Archive for June, 2006

Objections notwithstanding, 1201 needs reform

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Professor Lee Hollaar has just produced a fairly brief piece for the Institute for Policy Information called, “A Bad Trade: Will Congress Unwittingly Repeal the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Violate Our Trade Treaties?” I have to be honest here: Hollaar's “bad trade” is a bad article. Before I get into ...

URGENT: Re-kill the broadcast flags

Wednesday, June 21st, 2006

If your Senator sits on the Commerce Committee, call NOW to support the Sununu amendment to the Senate telecom bill. The bill as it is now written would instruct the FCC to ban any new digital TV or radio receivers that did not obey the draconian copyright wishes of the ...

Senators: Why fill the analog hole?

Wednesday, June 21st, 2006

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing considering the “problem” of the analog hole. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn was the last witness, and the 3 Senators in attendance seemed to react well to her message and the concerns of our allies in the tech sector. First, let’s cover some ...

Stevens bill: Minor 1st Am protections, no neutrality

Monday, June 19th, 2006

Update: This post has been edited. Thanks to Tim Schneider for his excellent legal insight. The new draft of the Stevens Telecom bill (pdf) features a shameless attempt to deliver just enough compromise on net neutrality to buy off political activist groups (e.g. the Christian Coalition) who are worried about being ...

Congress: Hunting for patent trolls?

Friday, June 16th, 2006

Congressmen including Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Howard Berman (D-CA) were among the Representatives who used a hearing yesterday as a chance to take rhetorical swipes at patent trolls. The hearing, held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, was called, "Patent Trolls: Fact or Fiction?" A patent ...

Blair Levin on the economics of net neutrality

Thursday, June 15th, 2006

Props to my fellow Public Knowledge intern Tim Schneider, who smartly incorporates Blair Levin’s Senate testimony into his latest blog post about network neutrality. Levin served as Chief of Staff at the FCC, and he is now a Wall Street analyst. Levin makes four key points about the likely economic impact ...

MS pushes beta anti-piracy program on ALL users

Thursday, June 15th, 2006

From the "wholly inappropriate corporate behavior" department: Microsoft is hell-bent on getting all users to install its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications software. The program "is used to validate the authenticity of Windows software installed on a PC," as explained by Joris Evers on CNet. That's all well and good, but the ...

Ask A Ninja: Why we need net neutrality

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

Perhaps this isn't the same as Tim Wu's elegant reasoning, but it's pretty funny nonetheless. Ask A Ninja explains why we need net neutrality. Incidentally, this isn't the funniest Ask A Ninja; I encourage you all to go find the rest of them.

The politics of sampling

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

Here's an interesting panel on the politics of sampling, including Kembrew McLeod and DJ Spooky.

EFF cartoon: “The Corruptibles!”

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

Here's a pretty funny flash animation about the perils of proposed copyright laws. It's called "The Corruptibles!" The common theme of these proposed "reforms"? Content industry desires to keep you from making "unauthorized" uses of your own digital media equipment.