examined machines sold by Diebold Election Systems, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems. It concluded that they were difficult to use for voters with disabilities and that hackers could break into the systems and change [...]
I agree with Tim that open networks are great and likely preferable in most situations, but to say that open networks simply “tend to be better than closed networks” doesn’t make sense. This is akin to saying that copper is more efficient than iron. This begs the question. More efficient at what? Copper is more [...]
Cord makes some good points about the disadvantages of open networks, but I think it’s a mistake for libertarians to hang our opposition to government regulation of networks on the contention that closed networks are better than open ones. Although it’s always possible to find examples on either side, I think it’s pretty clear that, [...]
Tomorrow, the FCC is scheduled to meet and adopt rules regarding the upcoming auction of spectrum usage rights in 700 MHz band for wireless services. A number of interests have been crowding around, trying to get the FCC to slant the auction rules in their favor. I’ve written a Cato TechKnowledge on the topic: “How [...]
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.
