Tech at Night: Barack Obama's Internet Regulation plan really is bad news

Critics who don’t want to debate the merits of expanded government like to portray the Net Neutrality debate as activists vs Cable Companies™, but this isn’t that at all. This is the people vs. the Obama administration, as it is with EPA, NLRB, and every other overreaching regulator.

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Don’t take my word for it. Commissioner Ajit Pai says “The American People are being misled about President Obama’s plan to regulate the Internet.” He’s seen the plan, folks. He’s in a position to know who’s lying, and who isn’t.

Ajit Pai is the man. I’ve met him, and the impression I really got was that he’s a smart guy who is really excited about technology, and really cares about getting things right. I really never got the impression he was some activist or ideologue, and so when he’s using strong language like this, I think we should listen.

Mark Cuban doesn’t like the President’s plan, either, but what does he know? He only made his fortune streaming video.

Dean Heller wants to force FCC to be transparent. I like this. It’s a start.

Technological ignorance at work: “Broadband Providers are not the Internet”. Wow. Trying to draw a line between ‘Internet’ and ‘Not Internet’ is a fool’s errand. The Internet *is* the entire series of connected networks. The Internet isn’t just the backbone. If it were, it wouldn’t have value. The Internet’s value is in what’s at the edges, both customers and businesses, and that makes the networks of ISPs an integral part of the Internet.


We shouldn’t let it get taxed by money-grubbing local governments, either. It’s not just interstate commerce, it’s global commerce.

Man, if you want to see some complex inside baseball, Read this summary of some recommendations by the Copyright Office. There’s a lot of balancing going on, and a scary number of opportunities to pick winners and losers, but the good news is they want to end the ability of radio stations to ignore copyright on pre-1972 recordings, which is a ridiculously unfair thing.

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This is bad: Obama is doing the pen and phone thing with cybersecurity, playing politics even when his own Obamacare exchanges aren’t even secure.

Here’s a tricky issue: US Marshals listening in on phones. On one hand it’s something your phone is broadcasting, but on the other hand they’re getting that information under false pretenses protocol-wise.

NSA is rightfully winning in court, at least.

Imagine if you could get away with saying anything online, including death threats, just by claiming my bot randomly generated the threat. That’s what this guy seems to think, that a bot he owns and controls, posting under his name, using his own words, isn’t his responsibility. I’m sorry but that’s dumb thinking. Of course you’re responsible.

Why we need patent reform: strong patents are good for innovators, but strong trial lawyers suing innovators are bad.

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