Internet

Two faces of Michael Powell

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Domestic Terrorism Economics Federal Government Internet Regulation Technology on by

Yesterday Michael Powell said the following (PDF) in remarks opening a forum on Voice over IP:

As one who believes unflinchingly in maintaining an Internet free from government regulation, I believe that IP-based services such as VOIP should evolve in a regulation-free zone.
No regulator, either federal or state, should tread into this area without an absolutely compelling justification for doing so.

This is the same guy that recently supported the implementation of the broadcast flag and willingly accepts it as his duty to use regulation to push the implementation of HDTV which may be nifty high quality but, nevertheless, should be left to find its own way in the market. We will either embrace it or ignore it.
Something that could bring the development of VoIP to a grinding halt is this push (requires free registration) by the FBI and the Justice Department to have the FCC assure that they will be able to eavesdrop on our VoIP calls:

The FBI and Justice Department want the FCC to classify Internet-based telephony as a traditional telecommunications service, which would subject it to federal laws requiring carriers or software companies “to develop intercept solutions for lawful electronic surveillance.”

It is time to just say no to these folks.
Via beSpacific here and here.
Update (12/3): For more on the FCC’s VoIP forum see The Knowledge Problem.

ashcroft: once a civil libertarian?

This entry was posted in ashcroft Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Federal Government Internet Libertarianism Patriot Act on by

The American Bar Association Journal has an interesting article on Cyber-Libertarians which focuses primarily on EPIC, the Elecronic Privacy Information Center.
I was somewhat surprised by this comment by David Sobel, EPIC’s co-founder and general counsel:

�We were actually guardedly optimistic when [Ashcroft] became attorney general,� says Sobel. �As a senator he used some of the most stridently anti-federal-law-enforcement rhetoric I�d seen come out of the Senate�just a step short of calling them �jackbooted thugs.� �

Talk about power corrupting someone. Or maybe he hasn’t changed at all and it is ok if they are his ‘jackbooted thugs.’
I suspect the latter is the case. In answer to the opening question: probably not.
Via beSpacific.

Senate Supports Spammers 97-0

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Culture Domestic Terrorism Economics Federal Government Internet Libertarianism Marketing Spam on by

Well, it sure looks this way to me.
For instance,

the bill now includes a provision, supported by some opponents of spam, that directs the Federal Trade Commission to come up with a plan for a no-spam registry.

I think the off shore spammers will love this one: a list comprised of mostly good email addresses! Yea, I know that the spammers are supposed to send in their lists for scrubbing but I suspect joes p*rn shop won’t be sending in their list.

(more…)

Microsoft to Cut off Millions

This entry was posted in Internet Law on by

MSN is shutting down its chat rooms beginning in the UK:

The software giant Microsoft declared war on internet paedophiles last night by announcing the closure of its thousands of UK-based chatrooms used by millions of people.
It will also restrict access to chatroom systems around the world, allowing only identifiable, adults living in the same country to use them.

It is their business and they can do what they want with it as it is not quite the same thing as a government shutting down a newspaper. Nevertheless this appears to be a case of thowing out the baby with the bathwater.
Yes, some folks used chatrooms to do bad things. They should be punished just like the folks that do bad things with knives, guns, cars, baseball bats, fists, etc. Lots of people are stabbed yet I still get to have a Swiss Army knife. Pedophiles attempt to lure youngsters into their automobiles, sometime successfully. So should everyone be kicked out of their automobiles? I don’t think so.
One of the supporters of this action says:

“Here we have the world’s leading internet service acknowledging open, free, unmoderated chat cannot be made completely safe for consumers and children

Wow, that is a very high bar indeed. “Completely safe!” Let’s just all curl up and die.
As Katherine says in the first comment at Samizdata, just what is the deal with the ‘living in the same country to use them’ thing? To me, if I were an MSN user, his would be a perfectly good reason to ditch the service. One of the great things about the internet is connecting with people around the world. I wonder with Katherine just which governement(s) is up to what here.
Via Samizdata.