Internet access is not a human right. It’s not me saying that, either. It’s Vint Cerf, Google’s Internet Evangelist.
ESA May be backing SOPA, but we’re seeing developers themselves such as Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios come out against it. But support for the OPEN Act is growing, as it protects American rights without trying to censor the Internet or impose destructive burdens on Americans online.
Defeat SOPA. Pass OPEN. Everyone wins. Even if the RIAA and MPAA think they’d benefit from government picking winners and losers.
I respect Haley Barbour for being Constitutional in his support for an Internet sales tax compact, but I still say it’s a bad policy. Not only does it run the risk of America ending up with a Canadian-style Harmonized Sales Tax, complete with a true national sales tax, but there’s a more basic issue than that. Sales taxes aren’t what are helping firms like Amazon win. Firms like Best Buys simply deserve to lose.
And we must not let envy from failing retailers drive policy designed to punish the superior online competitors.
One of the quiet stories of the Obama administration is the way he’s been letting Internet governance get out of hand. We used to be in charge, and we were great stewards of the Internet. Now we run the risk of UN-style control. The same UN that would vote to wipe out Israel if it could.
Shocker: Lower Power FM is not the economic end of the world that big media firms would have had us believe.