Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
I agree with most of what Tom says here but I have to quibble with his final paragraph: Oh, and one more thing: it’s probably worth noting that one of the greatest technical (and economic) triumphs in recent memory — TCP/IP and the suite of other protocols and standards that powers the internet — was [...]
There’s a lot of hoopla surrounding Bain Capital’s buyout of beleaguered 3Com Corporation, due to the fact that one of the buyers is Huawei, a company from China. Or “communist China” (gasp!) according to today’s press release from Rep. McCotter: News circulated today Bain Capital and communist China’s Huawei plan to resubmit an application seeking [...]
As to the spin that applying for a REAL ID extension amounts to planning for compliance, nothing takes the cake quite like an email that was forwarded to me today. Because I can’t find an online version, I’ve screen-capped the relevant part of an email sent out by Digimarc lobbyist Mark Rhoads: For reference, here [...]
I have to at least partly agree with Tom about the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle, and about libertarians’ tendency to sometimes over-sell the outcome of market processes. Libertarians have been known to go overboard in insisting that the outcome of market processes is superior to other potential outcomes in every conceivable respects, even when it’s [...]
There’s a good opinion piece on age verification and social networking websites by CDT’s Leslie Harris on the ABC news site. Third, can we verify age or identity and still protect privacy? Would personal information about minors have to be submitted and maintained in large databases, or would Internet users have to have an authenticated [...]
These are 3 of the best articles I have read in recent memory in terms of putting online safety risks in some perspective. Must reading: David Pogue, NYT.com: “How Dangerous Is the Internet for Children?” Larry Magid, CBS News.com: “Cyberbullying Vs. Free Speech“ Slashdot: “Spreading “1 in 5″ Number Does More Harm Than Good“
No state will comply with the REAL ID Act’s requirement to begin issuing a national ID by the forthcoming statutory deadline, May 11th. Because of this, the Department of Homeland Security is giving states deadline extensions just for the asking. Interestingly, it’s turning around and spinning the acceptance of those extensions as commitments to comply. [...]
Wow, look at the lineup for this Google and Stanford Law School event that I am speaking at next week as part of a “Legal Futures Summit,” which is billed as “a conversation between some of the world’s leading thinkers about the future of privacy, intellectual property, competition, innovation, globalization, and other areas of the [...]
This may not be of interest to anyone but me, but on the theory that it’s better to post them all and let Google sort them out, here are the books I read for my forthcoming paper on network neutrality.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), Australia’s content and communications regulatory agency, has just released a comprehensive new report on “Developments in Internet Filtering Technologies and Other Measures for Promoting Online Safety.” It’s 120 pages long and contains a survey of all the various tool and methods that Australians can use to deal objectionable [...]
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.
