Tech at Night: Republicans pass phone unlocking over Democrat opposition. Manchin calls for Bitoin ban.

Tech at Night

Have you heard about The Weather Channel trying to force Dish Network to buy its programming? Yes, they actually want the Obama administration to force that to happen. They claim it’s a public service, except ratings are falling and they don’t even do exclusively weather anymore. Guys, it’s 2014: People get the weather on the Internet and on their phones. Nobody needs to watch cable TV for weather anymore. We must not use government to subsidize this buggy whip manufacturer.

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Bitcoin continues to be used for crime, and leading Bitcoin groups are clouded by scams, so it’s no wonder Joe Manchin wants to ban the whole thing.

I can’t really blame him. I can’t support it – we already have money laundering laws – but I understand it.

King’s attempt to trademark the word Candy in the US has been defeated, but they won in Europe. Heh. Europeans.

Aereo means competition, threatening the extra cash broadcasters make through getting people to pay for the same signal they get free over-the-air. Government must not quash this.

Further, in a world of franchise monopoly agreements over cable services, where local governments award monopolies, a merger of two cable companies won’t reduce competition, and in fact probably will result in lower prices for the public, due to greater negotiating power with broadcasters.

So House Republicans passed a bill to re-legalize phone unlocking after the Obama administration re-banned it. Typical. One side for liberty, one side for cronyism. So it’s no ssurprise that Democrats and the left have arrayed against the bill.

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On the other side of the fence, it’s interesting to see musicians – a field long known for being full of hippy dippy Communists – looking to maximize their rights under copyright law. Good for them.

Darrell Issa continues to pass little bills that implement reform, this time a reform of Federal IT acquisision.

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