By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 14th at 04:00 AM  | 

Some bills become unstoppable in the Congress. They pile up cosponsors, get leadership support, and cruise on through to easy passage. Not SOPA, or its original Senate version, PROTECT IP. They’re in trouble. While the left is fighting these bills with blackouts and protesting, our message is simpler: If you back SOPA or PROTECT IP, we will primary you. That matters. One guy who has | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 12th at 02:30 AM  | 

Have some more SOPA. We still need to kill the bill and primary the offenders, after all. The bill by Lamar Smith (with strong support from Chris Dodd) is a real problem. Forbes says it relies on ignorance and fiction not facts, understanding, and reality. WordPress developers have come out against it, too. Arguments continue over unlicensed spectrum. Look, I’m open to the argument that | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 5th at 01:00 AM  | 

I’m back. I ended up taking an extended Christmas break because well, I liked having a break, plus there wasn’t a whole lot going on anyway. But, back to work! Lamar Smith and Chris Dodd still want to censor the Internet, by pushing the SOPA bill that we need to defeat. Why is it bad? Victims get no due process, ISPs have the burden of | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 24th at 02:15 AM  | 

Nothing in this post shall be construed to impose a belief that Lamar Smith would round up every American into MPAA-run detention centers if Chris Dodd suggested it would be good for big business. Does that sound like a stupid way to begin a post, and does it suggest that I’m about to say the opposite? Well, that’s how the Manager’s Amendment version of SOPA | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 22nd at 03:30 AM  | 

It seems like forever ago that Marsha Blackburn challenged Free Press to transparency in the group’s funding. Why should it take eight months to respond if Free Press has nothing to hide? Keep the Web OPEN. It’s a simple statement, but it’s one I support. The difference between SOPA and OPEN has been made clear to many thanks to Darrell Issa’s leadership. It’s unclear with | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 20th at 01:30 AM  | 

Top story tonight is of course the major win by the triple alliance of George Soros and his front groups like Public Knowledge, Sprint Nextel, and the Obama administration’s dual agency of the FCC and the DoJ. Yes, AT&T has given up on acquiring T-Mobile. I believe they will now have to pay a sizable fee to T-Mobile as compensation. This is bad news for | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 17th at 02:30 AM  | 

Wednesday night I put off all Tech at Night topics except for SOPA because the critical mark up votes in Committee were coming up. We weren’t supposed to be able to stop SOPA, but we could at least raise awareness, put up a fight, and prepare for the floor votes. And sure enough, the vote to keep the Internet censorship provisions went in favor of | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 10th at 02:30 AM  | 

There’s a new story developing. I’ve touched on it now and then, but the pieces are coming together. The FCC temporarily blocked the AT&T/Qualcomm deal to let AT&T buy spectrum using the excuse that they wanted to evaluate it together with the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. Well, the latter deal has been withdrawn from the FCC, so now what’s the hold up? It turns out that the | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 8th at 02:30 AM  | 

The FCC’s excuse for delaying the AT&T/Qualcomm spectrum deal was to work on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. The latter has been withdrawn, so what’s the excuse now? AT&T and Sprint both get bad reviews. Sprint’s Nextel deal went through. AT&T’s T-Mobile deal is getting blocked. Hmm. Looks shady, which is why I support Chuck Grassley’s push for FCC transparency involving LightSquared, even though so far their | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 3rd at 12:30 AM  | 

Remember: One of the victims of the joint Sprint/Justice/FCC Triple Alliance against AT&T is T-Mobile itself. T-Mobile has no 4G, no iPhone, and no clear plan for what to do if their right to sell off to AT&T is taken away by the big government wonder team. Nobody benefits when big government tramples the little guy. Even if FCC is clearly wrong, and it is, | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 1st at 02:00 AM  | 

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had Government Neutrality? Imagine if the government didn’t take sides: not favoring one industry over another as with SOPA, or favoring one firm over another as with AT&T. Because AT&T really is getting an unfair deal. The FCC could have just let the firm drop its application like it intended to do but no, it also gratuitously put out | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 29th at 12:30 AM  | 

What do AT&T, LightSquared, and the late Super Committee have in common? Spectrum. AT&T is the big story right now, too. They know the fix is in, with Sprint, Eric Holder, and FCC all ganging up on them as a team effort. The Obama administration is all but running guns to Sprint in this effort. So, the firm is trying to slip the noose by | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 24th at 03:30 AM  | 

Let’s be thankful the Internet isn’t yet censored by a bill like SOPA, as it is Thanksgiving on the east coast as I write this. How many unions must back this bill and its Senate counterpart, PROTECT IP, before Republicans wise up and kill it? Remember, once you give the government censorship power, uses will be found for it. For the children! It’s just another | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 21st at 11:00 PM  | 

Had enough SOPA yet? Too bad. Ignore my Piracy/Privacy typo and read my overview of the issue over at the Daily Caller. In theory I will be there weekly now, writing about tech issues. Don’t worry though; I’ve scheduled it with them so I write for them and for Tech at Night on different nights, so I won’t burn out or anything. And if yu | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 19th at 03:30 AM  | 

Some government mistakes slip by with only a few of us shouting about them. The Stop Online [Piracy] Act, or SOPA, is not one of those. People across the Internet are getting loud against the House bill and its Senate counterpart PROTECT IP, the one I’ve been yelling about for months, but many businesses are supporting. Yes, I’m going to be that guy, saying I | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 17th at 02:00 AM  | 

Welcome to Tech at Night, the series the radical left says is shaping the debate. I sure hope I am. After losing on Net Neutrality and on the America Invents Act, I’d like to get a win. The next chance for a win is in the House, which is debating SOPA, the bill that would create a national censorship blacklist online. Helping to lead the | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 15th at 02:30 AM  | 

Censorship’s the big word right now. The FCC’s under pressure to ban pro sports blackouts, and the Supreme Court may end national profanity rules. However I consider those things small. Few people have access to television broadcasts. Most of us aren’t actually censored by these regulations. We all have access to the Internet though; that’s how a nobody like me is able to shape the | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 12th at 03:30 AM  | 

It turns out it’s not just a few of us on the right who know Tech at Night exists. Gigi Sohn says Tech at Night shapes the debate along with good old Less Government. Of course, Sohn also told a lie about me and claimed AT&T pays me, but… that’s the head of a Soros-funded group for you. Media Marxists and all that. Something I | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 10th at 03:00 AM  | 

Why can’t the news come in even intervals, instead of batching up all at once? So yes, the Senate Net Neutrality vote is coming up. Credit where it’s due: Kay Bailey Hutchison moved the ball forward on this, no doubt about it. Credit also to Marco Rubio making headlines with his strong support of the repeal. And Rubio is right: the whole thing is ridiculous. | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 8th at 03:10 AM  | 

Oops. It’s midnight as I type this out. I just remembered I’d better do Tech tonight, so here goes. Fortunately I already did my reading! Urgent in the Senate this week is the upcoming vote on Net Neutrality repeal, which was already passed by the House. We need 51 votes, not 60. Less Government has a list of Senators to contact with this urgent message: | Read More »