Monday night, as promised, we still have some catch up work to do. So let’s start with those Amazon Taxes, those Internet sales taxes of dubious Constitutionality. Colorado’s got tossed in federal court and Illinois’s didn’t raise any money. Obeying the Constitution counts, folks. Pass a true interstate compact through the Congress first.

Also as promised, there’s the matter of the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act. This is the one where ACU has come out against Jim DeMint, and that caught my attention. I have to side with the bill DeMint is sponsoring. I think ACU simply misunderstood what’s at stake here and had good intentions, but the excessive complexity of the regulations defeated them here.

The bill does not let cable providers become free riders, retransmitting others’ streams for free. It just stops the law from trying to dictate the parameters of the negotiations on retransmissions. I see no harm in that, and potentially much good.

Here we go again. Apparently we’re supposed to be unhappy with the CISPA information sharing bill by Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger because it potentially could be used against copyright infringement. And SOPA is invoked against that. SOPA wasn’t defeated because everyone hates copyright. It was a power grab. Take your anti-copyright anarchy battles home, Reddit kiddies. You and your Anontard buddies.

More cybersecurity still: We cannot and must not have DHS start regulating the Internet. Government can’t even secure itself yet and so has no standing to dictate to others. Information sharing in the private sector, without government gatekeepers, is far more useful for protecting our country’s Internet resources. Further, with the irrationality and secrecy of TSA and its regulations, how can we trust them at all?

Going back to SOPA, Comcast was apparently for it, which doesn’t surprise me. Comcast is an ISP particular vulnerable to Bittorrent users flooding the network with high volume copyright infringement dragging down service for everyone.

Is a problem with tech patents, including software patents, that the system isn’t scaling well? Size, not just speed?

Apparently all the fuss over FCC reform, using white spaces as an excuse to oppose all FCC reform out of the Congress, was resolved with white space use marching on. This could be interesting. We’ll have to watch and see how it works, or whether we just get a tragedy of the commons.

An interesting development in the Do Not Track saga: Radicals and businesses are interpreting them differently, but frankly, the interpretation of the radicals is stupid. There already is a way to not be tracked at all, and not just exclude third parties: Disable cookies, dummies. The radical agenda apparently to be promoted by the FTC is out of touch with the actual technologies involved.

Apparently the FTC folks don’t understand that if you don’t want tracked by, say, Amazon’s recommendations, then you simply shouldn’t log into Amazon all the time.

LightSquared may be on the verge of bankruptcy, but Chuck Grassley is still fighting tenaciously for FCC transparency with respect to LightSquared, and is going to maintain his holds on the new FCC appointees. Go Chuck Go!

Here’s a potentially huge deal in the tech/copyright nexus that I hadn’t heard about at all Google is under concerted attack by a number of copyright holders in a move that potentially risks undermining the whole DMCA safe harbor system. Google has taken many steps to curb copyright infringement on YouTube, but they’re being dogpiled upon anyway by firms going after those deep pockets. If being a rich and popular website that gets taken advantage of by copyright infringers is enough to knock down the Safe Harbor, then it seems to me that the entire Safe Harbor system of the DMCA is at risk. That’s not good, as that was a careful balancing of interests in that bill. We cannot let the scales get tilted one way.

If the Youtube case goes too far, new legislation may be needed, and that’s going to be a big old mess. Especially when the MPAA and RIAA interests will inevitably be comingled with legitimate international concerns of Chinese and other foreign firms ignoring US copyrights

China notoriously blocks access to social networking sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Now a startup, FamilyLeaf, has found a break in the Great Firewall — allowing Chinese families to get a glimpse at the Facebook photos of their loved ones.

FamilyLeaf co-founder Wesley Zhao says he can feel how censorship affects his family in China. Virtual Private Networks provide access for some privileged Chinese Internet users, though the majority are restricted.

