Tech at Night

You want more proof that every single private industry privacy debate in DC is completely wrong headed? MSIE 10’s do not track default is unpopular. People don’t care. They value cheap/free stuff and convenience over privacy protection.

Other countries are looking to tax American businesses online. Does Barack Obama have the guts to fight for us? Or will he bow once again?

Here we go again. Just like with Net Neutrality, the FCC wants to take something unregulated, and regulate it for the sake of expanding government. Now it’s the “Special Access” debate, and both IIA and ACI have the story on why we don’t want government sticking its nose into the marketplace, trying to make designated disfavored firms subsidize designated favored firms, the later likely politically connected or prioritized.

Only a fool who is completely ignorant of the history of Internet competition, and of the low barriers to entry, and of the technical definitions of antitrust violations in America, would try to have the government come after Google search for antitrust violations. The Obama administration is apparently loaded with fools, and I fear some Republicans are also being led down the fool’s path. Google defends itself, and NTU also makes the case for letting the people decide in the marketplace. The Internet search marketplace is a pure democracy that lets the public decide who wins and who loses. Government is not needed.

Dumb idea of the day award: An Apple app developers union is simply not needed conceptually. There are no wrongs to redress, no abuses to correct, no advantages to stop Apple from taking. Apple provides a great service, an easy service that has made people rich, has created jobs, and has changed the world in a small way. People who don’t want to develop iOS apps can always go write Android apps, where they don’t even have to use the Google or Amazon stores.

But no, these union folks want to stay with Apple but have it on their own terms. That’s not far. Apple’s made an offer. Apple’s not forcing anyone. They can just say no to Apple if they don’t like the offer.

I’m glad we have the House: Talk of compromise on Cybersecurity in the Senate. I have confidence though that just as Republicans in the House beat SOPA, so too will Republicans in the House beat a bad bill in this case. It wasn’t Dick Durbin and Harry Reid that shut down PROTECT IP. It was Eric Cantor and John Boehner who killed SOPA, after Darrell Issa and others made their stand. So even if this Senate bill is bad, we’re not licked yet.

Spectrum, Spectrum, Spectrum. America is going to use more and more of it for wireless Internet, and we need policy to catch up. Making government get efficient and give up some of its overbloated spectrum ranges, so that firms like LightSquared can have a fair chance to compete to improve further the already-dynamic market, can only help.

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Nima Jooyandeh facts.