Welcome to Tech at Night, the series the radical left says is shaping the debate . I sure hope I am. After losing on Net Neutrality and on the America Invents Act, I’d like to get a win. The next chance for a win is in the House, which is debating SOPA , the bill that would create a national censorship blacklist online . Helping to lead the fight against SOPA is actually Google, who joins with other firms to oppose the bill . I know. Whodathunkit? But they’re right on this one, which is why we’re seeing weird things like Darrell Issa stick up for Google as the firm becomes a scapegoat for foreign infringers . Tumblr has joined the fight , encouraging you to contact your member of Congress while the site draws attention to the issue . It sure is nice to see the digital libertarians outraged over this issue . I think it’s funny they weren’t so outraged about Washington ignorance when the Net Neutrality debate came up, but I guess I’ll take what I can get on this issue. Ultimately, the reason we need to defeat SOPA is that we don’t want to feed into the lefty Media Reform crowd’s goal to control the Internet . Remember the Internet Kill Switch idea? SOPA is a *selective* kill switch. No. No. No. I mean, seriously. Someone explain to me why we’re even having SOPA hearings even as Greg Walden, Adam Kinzinger, and a saner committee are fighting regulation by pushing comprehensive FCC reform . Meanwhile, the Authors Guild proves just why we should oppose copyright holders on SOPA by demonstrating their anti-customer, anti-innovation stance against Amazon. Jay Rockefeller proves why we should oppose new regulation by again proving Obama-era regulation is merely a punitive tool against the successful , in this case the FTC against Facebook. Here’s a not-safe-for-work link that’s pretty important for people to see. Behold the Party Van , a hub of Anonymous/Anarchist/Communist Internet hacking and attacking online. Regulation won’t stop people like this. New laws won’t protect people from this kind of cybersecurity threat and online terrorism. Law enforcement will. Quit passing new laws and just put the bad guys in jail the way we used to for crime.
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Tech at Night: No on SOPA, the selective Internet Kill Switch, Greg Walden and Adam Kinzinger take on the FCC
There’s been a push lately to attack punitive, unfair taxes on wireless service, one that Erick Erickson signed onto, and was advertised at RedState. Ironically I only found out about it because I saw the ads while working on the code side of the site, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Anyway, that movement seems to have gotten a win , as the House passed the Wireless Tax Fairness Act, a 5 year freeze on new wireless taxes. Sounds good to me. SOPA, the House answer to the Senate’s PROTECT IP, isn’t dead yet, unfortunately. This attempt to have the US government censor the Internet, and in fact forcibly steal domains from people, and cut off Americans from the rest of the world online, incredibly is being considered by House Republicans. Copyright apparently is sufficient justification for government of unlimited size . Kill the bill. And what’s worse is that Republicans are being dragged along as dupes to help Democrats continue to justify huge Hollywood fundraisers by smacking the Internet around to favor the movie industry. Which is probably why the MPAA is trying to stifle criticism of the bill . Kill the bill. Kill Net Neutrality too, no matter what John Forbes Kerry thinks . I want a market where people can pay for what level of service they want for wired Internet, not just wireless. Kill the efforts to have government dictate to T-Mobile shareholders which US firms they can and can’t sell to, while we’re at it. AT&T is still trying, banging its head against the wall of the coordinated efforts of Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Sprint Nextel, and George Soros-funded groups like Public Knowledge. Oh yes, and kill 4G overload problems by getting us more spectrum .
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Tech at Night: Kill the bad bills and regs: SOPA, Net Neutrality, “Anti-trust” favoritism
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.
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Tech at Night: The FCC subsidy game is on, Sprint reveals more of what it actually fears
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.
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Tech at Night: The FCC subsidy game is on, Sprint reveals more of what it actually fears
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 Internet framework in court,” they’re actually doing everything they can not to have to defend it in court by attempting to get Verizon’s appeal dismissed . So much for that day in court. As for Sprint Nextel, even as they sue claiming competition will be impaired if T-Mobile and AT&T join up, their own strategy update presentation admitted the truth. See the 9:46AM slide, showing the growth rate of the year-on-year net postpaid subscribers across the top four providers. In 2010, Sprint was the only one to accelerate, while AT&T saw the biggest drop in its growth. In the first half of 2011, Verizon and Sprint are accelerating, while would-be deal makers AT&T and T-Mobile look on pace to notch their third and fifth (respectively) years of slower growth. Yes, that’s right. Sprint’s gaining subscribers at a faster clip, and is trying to keep the laggards from combining to keep the pressure (and 4G prices) up. And they’ve gotten the Barack Obama/Eric Holder Department of Justice to help, using your taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, the next big thing at the FCC is so-called Universal Service Fund reform. Obama FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made a big speech about it , making it clear USF reform would be what I said all along it would be: taxing you to pay for other people’s Internet connections. And to justify it, he’s fudging the numbers. Per Tech Liberation Front, he’s contradicting the FCC’s own National Broadband Plan’s figures to claim 18 million Americans lack access to ‘broadband’ Internet. The FCC will also pick technologies, and decide on winners and losers, when handing out these subsidies. Apparently the new name for this program will be the Connect America Fund . I expect industry support will be easy to get for this program, for three reasons. First, hey, it’s a subsidy. Second, the USF was originally designed to get basic phone service to people, which is an obsolete goal. Third, it’s being tied to reform of the old intercarrier compensation programs which allow various providers to gouge one another, hindering service and making everyone look bad, as well as making it harder actually to call people. Marsha Blackburn and Joe Barton are asking for the program to be limited in scope and to exclude any markets with unsubsidized providers already. But we’ll see what the FCC tries to pull at its October 27 meeting. According to CTIA, San Francisco is lying about mobile phone technology . So much for the San Francisco Democrats being pro-science. One good thing may come out of the budget supercommittee: more spectrum .
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Tech at Night: Net Neutrality goes to court, FCC still runs amok, Sprint admits there’s competition