“Lots of Chinese American families have been disconnected by the Great Firewall of China,” Zhao told Mashable. “FamilyLeaf isn’t something the government would worry about, as it’s just for family. It’s a perfect way for people to connect, even if some of their family’s content is on Facebook or other blocked sites. ”

While the Chinese government blocks Facebook’s main domain, user photos are stored on a separate content delivery network (CDN). Because of these separate CDNs, FamilyLeaf users can share photos directly from their Facebook albums, without an addition upload.

Zhao’s family loves the hundreds of his photos they can now see and he enjoys seeing their photos he has missed because he’s not active on Chinese social networks.

SEE ALSO: Beyond the Great Firewall: How China Does Social Networking [INFOGRAPHIC]

“We don’t think the Chinese government did this by accident,” Zhao says. “The Facebook photos CDN is still available because the government is concerned about people organizing protests. Photos are not going to rile up protests.”

The site, which launched Tuesday, functions as a private directory for families, much like a mini-social network. You can share Facebook, Flickr, Picasa and Instagram photos, write on a family message board, and store contact information in the closed forum.

FamilyLeaf wasn’t started with the intention of connecting Chinese families specifically. Co-founder Ajay Mehta’s father keeps lists of relatives’ contact information strewn around his house. The startup’s primary goal is to connect families separated by distance.

“Most kids don’t want to friend their parents and lots of parents go on Facebook exclusively to share baby photos,” Zhao says. “The general purpose of FamilyLeaf is to help families connect in a very private way.”

Once they discovered Facebook photos could be shared with Chinese Internet users, the site has taken on a new life. Zhao’s father quickly translated the site into Chinese, to optimize its utility for users in China.

Before officially launching, FamilyLeaf has received significant international attention, receiving press in China, France and Italy, and active users in India, Israel, and Greece.

FamilyLeaf has no immediate plans to monetize. Zhao says it won’t take advertising, which he feels would detract from the site’s authenticity. The company would look into services that will add value within the context of the family, such as planning family reunions or sending cards.

Would you try FamilyLeaf to keep in touch with your family? Do you think the Chinese government will continue to allow Facebook photos to come through the Great Firewall?

Image of Wesley Zhao’s niece Mumu, courtesy of the Zhao family

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Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted in an Apple Store in Beijing, according to reports, fueling speculation that he was there to work out deals with Chinese telecoms.

A blogger named STwing of Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging service, recently posted a picture of Cook at the Apple Store in the Xidan area of Beijing, a.k.a. “Joy City,” according to multiple reports. The Joy City store opened the same day that Apple launched the iPhone 4 in 2010.

Apple reps could not be reached for comment on the reports.

Though it’s not clear why Cook would be in Beijing, Apple Insider cites “people familiar with the matter,” who say Cook is there to discuss Apple’s next iPhone with China Unicom and China Telecom, Apple’s two wireless service providers in that country. He may also be there to talk to China Mobile, a third carrier, according to the report.

This may not be Cook’s first visit to China; some reports said he was at Apple’s headquarters in Beijing last summer, when he was still Apple’s chief operating officer. Despite Apple’s vast manufacturing footprint in China, former CEO Steve Jobs never visited the country, according to reports.

Apple’s China manufacturing has become a big issue for Apple of late as criticism has mounted that the company has mistreated workers at manufacturing partner Foxconn. China, however, is also a huge emerging market for Apple. At least one analyst, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty, believes Apple could sell as many as 40 million iPhones in that country this year.

Image courtesy of Flickr, igrec

More About: apple, china, iphone, tim cook

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Download audio here

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss news of possible unrest in China, recent changes in communist leadership and the failure of the Buffett Rule.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Has There Been A Coup In China?
Bo Xilai is Gone. Now Can Beijing Keep its Balance?
Report: Buffett Rule would raise less than $50 billion over decade
‘Buffett rule’ fails its first test in Congress

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Follow Francis on Twitter

Subscribe to The Transom

The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.

Download audio here

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss news of possible unrest in China, recent changes in communist leadership and the failure of the Buffett Rule.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Has There Been A Coup In China?
Bo Xilai is Gone. Now Can Beijing Keep its Balance?
Report: Buffett Rule would raise less than $50 billion over decade
‘Buffett rule’ fails its first test in Congress

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Francis on Twitter

Subscribe to The Transom

The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.

