Author Archive
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Senator John McCain faces two major political problems surrounding the issue of retroactive immunity for telecommunications firms that complied with the Bush administration's warrantless (and thus, illegal) wiretapping program. Both point to larger weaknesses in the McCain campaign.
First, McCain has been consistently inconsistent on whether he thinks companies should be ...
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Monday, June 9th, 2008
In a study of copyright holders' automated tools for generating DMCA takedown notices, University of Washington researchers successfully demonstrate that these automated methods are hardly sound evidence of actual infringement.
For the study, "Tracking the Trackers," the researchers framed several innocent IP addresses, making it look like they were using BitTorrent ...
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Art Brodsky at Public Knowledge has a great post today assailing the Washington Post's weekend editorial opposing mandated network neutrality.
The line-by-line refutation is solid, but about halfway through, Brodsky points out that the Post has a big finger in the ISP pie. Through subsidiary Cable ONE, the Post made over ...
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Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
The mobile phone industry's practice of ramped-up Early Termination Fees (ETF) have been a source of concern to consumers and regulators for years. Now, the Federal Communications Commission may make a Faustian bargain to limit the amount and conditions under which customers are charged.
Many consumers, consumer groups, and legislators are ...
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Friday, May 16th, 2008
In a post on Threat Level discussing the scary legal precedent set by the Lori Drew prosecution, EFF civil liberties director Jennifer Granick says she would want to talk to Drew.
I doubt Granick supports Drew's behavior, but the EFF is all about preserving our online freedoms, and the interpretations pushed ...
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Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Art Brodsky of Public Knowledge has a great post discussing the two House bills that would mandate network neutrality--or at least discourage broadband discrimination.
In the Judiciary Committee, Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced HR 5994, the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008” (pdf). It authorizes the ...
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Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Thanks to a recent 9th Circuit ruling, US v. Arnold, customs agents at the US border are free to rummage through the data on your electronic gadgets such as cell phones and laptops.
EFF has this advice on how to preserve your digital privacy--including encryption, encrypted internet connections, and (if you ...
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Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Yesterday, a federal district court ruled that merely making copyrighted works available online does not constitute infringement.
The case, Atlantic v. Howell, is yet another battle in the RIAA's legal war on music traders. Here is the heart of EFF's summary of yesterday's ruling:
In its order, the court delivers the most decisive ...
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Saturday, April 5th, 2008
I'm stoked by Damian Kulash's New York Times opinion calling for mandated network neutrality. It's a far more accessible, engaging piece than almost anything written on the subject, and he makes a compelling case. Kudos to him.
P.S. On a personal note, it's been a metric year since I blogged, and ...
Posted in Internet policy, Network neutrality, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
In light of Verizon's decision to block text messages from NARAL for no reason other than their content, Public Knowledge has created an online form for submitting comments to the FCC.This is an important telecom policy issue, and it would still be a problem if Verizon were blocking any messages ...
Posted in Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »