Author Archive

Two Net Neutrality Bills: One Antitrust, One FCC

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 ...

Protect Your Digital Privacy at the Border

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 ...

Court Rules “Making Available” Not Infringement

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 ...

OK Go Singer’s Brilliant on Net Neutrality

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 ...

Tell the FCC: Help Protect Text Messaging

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 ...

Air Force Sends DMCA Notices Over Recruiting Ad

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Apparently, the Air Force is sending DMCA takedowns to websites, including YouTube, for hosting commercials designed to recruit tech-savvy youth into the military branch's Cyber Command.This is even though federal government documents are not subject to copyright protection. And as Wired explains: Air Force marketing chief Keith Lebling, who sent us the ...

Pirate Cat

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest! Lol!

FCC Hearing: Comcast Hired Seat Warmers

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

At yesterday's FCC hearing into Comcast's practice of blocking BitTorrent traffic in Cambridge, Comcast hired several dozen seat warmers to reduce the number of critics who could get into the hearing. The hearing was held at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. When Catherine Bracy, the Center's administrative manager, opened ...

xkcd: Why (and How) I Blog

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

ROFLMAO. In case you didn't know about xkcd, prepare to waste a lot of time and go there now. (Non-hotlink here; credit to Lok)

Harvard Goes Open Access

Friday, February 15th, 2008

Earlier this week, Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted unanimously to adopt an opt-out open-access policy; unless professors file to opt out, their scholarship will be included in an online institutional repository. Here is one Harvard librarian's open-access glee over the new policy. Open-source evangelist Peter Suber also has a ...