Archive for the ‘Constitutional’ Category
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
On Thursday, the US House passed a FISA reform bill without granting immunity to telecommunications companies accused of assisting illegal eavesdropping on US citizens.
As we noted last month, the White House and telecoms pressed for retroactive immunity. This pressure has not worked--at least not yet--despite Bush's threat of a veto.
Posted in Congress, Constitutional, Internet policy, Privacy, Surveillance, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »
Friday, October 19th, 2007
As mourned at the Citizen Media Law Project, the final House version of the bill (HR 2102) to protect reporters from revealing confidential sources was amended specifically to exclude unpaid journalists.
Sadly, this amendment was proposed by the bill's lead authors, Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN). Boucher is generally ...
Posted in Censorship, Congress, Constitutional, Internet policy | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Here is a letter I just sent to Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ), my elected representative, with added links:
Dear Rep. Sires,
I am a voter in your district, and I am writing in regards to H.R. 3773, the RESTORE Act. I urge you not to support this legislation unless it meets two ...
Posted in Congress, Constitutional, Internet policy, Privacy, Surveillance, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law, Terrorism | 1 Comment »
Sunday, September 16th, 2007
In its latest attempt to block the FCC from imposing modest interconnection requirements on the 700 MHz spectrum auction, Verizon filed suit this week in the DC Circuit.
The Commission wants end users to be able to use the device of their choosing and the applications of their choosing--what Tim Wu ...
Posted in Constitutional, FCC, Internet policy, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »
Monday, September 10th, 2007
In a series begun yesterday, the Seattle Times is taking on the sorry state of the media industry and media policy.
Editorial Page Editor James Vesely has a brief introduction. Yesterday, they ran an opinion piece by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. Today, it's Penn Law School luminary Ed Baker.
Today, they also ...
Posted in Constitutional, FCC, Media consolidation, Media criticism | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
Game Politics reports that another video game sales restriction law has been overturned in court. This time, it was the long-awaited decision on California's 2005 law, upon which some other (since stalled or overturned) bills and laws were built. Game Politics is also hosting a PDF of the judge's ruling, ...
Posted in Congress, Constitutional | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 18th, 2007
In an op-ed in yesterday's New York Times, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig describes the legal uncertainty surrounding the Viacom suit as impending "copyright chaos."
Lessig blames the 2005 Grokster decision for inviting Viacom's lawsuit of YouTube. The Supremes overstepped their bounds, usurping Congressional authority to damn new technologies, heightening the ...
Posted in Congress, Constitutional, Copyright, Internet policy, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
In a child porn case in Texas, a federal judge dismissed Yahoo! as a defendant on the grounds that service providers are not responsible for the content posted by others.
The case, Doe v. Bates (pdf), involves a man who moderated a Yahoo! group that traded in the illegal content. In ...
Posted in Constitutional, Internet policy, Network neutrality, Telecommunications, Telecommunications law | No Comments »
Saturday, January 20th, 2007
The Slamdance Festival runs alongside the Sundance Film Festival, styling itself as an edgier sort of independent event. It also hosts a "Guerilla Gamemaker Competition," featuring digital games created by independent designers. Slamdance may have called its indie cred into question this year, however, by dropping a controversial game from ...
Posted in Constitutional | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 15th, 2007
Generally, I leave commentary on video game legislation to Game Politics and The Video Game Law Blog because there's so much to keep up with. Now, however, anti-game attorney Jack Thompson has been asked to draft up a bill that would restrict the sale of violent games to minors in ...
Posted in Constitutional | 5 Comments »