I have long been intrigued with the effort to regulate online gaming activities because it represents the most sophisticated effort by our government yet to eradicate a specific class of online speech or commerce. (My TLF colleague Tom Bell has done seminal work in this field). In her weekly “The Regulators” column, The Washington Post’s outstanding regulatory columnist Cindy Skrzycki writes about the enforcement challenges at work here:
It’s not easy making rules for a U.S. law intended to deter illegal Internet gambling by choking off the flow of funds to offshore sites. That’s because no one seems to agree on what the law covers. Officials at the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve found that out after sifting through more than 200 comments from banks, gamblers, church groups and members of Congress on recommendations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The basic sentiment was that their Oct. 4 proposal, which depends on financial institution enforcement, won’t work.
The outcome will affect 23 million online gamblers, some 2,500 Internet sites and the growth of an industry with an estimated $15 billion in annual global revenue. The law bars financial institutions from processing payments involving Internet gambling — with the notable exceptions of Indian gaming, state gaming and horse racing. “If the federal agencies themselves cannot agree on the law, what hope is there that banks can resolve these confounding legal issues?” the American Bankers Association said in commenting on a conflict between the Treasury and Justice departments on the legality of betting on horses. The Washington trade group said the suggested rules are more likely to catch its members in a compliance trap than stop profits from illegal gambling from escaping offshore.
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Awesome:
By loosenut (Seattle, WA)
I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger’s shoes cannot be removed.
Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger’s scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said “that’s the worst security ever!”. But it turned out to be okay, because when the passenger got on the Playmobil B757 and tried to hijack it, she was mobbed by a couple of other heroic passengers, who only sustained minor injuries in the scuffle, which were treated at the Playmobil Hospital.
The best thing about this product is that it teaches kids about the realities of living in a high-surveillance society. My son said he wants the Playmobil Neighborhood Surveillance System set for Christmas. I’ve heard that the CCTV cameras on that thing are pretty worthless in terms of quality and motion detection, so I think I’ll get him the Playmobil Abu-Gharib Interrogation Set instead (it comes with a cute little memo from George Bush).
My fianceé wants to know if it comes with miniature plastic baggies for putting your miniature miniature bottles of shampoo in.
They ought to make John Gilmore and Bruce Schneier action figures to go with it.
This story from the SF Chronicle is interesting in a number of ways. First, what does this baby step by Google into phone services mean in the long run? I’m not sure if the phone companies ever tried anything like this before (if you know, pls comment), but if they haven’t, it makes them look bad and reinforces the left’s “big, bad, telecoms” paranoia. Second, it is shocking to see Google working with Gavin Newsom again after the WiFi fiasco that ended SF’s attempt to provide “free” (read: government-controlled) WiFi and demonstrated how difficult it is to partner with SF’s local officials.
Just wanted to let everyone know that two new contributors–Bret Swanson and Ryan Radia–will be joining us here at the TLF.
Bret recently joined PFF to start a new program on trade, globalization & technology policy issues. It’s called the Center for Global Innovation. He’s fighting back against the foolish push to close off our borders to free trade or to limit the flow of technology and e-commerce globally. He’s also working on a big new book about the role of China in the new global economy.
Ryan Radia, a researcher with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is also joining us. At CEI, Ryan does great work on technology policy along with our own Cord Blomquist. Ryan is also going to be helping us out with TLF podcast production in coming months.
We’re glad to have Bret and Ryan join us and look forward to their contributions to our little “virtual think tank” here at the TLF!
An inconvenient fact (for opponents of network management):
A survey by the Japan Internet Providers Association shows 40% of Japanese ISPs perform network management, according to Yomiuri Shimbun, and the trend is growing.
Of the 276 respondents, 69 companies said they restricted information flow through their lines. A total of 106 companies, including those that rent lines from infrastructure owners, impose such restrictions. Twenty-nine companies said they were planning to take similar measures.
This is somewhat ironic because advocates for a centrally-planned national broadband strategy led by bureaucrats cite Japan as one of the successful examples the U.S. should follow. See, e.g., “Down to the Wire,” by Thomas Bleha in Foreign Affairs (May/June 2005).
Hat tip: Ken Robinson
I’ve finally finished a draft of the network neutrality paper I’ve been blogging about for the last few months. One of the things I learned after the publication of my previous Cato paper is that, especially when you’re writing about a technical subject, you’ll inevitably make some errors that will only be caught when a non-trivial number of other people have the chance to read it. So if any TLF readers are willing to review a pre-release draft of the paper and give me their comments, I would appreciate the feedback. Please email me at leex1008@umn.edu and I’ll send you a copy. Thanks!
Tomorrow is the 2008 Politics Online Conference, and I’m prepping for the event by guest-blogging over at the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. The panel I’ll be moderating is called “Building a Broadband Strategy for America,” and you can read more about it at the Politics Online site.
I’ve blogged about this panel on this site previously, so I won’t recount that, other than to repeat that I’ll be joined by FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, by Professor Tim Wu, who coined the term “Net Neutrality,” and by Eric Werner, a senior official at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the Commerce Department.
On the IPDI blog, I address how BroadbandCensus.com plays into the National Broadband Strategy debate:
As a technology reporter, I’ve been writing about the battles over broadband for nearly a decade here in Washington. There is one fact about which nearly everyone seems to be in agreement: if America wants better broadband, America need better broadband data. That’s why I’ve recently started a new venture to collect this broadband data, and to make the data available for all on the Web at BroadbandCensus.com.
Read the rest of Want Better Broadband in America? Take the BroadbandCensus.com!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the launch of the End Software Patents coalition, headed by Ben Klemens. Ars has a good write-up. Software patents are among the biggest threats to innovation in the software industry. And indeed, they’ve become a nuisance far beyond Silicon Valley, because every company uses software and is therefore likely violating software patents. It’s good to see the movement for ending them continue to grow.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.