Tech at Night

Net Neutrality! Verizon has taken the FCC to court over the FCC’s illegal Open Internet order of course. Oral arguments were today at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The court should reject the rule of course, as the court already rejected Net Neutrality previously in the Comcast case. The ALA, like a lot of reflexive leftist organizations, is wrong.

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Tech at Night: NSA roundup. Germany shoots the messenger.

On August 31, 2013, in General, by Neil Stevens
Tech at Night

Never waste a good crisis. Some Eurocrats are looking to use the NSA fearmongering as an excuse to lock down the Internet, and the Obama administration is fighting back because closing off that form of free trade in ideas would hurt everyone, not just themselves. Of course it’s still suspect to believe just anything Edward Snowden has alleged, given reports that he’s a liar.

So even as Microsoft and Google reasonably sue to be able to release non-specific, aggregated data on secret court requests for data, NSA may release its own stats on its programs. This should not be seen as good enough, since FISA covers more than just the NSA.

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Tech at Night

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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Tech at Night: The Grand Return

On August 20, 2013, in General, by Neil Stevens
Tech at Night

So I’ve been gone a while. Sorry about that. After Summer Games Done Quick and the Redstate Gathering, I was supposed to be back in action. But a case of the shingles took me down fast. I was a sleepless zombie in pain for a week. No fun. Was actually alright on Friday, but I had so much reading to do I couldn’t catch up in time to post on Friday, so here we are. Hang on.

So let’s start with Time-Warner and CBS. The two had their negotiations fall through with respect to carrying CBS on Cable, and so a blackout began. The left wants this as the pretext to more government, but let’s be clear about this. Government created this pickle. The way out of it was proposed way back when, and backed in Tech at Night, when Jim DeMint and Steve Scalise proposed legislation. It’s still the right answer.

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Google as ISP lets us know they oppose Net Neutrality

On July 31, 2013, in General, by Neil Stevens

Previously in Tech at Night we heard that Google had been accused of violating the FCC’s Open Internet order, also known as Net Neutrality. The stated purpose of Net Neutrality is to prevent ISPs from discriminating between one kind of Internet traffic, and another, in order to bolster its own services.

Google as web services provider was a strong proponent of the new regulations. However in Google’s response to the Net Neutrality complaint, Google has come out in favor of discrimination, asserting that because discrimination against “server” traffic is an industry standard, Google is within its rights to continue that discrimination in the Net Neutrality era. Google, in defending its own Net Neutrality violation, is citing the pre-Net Neutrality industry standards it repeatedly claimed were dangerous and harmful to Americans.

Note that in the same Wired report, we learn that Google plans to release a “business” service, presumably at a higher price, to support servers.

Of course, they’re claiming that they’re within the law, but it’s clear they are not.

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Tech at Night

This will bet he only edition of Tech at Night this week. I was out of it Monday night, and this weekend I’m traveling to Denver for SGDQ 2013. I will be there to give live on stream commentary for the Legend of Zelda and Zelda II runs, so watch and donate if you care to.

House Democrats, together with a few libertarians, tried to restrict the NSA, and failed. I’m fine with this.

In other news, Google is accused of Net Neutrality violations for trying to restrict servers on Google Fiber. Heh. If people can run servers on Google Fiber then they’re going to have problems quickly. So this is a very interesting case.

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Tech at Night: Catching up after a cold.

On July 13, 2013, in General, by Neil Stevens
Tech at Night

Woof. This week I had my worst cold in years, the worst I had since the first CPAC I attended. Boy was that a miserable trip home, let me tell you, sick as a dog, with insufficient Claritin Ds to get me through it. I was lucky the middle seat was empty for me on both flights I had to get home! At least this week I could stay home, and sleep.

I’ve got a ton to cover, and I’m not really at 100% yet, so apologies for making this a bit scattershot tonight. Especially since the victory in Texas distracted me from finishing this promptly! (Edit: It’s also help if I remembered to hit Publish…)

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Tech at Night

Tone deaf, or simply apathetic? Even as Americans are unhappy about government data collection, Obama wants to do more big data work on private citizens. Mike Crapo is looking in the other direction, though, and wants to investigate the data gathering the government is already doing.

China didn’t want Edward Snowden. Russia didn’t want Snowden. Ecuador apparently didn’t want him, either. Not even Cuba wanted him, so he was left trying for fascist Venezuela, and unsurprisingly they dislike America so they like Snowden. Again and again, Snowden allies with America’s opponents against America.

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Tech at Night

Remember “Don’t be evil?” Even as Twitter plans to honor Do Not Track, even on MS Internet Explorer, Google apparently won’t. I mean, I don’t think I buy that Google is a criminal organization, but Google is also violating European privacy law still. Sure, Eurocrats are showing open bias against Americans, but selling information about you is their business.

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Nima Jooyandeh facts.