I know it’s a big day for Net Neutrality when I wake up and my Email Inbox is jammed full with links, so many basically saying the same thing: The FCC is on the move. I’m told it all goes back to a November 15 speech by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in which he expresses an urgency for the FCC to pass a bunch of new rules quickly. It’s a crisis, he says.
He then called out Google and Verizon, saying that their temerity to contribute to the debate “slowed down some other processes.” You see: the whole process of talking to industry is apparently a sham, and the only speech that counts is speech that leads the FCC closer to the Obama administration’s predetermined outcome.
And it’s that Net Neturality outcome we may be nearing after all. That’s the Red Alert.
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Good evening. I don’t know how I managed to do a Tech at Night on Friday night. Just barely I guess. Because I’ve been sick from Friday night on, though I was mostly alright today. And so we’re back in business.
And we’ll start with a note on more Internet control that the Barack Obama administration is mulling. Yes, again, the content of webpages is to be controlled under the Obama Presidency through DOJ bullying via the ADA. The fact is, if businesses are forced to make expensive changes to their websites, they may instead be forced to go out of business, killing jobs, driving innovation overseas, and creating a chilling effect across our economy.
This must not stand.
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Good morning. Last night Tech at Night didn’t quite come because I was not feeling well at all. But there’s stuff I want to highlight so this morning I’m going to make it happen. Here we go!
Want to be more like Europe? Well, in one way, we do: The EU has rejected Net Neutrality regulation as unnecessary. The EU’s equivalent of an FCC Chairman says “We should allow network operators and services and content providers to explore innovative business models.”
Can we actually stand to be more regulated than Europe, and drive innovation across the Atlantic? I don’t think so. We absolutely cannot tolerate proposals like this to force AT&T, Verizon, and others to open their wireless networks to each other, essentially partially nationalizing and socializing a major part of our telecommunications infrastructure going forward.
I can think of no better way to kill the wonderful wireless revolution we have going on, and end investment in it, than to turn everyone into free riders off of each other. This would devastate rural Internet access by creating a tragedy of the commons out there. We cannot let this happen.
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Good evening. Even as Google tonight wins some recognition from conservatives for its observing Veterans day on the search homepage, the firm is still under fire. As Machiavelli warned, become the big guy and everyone turns on you. Now it’s the big television networks going after Google. Specifically, they’re blocking Google TV from watching streams of their shows. Fox has since joined the blockade I believe.
This strikes me as a scared overreaction, and a poorly thought out one at that. As soon as Google TV’s User Agent is changed to match a desktop browser, the blockade is history and there’s nothing the networks can do about that.
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Good evening. Apologies again for missing two of three Tech at Night episodes last week. I can only plead an overabundance of desire for the weekend causing me to be forgetful on Friday. But that just means we have more to look at tonight, so let’s go.
Yes, the forces of Net Neutrality Internet regulation were beaten badly last week. How badly? We already knew that All 95 PCCC Net Neutrality Pledge signers lost, but on top of that, the PCCC itself raised only $300 on the cause. Even if every donor gave only one dollar, that’s the sign of a failing fringe movement, not a popular position with broad, bipartisan support.
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Sorry for missing Tech at Night on Monday, but I had to rest up for Election Day. And of course, as you may have heard, Republicans ended up having a good night. What you may not have heard though, was that the forces of radical Internet regulation had a very bad night. Democrats went for broke on Net Neutrality but as covered by Moe Lane and RS Insider, support for unilateral regulation of the Internet killed Congressional jobs. Every single member who signed the PCCC pledge to support the FCC on Title II reclassification, lost. Every one of them!
It’s time the FCC owned up to the rejection the American people dealt their plans, and pledged to wait for Congress to act.
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Good evening. Through the magic of Claritin, my favorite drug, I’m able to bring you tonight’s edition. On the Net Neutrality front, the progressive left is getting delusional. They’re pretending that it matters what their members of Congress think when their President has done not one thing to stop his FCC from going off on its own to break the law, defy the courts, and go ahead with Title II Reclassification. This is not Sparta. This is madness.
Of course, the online petition? Meaningless of course except as a trap to build mailing lists. And it’s not me who says that, it’s Clay Johnson who says that, founder of Blue State Digital and the New Media Director of Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s petition is nonsense upon stilts.
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Opinions differ on the Cato Institute, but they’re right on when it comes to the ACLU’s deceptive arguments on Net Neutrality. Case after case of alleged net neutrality “violations” are raised and demolished. And remember, this is the case being used to justify urgent action by the FCC in defiance of the law and the courts.
It’s all a bunch of garbage.
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Good evening. I’ll level with you: I’m exhausted. All summer I got virtually no exercise because, as it turned out, I’ve developed asthma triggered by the air pollution that gets worse during the summer here in inland southern California. So I’m ramping back up my weight lifting, and as I adapt, it’s wearing me out. So tonight I’ll be brief.
The push continues for Republicans to listen to us and and join to pass legislation preventing the FCC from implementing devastating, systemic regulation of the Internet through the Title II reclassification power grab. Roll Call describes the troubles on this front with Congressional Republicans hesistant to touch Net Neutrality at all.
Honestly I’m glad we’ve pushed the debate to the point where Net Neutrality is so radioactive that no Republican wants to get anywhere near it, but we all must remember that the FCC remains under Barack Obama’s control, not ours, even if we win the election. Action must come sooner, not later, to ensure the FCC respects our need for an open Internet with free and active investment from private business.
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Good evening. I’m starting on tonight’s Tech at Night earlier than usual. That’s because I have much to cover. Sometimes a whole bunch of interesting stories just pop up all at once, and I don’t want to leave any out. So let’s hurry up and start.
For all the way the far left is flipping out over the Fox/Cablevision dispute – in which Cablevision refuses to pay for Fox’s content, and so Fox in turn threatens to take that content away – the FCC let the cat out of the bag by pointing out that Cablevision customers have four or even five alternatives, depending on where they live.
Competition protects the public better than government ever, ever could.
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