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 I’m glad consensus is what Eric Cantor and John Boehner are demanding from a bill on this topic. The alternative is picking winners and losers. That’s not good for government to do, even if it’s been a problem for a long time , to the annoyance of Frédéric Bastiat. Speaking of picking winners and losers, FCC Spectrum management is falling apart . The more the FCC controls who’s bidding, and how the winners of the auctions will use that spectrum, the less efficiently we allocate and use that critical, limited resource. So naturally what are we looking at? Hassling Verizon for doing what it has to instead of fixing the FCC. Seriously: People who say that any Republican would be anywhere near the problem Obama is, simply need to look more closely at just how awful the Obama regulators are. They are completely out of control. We need to defeat Barack Obama and restore some sanity at FCC, FTC, EPA, and the rest. Google and Facebook will obey Indian censorship laws . Singling out Twitter for abuse over foreign censorship laws never made much sense, folks. Programming note: due to CPAC and my traveling cross country to it, this will be the only Tech at Night post this week.
Continued here:
Tech at Night: Opening up the OPEN Act, FCC spectrum insanity
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 I’m glad consensus is what Eric Cantor and John Boehner are demanding from a bill on this topic. The alternative is picking winners and losers. That’s not good for government to do, even if it’s been a problem for a long time , to the annoyance of Frédéric Bastiat. Speaking of picking winners and losers, FCC Spectrum management is falling apart . The more the FCC controls who’s bidding, and how the winners of the auctions will use that spectrum, the less efficiently we allocate and use that critical, limited resource. So naturally what are we looking at? Hassling Verizon for doing what it has to instead of fixing the FCC. Seriously: People who say that any Republican would be anywhere near the problem Obama is, simply need to look more closely at just how awful the Obama regulators are. They are completely out of control. We need to defeat Barack Obama and restore some sanity at FCC, FTC, EPA, and the rest. Google and Facebook will obey Indian censorship laws . Singling out Twitter for abuse over foreign censorship laws never made much sense, folks. Programming note: due to CPAC and my traveling cross country to it, this will be the only Tech at Night post this week.
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Tech at Night: Opening up the OPEN Act, FCC spectrum insanity
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.
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Tech at Night: France fines Google for giving away free maps, FCC reform, Pastrami
Some are still worried about the Megaupload takedown (including many the Motorola Mobility starts an aggressive patent suit against Apple . Google, trying to aquire MM, says they only use patents defensively. Will they pledge to drop this suit should they take over the firm’s patents?
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Tech at Night: More Copyright, and the Wyden-Issa OPEN act gains attention
Filesonic stops infringing . I guess the site’s leadership didn’t want to go to jail like Ninjavideo , or get hit like Megaupload did. People put up with ad-laden, obnoxious ‘file sharing’ sites when they want to download something that can’t be distributed legally, by less annoying sites. Everyone knows this. It’s a good thing that Megaupload was taken down. That was a blow for property rights. But not all in the anti-SOPA coalition support property rights. They don’t want prudent copyright protection laws to fix the problem of foreign free riders, and want us to wink and nod at infringers. Look, even if we repealed the Sonny Bono act, or even the copyright act before that, we’d still have copyrights that needed protection. Europe regulates the Internet again. “Right to be forgotten?” I say Brussels has a right to take a long walk off a short pier. Chuck Grassley, convert to our side on SOPA , gets his Twitter account attacked. Hijacking someone’s communications accounts is to attack political discourse in an open society. I hope those responsible are prosecuted. Also, way to reward people for doing the right thing, not.
The rest is here:
Tech at Night: War on Copyright intensifies as infringers fall, Grassley hacked
