Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
The comic geniuses at CollegeHumor.com have really hit the nail on the head with this musical romp through the (mostly ad-supported) web, a take-off on “Maria” from the musical West Side Story. Besides showcasing a number of great ad-supported services, the clip really hits the nail on the head by acknowledging that “There is No [...]
The Wired article (“Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network’s Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out“) I discussed yesterday touched on another issue near & dear to my heart (besides the importance of smarter advertising): the future of online anonymity. The article lays out Facebook’s “4-Step Plan for Online Domination,” which involves “colonizing” the [...]
Eric Goldman offers a terrific—and concise—summary of Section 230 and how courts have recently interpreted its grant of broad immunity to online intermediaries, most notably: 47 USC 230 tries to divide online content into first party content and third party content. In its simplest form, 230 says that online actors can’t be liable for third [...]
The advocates of regulation pay lip service to the importance of advertising in funding online content and services but don’t seem to understand that this quid pro quo is a fragile one: Tipping the balance, even slightly, could have major consequences for continued online creativity and innovation. Who is this handsome young man and why [...]
Fred Vogelstein’s essay in Wired, “Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network’s Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out” describes the intensifying clash between Google and Facebook—a clash that focuses on the ability to target advertising: Like typical trash-talking youngsters, Facebook sources argue that their competition is old and out of touch. [...]
Check out today’s Wall Street Journal editorial on the affiliate nexus tax that North Carolina is considering — aptly titled Tarheels vs. the Internet. This comes on the heels (pun intended) of news that Amazon will terminate its affiliates in North Carolina. It also talks about the tickets tax, which is blatantly in violation of [...]
Phase three of the White House’s Open Government Initiative ends this Sunday, and with it a tripartite experiment on receiving public comment about how to make government more open. This is of course an important and monumental milestone. Never before have we seen the intersection of technology and public input to guide a governmental process [...]
This month, the Federal Communications Commission begins drafting a national broadband plan as part of the 2009 stimulus package. This is not the first government attempt at broadband ubiquity, so the FCC can learn from past failures. The commissioners have less than eight months to “ensure that all people of the United States have access [...]
If you’re in D.C. on July 10, I hope you’ll join us for the following panel discussion (noon-2pm in Room 208 at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center), which I’ll lead as moderator: Proposals to regulate advertising and data collection on the Internet, mobile phones, and interactive television, hold the promise of enhancing consumer privacy. On the [...]
It seems that Amazon has made good on their threat and terminated all Amazon Associates affiliate accounts belonging to individuals and companies located within the state of North Carolina. Now we get to see if the state legislature will formally back off the proposal so Amazon can reinstate the affiliate accounts. This will definitely be [...]
May 27, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
