Good news? I had a great Pastrami Burger tonight from a place called The Hat . Seriously: the pastrami itself is great, and I’ll probably go for the Pastrami Dip next time. Bad news? It was a busy evening and now I’m tired. The good news that wins out? Not much to cover tonight, so let’s go. In France it’s illegal to give away free maps . Yes, Google is reportedly having to pay €500,000 because a French cartographer didn’t like the competition. Insane. Reminds me of one of the times Rick Santorum made a point to stand up for big government: when he tried to get government out of the business of providing “free” taxpayer-funded competition to private weather services. Of course, Google’s free services are under fire in the US, too , so we can’t get too smug yet. The push for a sales tax compact marches on . I still say it needs more safeguards against ever-higher taxes, double taxes, a national sales tax, and other forms of expansion. And yes, Republican FCC reform plans are pro-growth by checking the runaway FCC.
Excerpt from:
Tech at Night: France fines Google for giving away free maps, FCC reform, Pastrami
[promoted because Ben is too modest for his own good] So its come down to this moment. RedState readers and my friends on Twitter have helped me make it through round 1 & 2 of the Next Talker contest to win my own radio show on the 50,000 watt radio juggernaut that is WBT which on clear nights can be heard in 22 states. I am so thankful to everyone that has helped me get this far and no matter what happens next, I’ll be eternally grateful. But, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, this ain’t over yet. We are now in the final round of voting for the contest. Voting has been reset (which means even if you were awesome enough to vote for me before, I need you to do so again) and the competition is stiff. As of this writing, I sit in 3rd place (out of the final 5) behind Ladd Lesh who sports 76 votes and Bobby Demuro who has a whopping 127 votes. I have a respectable 66 votes and need your help to take the lead. What I’m asking is a pain in the butt, I’ll grant you that. WBT decided to make it so people had to actually join their website in order to pick the Next Talker. Great for preventing cheating, but certainly a roadblock to getting anyone other than family and close friends to vote for you. However, in the last round, a great many of you did anyway. And this time I have Michelle Malkin throwing her endorsement behind me ! Recently, WBT had me on by myself for a half hour to “show my stuff” and let others see what kind of radio show was in store. I hope you like: Download audio here If you like what you hear, I hope you’ll go to the link below and press the “like” button for me. I am so thankful to Erick Erickson and RedState.com for allowing me to use their website to draw attention to this contest. And again, thank you to everyone who has worked with me to help make this dream come true. Hopefully I’ll be able to thank you every night over the air waves. CLICK HERE AND “LIKE” MY ENTRY
Read more here:
This Is It!
House Judiciary – Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet Excerpt from: House Judiciary – Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet
The rest is here:
House Judiciary – Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet
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: repeal Net Neutrality! Democrats are listed there, but Scott Brown needs to hear from us, too! The bad Net Neutrality rules are a symptom of greater problems at the FCC and demonstrate a need for greater reform, but we have to start somewhere. Let’s start with repeal. With one Republican and one Democrat quitting at the FCC, Barack Obama has two nominees going to the Senate . I can’t imagine a Democrat more against liberty and small government than Michael Copps, who was entirely in the pocket of the fringe Soros-funded “Media Reform” groups, so the Democrat can’t be a downgrade. But interestingly, Chuck Grassley is using this as an opportunity to look for any favors given to LightSquared by this administration. I can’t say I mind. I’d love for the LightSquared question to be resolved, one way or the other. I want spectrum in use for high-speed Internet! PATENT WARS: Motorola’s win against Apple in Germany may be short lived . I wonder, though: Will the peace-loving Soviet Google promise to drop all suits against Apple if they acquire Motorola Mobility? Google claims its patents are defensive. I’m with Robert McDowell: Unlicensed spectrum is handy but We don’t need more of it . We’re currently running at a shortage of wiress Internet-friendly spectrum. Unlicensed commonses aren’t what we’re short of. We need incentive auctions to convert television spectrum into high-speed Internet, not unlicensed mush. AT&T is doing limited 4G LTE roll outs, as are Cricket and other providers. That’s competition, folks, and that’s why Verizon is starting to budge on its pricing . We need government out of the way. This is a functioning market. The forces of big government are worried though, which is why they’re trying to censor AT&T’s speech against the Eric Holder/Sprint Nextel/George Soros alliance suing the firm.
Continued here:
Tech at Night: Tell Scott Brown and the Senate to repeal Net Neutrality
Not much to say tonight, which is good because I think I’m getting sick again, and if I had a lot to say I’d probably just skip tonight’s Tech. It’s official: the race for FCC handouts is on, as the FCC voted to repurpose the old rural telephone subsidy , the Universal Service Fund (a fund that comes from your special tax dollars) into a grab bag of Internet subsidies. In 2013 we should look at repealing the whole thing, just as Republicans continue to press for Net Neutrality repeal . I’ve said it again and again: Sprint Nextel’s actions do not match the actions of a firm that believes it will be an oligopolist with price setting power after the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Its actions match those of a firm that fears greater 4G competition. Becuase competition is indeed what it fears , and certainly not from T-Mobile, a firm with no subsidized iPhones on offer.
View original post here:
Tech at Night: The FCC subsidy game is on, Sprint reveals more of what it actually fears
