At this point, anyone claiming Edward Snowden is anything but a spy against America is being willfully blind. Snowden now attacking alleged US operations against Communist China, an act that there is no legitimate pro-American interest in. It makes us just have to wonder what else he gave them as he gives them information and propaganda material now.
It’s kinda funny how Democrats screech like harpies about a “clean” bill for STELA, trying to block meaningful retransmission consent reform, but they’re trying to tack the IMF onto unrelated bills in the Senate.
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How do we know that the NSA stuff is being driven by anti-Americanism? So much outrage about NSA and American allies, but so little about Russia, China, and American rivals. Heck, I’m not even seeing a peep about a Chicom firm Lenovo buying Google Motorola.
Now here’s a major reform idea I could get behind: merging FCC and FTC. By removing one entity, we reduce the added burden on business when two different regulators come after them for the same stuff. Getting rid of DoJ’s antitrust division would help, too. Because now even SEC is grabbing new tech powers.
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The argument for the ECPA (email warrant law) reform in a nutshell: because a lot of people store important data on other people’s servers, we need to tighten warrant laws for that data. I don’t buy the necessity, especially with FISA also under attack. If terrorists have data on Google’s servers, I want Google to be able to hand over that data. But this idea is popular and I expect it to pass eventually.
I called it: China cut Bitcoin’s access to the Chinese banking system, just as the US cut online gambling access to the US banking system (and like the US did after the freezing of Mt. Gox’s Dwolla account. Result: Bitcoin prices are tumbling, even if firms like Bank of America can’t assume it’s going to go away.
I wish it would though, since Bitcoin continues to be a magnet for crime.
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Two reminders I usually make here. Use good passwords, and make sure not to run software you don’t trust. Keep your software updated. If you use it, consider switching away from the leading target online, Microsoft Windows. Government is trying to catch these guys, but you have to lock your own door at night.
Teenagers need to be monitored online. It’s for their protection against bad elements. Most parents would be disturbed to see their kids making videos like this, but without somebody watching, how would parents ever even know their kids were making video responses to requests by predators?
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Seems like I’m always coming up with excuses not to post, but I knew nobody would read if I posted over Thanksgiving, so I just ate ham instead. I’m now at risk of turning into bacon, I’ve had so much.
Oops. The Department of Defense signed a deal with Apprticity to buy 500 user licenses and a number of server licenses of its software. But after the Army let slip during a presentation that “thousands” of users were in the system, the government’s large-scale copyright infringement exposed. Apptricity and the Obama administration settled for $50 million.
This is your periodic reminder that kids don’t belong on the Internet. The Internet is every sex predator on Earth, all hiding in your kid’s computer or phone. Be careful out there.
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I do apologize if I don’t go as in-depth tonight as I should. I think I’m coming down with something.
There goes Pandora. They appear to be giving up on getting their law passed that would give them a sweetheart regulatory deal, stomping on any need they’d have to negotiate in the marketplace. They don’t want competition or a marketplace. They want a command economy for music expanded beyond the insane system we already have in place for terrestrial radio. It’s good we’ve defeated their legal aims.
Speaking of picking winners and losers in regulation, here’s why they’re trying to kill Aereo. Broadcasters and cable companies are feeling threatened by the loss of revenues that are threatened by the push to go back to free terrestrial broadcasts, and we can’t let them get away with using government to prop themselves up.
MSNBC commentators don’t understand the law, surprise surprise.
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Crime in Bitcoin is big money. $28.5 million more worth if Bitcoins have been taken from the Silk Road racket. Other things are big money in Bitcoin too, such as those on Reddit who are paying young women to take their clothes off and put the video on the Internet, a great personal risk to themselves.
It’s no wonder Bitcoin people are trying to run offshore to countries like China hostile to liberty and the rule of law, even as they try to hide their tracks accessing US markets with conspiracies like Tor.
It’s also no wonder the anarchists have seized upon recent events to try to demonize the NSA.
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Here we go again, a group of organized criminals seeks to attack innocents. “First sentence, then trial.” I’m looking forward to when prison sentences are given out to these people of Anonymous. Hacktivist is apparently a code word for ‘anarchist terror cell.’
I mean, just like Tor users (who are getting traced as well as they’re getting arrested), we just keep on arresting Anonymous cells.
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Still not a lot going on thanks to the shutdown, but there is the theory being floated that the Obama administration’s punitive shutdown policies are violating Net Neutrality rules. I don’t know that I agree, but it’s worth at least thinking about, as little as Net Neutrality even makes sense.
For all the people are claiming Silk Road wasn’t a significant part of the Bitcoin value, it could be that the feds are seizing 5% of all Bitcoins in circulation. But it is going to be interesting to see how seizing assets works when the assets are encrypted.
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Keep in mind that in the Time Warner/CBS dispute, CBS has a built-in negotiation advantage due to federal laws. So I don’t buy it when CBS claims that Time Warner is the unreasonable side. CBS’s complaints about what other cable companies do reminds me of the cartel-like “negotiations” done by UAW.
I do appreciate the cleverness of giving out free antennas though. If only Aereo were huge right now. That’d be great for Time Warner to work with.
Psst: Net Neutrality was always a power grab, and not a fact- and law-based endeavor. I love though how the left-leaning Daily Dot is outraged that Net Neutrality isn’t being used to push for more free stuff.
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