By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 26th at 04:00 AM  | 

Imagine if we’d banned automobiles because all the old business models that were destroyed by them got government protection. Imagine a government that unfairly killed innovation in order to give well-connected businessmen a leg up on upstart competition. That’s what big media outlets are asking for when they come after Dish Network’s innovative DVR service. And of course, given the Obama administration’s track record of | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 5th at 02:00 AM  | 

So, LightSquared. It’s a funny turn this whole thing has taken. Way back at the start, when I was excited for LightSquared’s potential as a 4G competitor, I was told that they were the next Solyndra. Then, when the Obama administration and LightSquared both reacted badly to requests for oversight, I was convinced. Now, though, defenders on the right are cropping up again for LightSquared. | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 28th at 01:30 AM  | 

So, the Internet died this week or something. CISPA was amended much, as I gather mostly tightening up some alleged privacy concerns. Then it passed the House. I don’t know if it’ll become law, but it’s a good idea. The comparisons with SOPA are deceptive. Speaker Boehner cut to the heart of the matter, pointing out that President Obama’s CISPA veto threat was rooted in | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 29th at 12:00 AM  | 

Special Tuesday edition! Having been very busy hitting a launch window for a client, I had to skip Friday and Monday. So to make up for it, this week I start on Tuesday. Riddle me this: FCC refuses to be transparent about its dealings with LightSquared (who by the way just changed CEOs, as the firm continues to flail desperately in response to the FCC’s | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 20th at 03:55 AM  | 

Late start tonight for Tech at Night. Sorry, but I’ve started a plan to get myself out of California, and to be honest I’m more than a bit nervous about the whole thing. Looking for new work in the Obama economy? Yeah. But at least Marsha Blackburn wants to help the tech job situation by taking on Barack Obama’s twin regulatory nightmares of the FCC | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 18th at 12:30 AM  | 

Sorry if you missed Tech at Night on Friday. I was under the weather. But I’m back, and with so much to review. How about legislation, good and bad? Well, mostly bad. Senate Democrats continue to push for senseless regulation of 4G Internet speeds, hindering vital new technology to increase high-speed Internet competition in America. Worse, Democrat Anna Eshoo is piling on in the House. | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 8th at 03:00 AM  | 

Net Neutrality goes to court. Great news, too: Verizon’s preferred venue won the lottery, and the Net Neutrality fight will happen in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. This is, of course, the same circuit that slapped down Net Neutrality last time in Comcast v FCC. Oh, but here’s a big surprise. Despite the FCC claiming previously that “We look forward to defending our open | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 29th at 03:30 AM  | 

Regulation, Regulation, Regulation. We’re faced with it, and now the regulators are going Presidential on us and claiming executive privilege at the FCC. You want to know how they’re coming up with their marching orders for America? Too bad. Just ask watchdog StimulatingBroadband.com. You want a laugh? George Soros-funded front group Free Press is suing the FCC… because Net Neutrality isn’t enough of a power | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 19th at 09:30 PM  | 

Happy Friday. We’ll start off this edition with Marsha Blackburn’s own post at RedState. There’s a reason I would like to see her rise higher on Energy and Commerce: she knows her stuff and is a fierce proponent of conservative values. I agree with her: government is not the solution to the privacy problem. I don’t agree with Joe Barton, whose plans for heavy-handed regulation | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 28th at 02:00 AM  | 

And we truly are back. Friday night was a night off thanks to some maintenance at RedState. It was nice because I could rest on a Friday night… but it’s not so nice now when I have a whopping 20 Firefox windows to sort through tonight. So here we go. With so many big stories going on, it’s hard to pick which one to start | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 10th at 12:30 AM  | 

Hello. So, the big rumor that just started going around is that Microsoft will buy out Skype. This worries me. I’m a paying customer, I’m happy with the service (though not with recent client releases), and I rely on it. If Microsoft ruins it, it will be a problem for me. Anyway, can somebody please explain to Joe Barton that you can’t take data off | Read More »

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

As I began work on tonight’s late Tech at Night, reports came out of an explosion at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, Japan. As Japan continues to deal with an unimaginably strong earthquake and then a devastating tsunami caused by that quake, I hope nobody takes those special circumstances and tries to argue against clean, effective power generation technology in the general case. | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 14th at 03:00 AM  | 

Now that the FCC has made itself the center of attention by planning a big power grab online, it may be the case that the FCC gets some unwanted attention. The Free State Foundation is calling out the FCC for not being very open even as the FCC is calling for an Open Internet™. Here’s the punchline, but read the whole thing, and that’s not | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 7th at 03:30 AM  | 

I’ve been saying lately that the likely Net Neutrality outcome wouldn’t be bad at all, that we’d get a compromise that disappoints the radical left far more than it disappoints us. But it’s not a done deal. We’ve got to keep the pressure up, both as activists and through the incoming Republican majority in the House. The FCC must respect the 2010 elections and their | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 3rd at 11:30 PM  | 

Good evening. In case you missed it, I weighed in with great detail on the Level 3/Comcast/Netflix flap, getting down to the basics to unravel the issue technically. But tonight we discuss Net Neutrality. House Republican Reps. Cliff Stearns and Joe Barton fired a warning shot, challenging the FCC to justify any action it takes this month, so now that’s an issue getting some attention. | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 2nd at 05:30 AM  | 

Just as I was saying copyright was soon to replace Net Neutrality as the big tech issue of the moment, circumstances prove me wrong. Instead, regardless of the results of the December FCC meeting and the future of that whole Net Neutrality debate (more later), the coming issue now is going to be peering. Some will play word games and say it’s all covered under | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 20th at 05:19 AM  | 

I know it’s a big day for Net Neutrality when I wake up and my Email Inbox is jammed full with links, so many basically saying the same thing: The FCC is on the move. I’m told it all goes back to a November 15 speech by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in which he expresses an urgency for the FCC to pass a bunch of | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 29th at 04:36 PM  | 

Update: Waxman is now using Republican opposition to this bill to claim the FCC should now implement the worst case of Internet regulation. Republicans need to get behind a reasonable compromise and we need to commit to outlawing Title II reclassification. The FCC going on its own would do incalculable damage to the industry going forward. Action is needed sooner, not later. If you take | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 28th at 07:01 PM  | 

I’ve hated to have to talk about out 72 House Democrats (and now John Dingell) are on the record against the FCC and its “Title II reclassification” power grab to deem that the Telecommunications Act 1996 no longer exists and so the FCC can do whatever it wants to ISPs, include control prices and regulate content. Well now I don’t have to so much anymore. | Read More »