By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 30th at 11:45 PM  | 

Am I tired of expressing dissatisfaction with the Obama FCC and other government intrusions? Never! Al Franken is setting up an unfalsifiable rationale for government action against Verizon and Comcast. Gotta love that, eh? I’m sure he, the FCC, or both will try to overturn the courts who say bundling is not anticompetitive. I like bundling. It saves me money when I’m buying both things | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 29th at 02:30 AM  | 

FCC reform advances in the House. Greg Walden’s FCC Process Reform Act is a needed bill, so I’m glad that it went from committee to the floor, and took minimal modification in passing. I like that it got an extra poke at FCC being more closed on FOIA requests than even CIA. Locking in the reforms is important, and CTIA is right in saying we | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 27th at 01:00 AM  | 

So we already had the coming FCC battle over Verizon’s attempts to acquire the spectrum it needs, the Senate fight over ‘cybersecurity,’ and a possible Congressional fight over Internet sales taxation. But now there’s a new issue to keep track of: the FTC is taking it upon itself to regulate the Internet on the grounds of protecting privacy. Jim Harper seems thinks it’s nothing new, | Read More »

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

Previously on Tech at Night I linked to a story that suggested there was a split between Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley on FCC transparency. It turns out the story I relied on, had it wrong. Oversight wasn’t grading transparency itself; the committee was grading the management of FOIA requests, and FCC did relatively well by having established processes for dealing with FOIA. and tracking | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 15th at 03:30 AM  | 

Apologies, but I’m going to be a bit brief tonight. I have a lot going on this week, and starting Tech at Night at midnight my time just isn’t good. Sorry! Chuck Grassley’s continuing the fight against the runaway FCC, leaving open the option of continuing after initial investigations. Good on him. Don’t foreclose options needlessly. But even as Republicans attempt to keep government from | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 10th at 01:45 AM  | 

I know, I know. The way that broadcasts travel across state lines, it’s important that some sort of national control step in, because the states can’t do it. But the way the Obama FCC operates, sometimes I wonder if it’s worth all the trouble. Instead of working to ensure we have the spectrum we need allocated to the purposes we want, The Obama FCC constantly | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 8th at 01:30 AM  | 

ACTA. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is Darrell Issa’s next project, as he’s not happy about the treaty. So, he’s put the treaty online for all to see. I still don’t know of any specific reason to oppose the treaty. My understanding is that it basically brings the west in on the DMCA. There may be details I’ve missed though. The best argument against the treaty | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 23rd at 03:30 AM  | 

FCC overreach doesn’t seem like it should be a new topic, but it actually is. Consider that the FCC is threatening to get into cybersecurity which is interesting since the Congress is working on it. FCC wants to get into campaign finance regulation. And it’s unclear whether the FCC would enforce White House calls for new privacy regulations. The runaway FCC to me is the | Read More »

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

Yup, I’m back. And I have roughly a week’s worth of stuff to cover, so let’s go. Top story seems to be that The Obama/Holder Justice Department has no problem with Google’s vertical integration takeover of Motorola Mobility. Interesting. I also await word on whether Google will drop all aggressive patent lawsuits, as they claim to use patents only defensively. Some people never learn. Google | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 7th at 02:00 AM  | 

Yes, we beat SOPA, but the problem of foreign infringers is still around. And we’re not just talking about online copyright infringement, either. Copies of clothing, purses, gadgets, you name it: foreign free riders are a problem. It’s an important tradeoff to find, so an open process for the Darrell Issa OPEN Act is a good one. A slow, consensus-based approach is also smart, so | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 13th at 03:00 AM  | 

It’s Monday, so it’s time for that weekly self promotion of mine. This week at the Daily Caller I discussed NISO, an information sharing proposal by Dan Lungren that would get government in a role of improving our security online without compromising liberty and innovation. And now back to SOPA. Now Eric Schmidt realizes we don’t want government to have a huge role online, complaining | 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)  |  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 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 »

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 30th at 11:30 PM  | 

So, Net Neutrality has been published. Now nothing can stop Verizon’s lawsuit over the illegal power grab. Remember: the FCC has tried this before, when they went after Comcast. They lost. It’s not unreasonable to expect them to lose again. Meanwhile, federalism continues to be trashed as Puerto Rico jumps into the game. They don’t want to pay taxes but they want to block our | Read More »

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

November 20. That’s the day the Obama administration has chosen to regulate the Internet after what even The Hill calls “a partisan vote” at the FCC to pass the Net Neutrality regulations. I’m hoping Verizon and/or MetroPCS will sue and win a stay before that date, though I don’t know how likely that is for a court to act that strongly. I’ve said much about | Read More »

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

I’ve basically got three topics for tonight’s edition. It’s sad that two of them are government antitrust actions. I suppose elections do have consequences, and one key consequence of Barack Obama’s election is corporatist selection of winners and losers in the marketplace. The third main topic: Alleged corruption. I’m still playing the role of skeptic on accusations that the Obama administration is playing favorites in | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 15th at 02:00 AM  | 

The FCC continues to stall national 4G wireless competition in America, as LightSquared continues to be stalled even after having to give up half its spectrum! Meanwhile the Net Neutrality power grab creeps closer to being official, at which time MetroPCS and Verizon will sue. I expect them to win and get the regulations tossed out, too, because the last time the FCC tried this, | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 13th at 03:30 AM  | 

Competition, growth, and innovation are all important for the American wireless Internet market. We need more, better, and cheaper service if we’re going to move in large numbers to wireless Internet, as some are predicting. This means competition and growth in the 4G sector is vital to our future economic health. And that, in a nutshell, is why I think it’s essential that the government | Read More »