By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 6th at 03:30 AM  | 

Even the Obama regulators occasionally do things right. It was right for FCC to let the regulation die that forced cable companies to license original content to competitors. Though as The Hill points out, it may have done so out of a fear that the courts would force the issue anyway, not out of any desire to deregulate. Naturally House and Senate Democrats can’t abide the least bit of deregulation.

But don’t worry, they’re still making mistakes, too. They can’t free up spectrum until 2015, moving at a snail’s pace in a fast moving industry. And FTC’s antitrust attacks on Google are ludicrous. The standard for antitrust is high: if I recall correctly you have to show market power, being wielded, in a way that harms customers. I’m not sure that, relative to Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, that such points can be made at all.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 29th at 01:30 AM  | 

Top story: the FCC is moving forward with spectrum auctions, providing incentives for television stations to auction off their spectrum for wireless Internet use. We could see the auctions completed by the end of 2014.

Everyone admits there’s a spectrum crunch, and on the right and left of the FCC they say it’s a difficult question of how to transfer spectrum to alleviate it. Greg Walden is right though that this is good “if implemented well.” Bruce Mehlman of iia calls it “a terrific start” and that’s also true.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 24th at 11:00 PM  | 

As if it’s not bad enough that Barack Obama and the DHS are planning to defy the Congress and rule by decree on Cybersecurity, we’ve now got Jay Rockefeller using intimidation to try to apply a chilling effect to any opposition to the leader.

The dumbest part? Even as one part of the administration pushes cybersecurity, another pushes for back doors, which is a massive reduction in security, never mind the government spying angle.

Hoo boy. Steve Womack in the House is jumping into the sales tax debate, proposing a similar plan to the Streamlined Sales Tax-backing Marketplace Fairness Act already in the Senate. I expect one of these to pass under President Romney.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 22nd at 06:30 AM  | 

Wow: For a year FCC was tracking the movements of its speed testers without telling them! Privacy! Transparency!

Meanwhile the administration continues to try to do things on its own, without bothering to check that part of the Constitution that says how a bill becomes a law. Remember, the Lieberman-Collins Cybersecurity Act failed in the Senate. It has no business becoming an executive order. It also turns out that they are also looking to grab power when it comes to spectrum, which isn’t great news given the FCC’s obstruction and opposition to the use of efficient market allocation.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 20th at 12:00 AM  | 

I like Moe’s title here: The cyber-libertarians discover that liberals are not cyber-libertarians. The question is, will they learn, or like bad scientists will they ignore the results of the experiment and vote Obama again?

Especially as the President’s team is shameless in its openly plotting to defy the Congress’s rejection of the Cybersecurity Act by Lieberman and Collins.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 11th at 02:00 AM  | 

Out of control. It seems like only defeating Barack Obama in an election will truly stop this administration. Sure, for now they’ve been scared off of the Internet Tax, but with Net Neutrality and the Cybersecurity Executive Order still brewing, the Obama administration has more power grabs up its sleeves than we should ever have allowed.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 5th at 12:00 AM  | 

Hackers and pirates! Kim Dotcom says he’ll be back and revive his copyright infringement empire, while infringement haven Pirate Bay’s co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm has been arrested in Cambodia and faces deportation, related to his conviction in Sweden.

Also, Anonymous’s Antisec claims to have broken into FBI servers and gotten data about iPhones. FBI says pics or it didn’t happen. Theory: they installed a trojan app in the App Store and are blaming the FBI as cover.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 28th at 03:00 AM  | 

I know, it’s terrible, but after missing Friday due to the RedState upgrade, I feel behind tonight and so am just going to have to speed through some of this tonight.

Ah, the ARRA, aka the Porkulus. Picking Internet winners and losers in Colorado, and probably nationwide in many “little” stories the national media chooses not to pick up.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 23rd at 12:30 AM  | 

So, the FCC put out another report (the “706 report”) that just pushes an agenda rather than reporting the true facts about high speed Internet in America. Commissioners McDowell and Pai tell it like it is. We’ve also got Broadband for America telling the story. I’m not even worried about the details: the FCC is saying what they feel they must say to justify expanding | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 10th at 10:00 PM  | 

So the FTC is on a tear. Google is officially smacked for $22.5 million for hacking though Safari’s privacy protections to sell Safari users’ information to advertisers. Then Facebook got whacked for lying about what privacy protections it was giving users. Some are saying this is bad, as it’s expanding FTC power, but this is really a bad time to make that point. Google brought | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 9th at 01:30 AM  | 

With the Cybersecurity Act on hold for now, it seems like a slow news week, so a quick one tonight. We’re in a spectrum crunch, and as long as the Obama administration is restricting spectrum allocation, including the critical secondary spectrum market that firms like Verizon and AT&T are trying to operate in, it’s not going to get better. The Obama FCC claims to get | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 24th at 02:30 AM  | 

It’s easy to see why there’s sudden, strong opposition to the Marketplace Fairness Act, as yet another Republican governor, Terry Branstad, backs the bill. I again state my opposition to the lousy language backing the bill, including “fairness” and “loophole”. Yes, that language is being driven by marketplace losers, but both sides of this debate are ponying up cash. I favor the bill on its | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 17th at 01:30 AM  | 

Please read: A personal appeal to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. You mad, bro? With that business out of the way, back to Tech at Night. I for one am glad that Jon Kyl and Sheldon Whitehouse are having trouble coming up with a compromise. The Lieberman-Collins bill favored by Harry Reid and Barack Obama is terrible and just an awful, huge power grab. We’re better | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 16th at 01:00 AM  | 

When I read the President’s Executive Order Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment, I’m reminded of the scene in Spaceballs when Dark Helmet tells the crew of Spaceball One “What are you preparing? You’re always preparing. Just go!” For the Obama administration to spend a year preparing whether or not to address a list of reforms, instead of just doing them, suggests to me the administration simply | Read More »

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

Privacy? You want privacy in the digital age? Start by repealing campaign finance laws before you wag your socialist finger at the private sector. Al Qaeda also denied 9/11 involvement at first, but we knew the truth. Also, how can Anonymous deny involvement in an attack when they claim to be unorganized? It’s these slipups that let us know the truth about them: they’re an | Read More »