This is a really late Friday tech. Enjoy anyway.
There’s not a lot of government policy stuff going on right now in DC, thanks to the shutdown, but at least we’re spending money keeping the lights on all night at the FCC.
A cell of Anonymous anarchists tried to “pay back’ Hollywood for getting The Pirate Bay, but it is they who are paying the price. Ruining your life because you want to download free stuff on the Internet. Heh.
The fact is, it would be to our benefit to be able to listen in on Tor. Privacy is good, but anonymity is a tool of evil and of our enemies. Just ask yourself why there’s a push by traitor Ed Snowden and the Glenns Greenwald spy team to discredit Tor attacks. A good reason for them to do this is that they’re afraid and want us to get the government to stop trying.
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I have to say, my initial reaction to accusing Google of wiretapping is absurd. Think about it: the whole concept of wiretapping is that you’re intercepting communications from person A to person B. If Google ads are wiretapping, them spam filtering would be wiretapping, since you’re also scanning an email to do that.
We’ve discussed in the past how Pandora was trying to get government to change the rules in its favor against copyright holders, because the government had previously tilted the scales in favor of broadcast radio against copyright holders, in the form of a proposed law known as IRFA. Pandora’s clearly wrong about that, as we should have a level playing field and not be picking winners and losers at all. But one good consequence could be a bill that would go the other way, an anti-IRFA: repealing the laws that favor broadcast radio to begin with. Just ditch the whole compulsory licensing system.
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I’d have signed a letter against IRFA, the Pandora-backed regulatory bailout.
Government is trying to give advice on security online, including advice on how to deal with breakins. Information exchange is truly a proper cybersecurity role for government. Also important is prosecuting private offenders, and dealing with state offenders.
Though it gets tricky when state offenders include firms selling goods while pretending to be private firms, such as Chinese firms like Lenovo or Huawei.
ECPA reform is being held in the Senate. Leaky Leahy says it’s a Republican doing it. I wonder who? Lindsey Graham? John McCain? I’m not entirely convinced that the bill is necessary, but I don’t think it’s a particularly idea as long as we preserve something along the lines of FISA.
If you really want your email to be private, don’t have it all run through Google.
Turns out Snowden’s final decision to pledge allegiance to United Russia has encouraged a child pornographer in Ireland to follow suit.
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Wow. Even as it comes out that Apple is going to pay more than Pandora for its coming radio service (which is probably going to be a windfall for small publishers), here’s a great set of answers from Marsha Blackburn on IRFA for conservative activists.
Good news: it only took $5,000 to get a Wikileaks person to… leak information. Ha. More of this, please.
Remember when I shook my head at all those digital libertarians stupid enough to vote for Obama? Well, heh. Now we find the Obama IRS is targeting open source software groups for tax repression. Heh. Told you so.
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Some issues that face us in the tech world get complicated fast, especially when it comes to changing existing Washington regulations. The Internet Radio Fairness Act is one of those messy issues. Please welcome Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who answered some questions for us on that issue.
How would you describe IRFA, the Internet Radio Fairness Act, to a concerned conservative activist? Conservatives can agree that music distribution companies should be free to choose a business model that makes the most sense for them, and this includes launching legal, digital broadcasting ventures. But the so-called Internet Radio Fairness Act (H.R. 6480) was introduced last Congress to help webcasters like Pandora and radio stations artificially reduce a key input cost – the amount the government says webcasters should pay recording artists for access to their music.Continue reading »
Missed Tech on Monday due to a very uncomfortable and annoying, but not particularly threatening health issue. So let’s catch up.
Spying and cybersecurity. Edward Snowden intended to defect all along. And he’s probably now in Russia after serving up anti-American propaganda bait in commmunist China.
Meanwhile, one Lulzsec anarchist is under tough parole terms, we find Bitcoin is increasingly tied to crime, and Wikileaks isn’t going to get off easy backing Assange, Snowden, and Manning. For good reason.
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IRFA is a bill seemingly written by Pandora to stick it to copyright holders and pad their bottom line.
Other Internet radio firms are doing fine. Spotify’s growing. Apple is reportedly in negotiations with copyright holders to create their own service. Pandora is probably feeling the competitive pinch since Spotify came over from Europe, and instead of competing and innovating, wants the government to pull a Net Neutrality and shift some rents their way.
Why do we want to impose price controls? Look, if you came to me and said here’s a bill to deregulate the whole thing, I’d be all for that. But IRFA doesn’t deregulate. It tightens regulations. It picks winners and losers.
This is the same old stuff we’ve been seeing from Washington since January 20, 2009. Washington has been tilting the playing field for all those hipster-filled online firms that love Obama, and worked to re-elect Obama, and now they’re trying to wrap a free market flag around it and get us to sign on.
Didn’t we settle the price controls debate decades ago? Reject IRFA, Republicans. Thanks.
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Had some work to do Friday night, so this this became Tech at Sunday Morning!
I still don’t see it passing the House after Mike Enzi’s winners and losers talk poisoned the well, but conservative governors want MFA passed for good reason. Ask Scott Walker.
Remember when the T-Mobile/MetroPCS deal flew through the Obama administration without a hitch? I think we now know why: it meant the end of the MetroPCS challenge to Net Neutrality. How convenient.
Stealth recording technology. What could go wrong? Of course, if you don’t like Google Glass, the real thing to do is to let property owners ban it on their own property. Problem solved.
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Is it still a likely coincidence when all these stories at once come out pushing this topic of spending money to give schoolkids access to the dangerous, adult Internet? Or is somebody funding this drive?
Manning confessies to being a spy and a traitor. I wish we could just force choke him.
Bad news: New Zealand is arming manatees. Seriously though, if Kim Dotcom wants to fight his prosecution, he should turn himself in, instead of continuing his crimes in New Zealand.
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I’m constantly pointing out how New Zealand is making it itself into a bit of an anti-American legal haven, but they’re not the only ones who have a history of that. Thailand has had issues, so many that the government had to declare a Year of IP Protection, with renewed enforcement to go with it. And as it turns out, they have a long way to go, but even US industry groups recognize the progress. That’s good to see.
I imagine they don’t harbor fugitives like Kim Dotcom, either. Who may or may not drink 10 liters of Coke every day, then blame the eeevil Americans for the consequences.
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