Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
This ongoing series has focused on the growing substitutability of Internet-delivered video for traditional video distribution channels like cable and satellite. YouTube has recently begun exploring adding traditional television programming to its staggering catalogue of mostly amateur-generated content. But now YouTube is going one step farther by exploring the possibility of signing Hollywood professionals to [...]
Never forget. Is it any wonder that Vista took 8 years–and that there’s no firm market date for incremental update Windows 7–when even minor changes require updating thousands of pages of technical documentation for a team of state antitrust regulators? For the depressing details, read today’s “Joint Status Report” filed by 17 states, the District [...]
S. 328, the DTV Delay Act, did not receive the 2/3 majority needed to pass in the House under the procedure known as “Suspension of the Rules.” Here’s the roll call vote – 258 for passage, 168 against. It was introduced and passed in the Senate Monday. It would pass a straight up-or-down vote, but [...]
Scott Cleland is nothing if not interesting. And I was interested by a post he has up this morning: The Growing Privacy-Publicacy Fault-line – The Tension Underneath World Data Privacy Day. Today is World Data Privacy Day. You can tell by the demonstrations and fireworks displays in capitals around the world. (ahem) I’ll be speaking [...]
One of the most fundamental disagreements in the debate over software patents concerns the Supreme Court. Some software patent supporters like to cite the case of Diamond v. Diehr as the decision that legalized software patents. Many others argue that the Supreme Court’s classic trilogy of software patent decisions from the 1970s and early 1980s [...]
Speaking of transparency… My colleague Barbara Esbin has a great piece on the PFF blog about changes being implemented by Acting Chairman Copps to make the agency less dysfunctional and more open to the public: the new Acting Chairman has confirmed what FCC insiders, outside practitioners, and the House staff investigating former Chairman Kevin Martin’s management practices [...]
Just wanted draw everyone’s attention to a couple of great podcasts about online safety issues that include comments from members of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force (ISTTF). As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the ISTTF project and final report represent a major milestone in the discussion about online safety in America, and I [...]
I’m delighted to welcome to the TLF my colleague Adam Marcus, Research Fellow & Senior Technologist at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Adam’s already written a few posts here on the TLF about edge caching and cloud computing—cross-posted over the last few months by Adam Thierer and me. He also appeared on TechPolicy Weekly 38 to discuss ”The Google [...]
Sid Rosenzweig, who recently joined PFF to study patent issues, has a very thoughtful piece about Apple’s new patent on the multi-touch interface on the iPhone, which ends as follows: It is striking how protection for user interfaces has changed over the years. It is not clear that patent protection for user interfaces is a step in [...]
On this week’s show, we discuss government transparency—a topic a number of us here at the TLF have written about lately. Among other things, we discuss: Why transparency is important What data the government should provide and how Good and bad examples of transparency President Obama’s promise to have the most accountable administration in history Obama’s plans [...]
May 21, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
