Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
States are ratcheting up legislation in order to capture sales taxes from on-line retailers, even as companies like Amazon.com aggressively push back. A closely-watched bill in the Texas legislature that defines Amazon’s distribution center in Ft. Worth as a physical nexus, thereby obligating the on-line retailing giant to collect taxes on sales to residents of [...]
If you’ve been following Reason.com or Reason.tv for the past 48 hours you will know that Jim Epstein, a Reason TV reporter, was one of two journalists arrested Wednesday for videotaping a meeting of the Washington D.C. Taxi Commission. Epstein and Pete Tucker, who blogs for TheFightBack.org, a site that spotlights local D.C. issues that [...]
“Cloud computing” is the term for applications that are handled by third-party software and storage on the Internet, like Google Docs and QuickBooks Online, as opposed to programs like Microsoft Word and Quicken, which you load and access from your PC. Gmail and Hotmail were early examples of cloud computing. The cloud computing concept has [...]
A federal judge in Illinois has refused to allow a plaintiff to match IP addresses to individual names in a piracy case, indicating that use of IP addresses without any other evidence is too unreliable in identifying actual perpetrators, and as such, violates the rights of those caught in what he termed a “fishing expedition.” [...]
It is disappointing that the Obama administration, which campaigned against George W. Bush’s poor record on civil liberties protection, is pursuing a course that aims to limit Fourth Amendment rights when it comes to the use of location tracking technology. The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Obama administration has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court [...]
Believe it or not, this argument is being trotted out as part of the pressure from consumer activist groups against AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. The subject of a Senate Judiciary Hearing on the merger, scheduled for May 11, even asks, “Is Humpty Dumpty Being Put Back Together Again?” It seems because the deal would [...]
Toll-free number allocation remains one of the last vestiges of telecom’s monopoly era. Unlike Internet domain names, there is no organized way of requesting, registering, reserving, purchasing 800, 888, 877, 866, or the newly available 855 numbers, the five prefixes that currently designate toll-free service. If you’re lucky or creative enough, you can visit any [...]
Bucking a trend seen in other states, Texas lawmakers are taking steps to separate teen “sexting,” the sending and receiving sexually explicit photos via cell phone or email, from child pornography. A bill proposed by State Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin, and backed by Texas State Attorney General Greg Abbott, would classify sexting as a [...]
In the March issue of Reason, Peter Suderman takes us on a tour of the recent telecom and Internet regulatory scene as he looks at the Federal Communications Commission Chairman and Obama hoops buddy Julius Genachowski and his push to regulate the Web. The article, which recaps the five-year network neutrality battle that reached a [...]
Near the end of Tron: Legacy, the character CLU (short for Codified Likeness Utility), on the verge of releasing his army of re-purposed computer programs into the brick-and-mortar world to destroy humanity, confronts Kevin Flynn, his creator-turned-nemesis, with a plaintiff, “I did everything you asked.” Flynn, older and wiser than the character we met in 1982’s Tron, and his techno-idealism tempered by the realization that to save humanity he must destroy both his physical and virtual self, wistfully answers, “I know.”
It’s a rather poignant scene that punctuates the film’s unique take on technology and humanity. Traditionally in the movies, when technology turns evil, does so with a will of its own. The Matrix and Terminator films are just two examples. Tron: Legacy, however, upends the idea. CLU, sure enough, turns on his human creator, but not out of rebellion, but to carry out his human-engineered programming.
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.
