Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
Popular Mechanics speculates that Apple is on the verge of announcing a breakthrough laptop-tablet device that’ll change computing as we know it (hyperbole deliberate): So any Apple tablet would have to be, first and foremost, a laptop—not an über-iPhone. … I’m also requesting that the MacBook Plus fall in the ultralight realm—a sorely neglected category [...]
Over the slow holiday season, the Internet has been alight with outrage over the Recording Industry of America’s argument in a file-sharing case that, per the Washington Post, “it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.” But as copyright expert William Paltry explains, it simply [...]
Each year, the Edge Foundation surveys a score (~160 this year) of prominent scientists and other notables for brief-essay answers to a big-picture question. This year: “What have you changed your mind about?” Some elaboration: When thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy. When God changes your mind, that’s faith. When facts change your mind, that’s [...]
Did you know that you have only 412 days left of analog-TV viewing pleasure? Yes, it’s true (unless lawmakers change their minds in response to lobbying from, e.g., circa-1968-Zenith-owning grandmothers from the Heartland flown in by the NAB). In 412 days, your old analog set will pick up nothing but soothing, gentle static (let’s hear [...]
Herb Vest, CEO of the online dating service True.com, is still working hard to get the government to push background checks for those seeking love on the ‘net. The New York Times reports: True, which conducts criminal background checks on its subscribers, is the primary force behind a two-year-old campaign to get state legislatures to [...]
For a lawyer-in-training, watching the commenters on Slashdot, Digg, and similar techie forums debate fine points of law is a special treat–finally, a group that knows less about that law than I do. Faster than you can type “IANAL,” some dope has posted that the income tax is unconstitutional, that breaking into government computers cannot [...]
As more and more of our consumption comes in the form of bits, how to keep all that data safe becomes a big problem. Obviously, data security is a big issue. But the bigger one, I think, is keeping good backups. It used to be that only geeks and businesses could keep good backups. To [...]
This post isn’t meant to prove anything, just to note something of some small significance–a data point, basically. Digg is major gathering point for the pro-open source, anti-big company, anti-DRM crowd. To be sure, many others use the site, and most Diggers who hold these views are casual about their advocacy and not among the [...]
Arguing in favor of telecom regulation, some people say that telephone networks are owned by the public, which was forced to pay for them as captive ratepayers. The upshot is that telecom firms therefore shouldn’t be able to restrict competitors from using their wires. As my colleague and co-blogger James Gattuso has explained in some [...]
Today’s Wall Street Journal profiles ($) Free Press, a media activist group that opposes loosening ownership rules for broadcast stations. As the Journal reports, the group has been wildly successful in its drive to block further consolidation in local markets, organizing thousands to protest and contact the government. Free Press’s stated concerns are “diversity of [...]
May 22, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