Angry Birds might be coming for the little green pigs near you. Rovio Mobile, makers of the worldwide mobile game phenomenon, are in talks to open a theme park in the U.K. and additional parks in the U.S. and China at a later date, further expanding the Angry Birds empire of goods.

This news comes about one month before the first Angry Birds Land opens at Särkänniemi Adventure Park in Tampere, Finland.

The Angry Birds parks will be little lands inside already existing theme parks, similar to the character-themed sections Disney Theme Parks. But the company’s goal is to be much bigger than Disney,” Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka told SFGate.com.

“Zynga is a game company. We stopped looking at ourselves as a game company. We sold 25 million plush toys last year. For us, it’s about making Angry Birds available everywhere,” Vesterbacka said.

The parks will feature slides, sandpits, arcade games and more– all Angry Birds-themed, of course. The promotional video below from Lappset, the company designing the playground equipment for Angry Birds Lands, says the parks will bridge the digital and physical worlds:

People can’t get enough Angry Birds. There is an Angry Birds movie and TV show in the works, Halloween costumes, a cookbook, and toys and apparel.

The game has even been played in space, to help ensure that Angry Birds Space, which launched Thursday, looks realistic.

Late last year, Rovio announced Angry Birds reached half a billion downloads. The success of Rovio due to Angry Birds has sparked rumors of a $1 billion IPO in 2012.

This isn’t the first time Angry Birds has been brought to life. Last summer, a T-Mobile promotion brought real exploding birds in slingshots to the streets of Barcelona.

Would you visit an Angry Birds Land? Tell us in the comments.

‪Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=334915‬

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China watchers have been digesting the news from last week that Bo Xilai, long considered one of the Communist party’s future stars, was dismissed from his post as party boss of Chonqing, colloquially known as “China’s Chicago,” a sprawling city of nearly 30 million in the southwest of the country. Bo had become symbolic of an old-fashioned, hard-line approach to administration and reform, openly spouting Mao-era songs and slogans. Some in the Western media labeled him a populist, but publicly, this manifested itself in attempts to rally support for tighter government control. The proximate reason for Bo’s dismissal was the apparent attempt by one of his close allies, the vice mayor of Chongqing, to seek asylum in the United States; when this attempt was rebuffed by an American consulate to which he had fled, the official, Wang Lijun, was arrested by Chinese police. In the wake of this incident, China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, began indirectly criticizing Xilai, and from then, the writing was on the wall. This may seem like a bit of inside baseball to those who aren’t steeped in Chinese politics, but the episode is significant, and a rare opportunity to peer behind the veil of the Communist party’s internal workings. 

The dismissal of such a senior and well-connected official would be news enough in a regular year. As a son of one of the founders of the People’s Republic, Bo was a charter member of the group known as the “princelings,” whose rise to the heights of power seemed preordained. But this is the year of China’s leadership transition, and Bo, a former Minister of Commerce, was widely expected to be elevated to the Communist party’s Standing Committee — which essentially runs China — later this year. Bo’s fellow princeling Xi Jinping is also in the final months of his assumed ascension to leadership of the Communist party and presidency of China. The spotlight was on Xi earlier this year when he traveled to Washington, D.C., for his inaugural meeting with the Obama administration. As the leadership transition draws near, analysts and pundits have been looking for signs of dissension within the ruling circle, partly as a way to assess the resilience of a regime that is soon to give the reins of power to its fifth generation.

Keep reading this post . . .

While WTO complaint simmers, US sits on stockpiles of elements critical to electronics manufacturing

Vague Thorium regulation and fear of liability allows China’s (heavy) Rare Earth Elements (REEs) monopoly to persist. Already, China is restricting supply so that REEs will be completely consumed domestically.

Heavy REEs are key to high-tech manufacturing… Obama barely scratched the surface on their importance. There are plenty of heavy REE in US not just waiting to be mined, but sitting in tailing ponds and waste streams.

A petition has been launched: http://wh.gov/5OX

If anyone is looking for educational DVDs on this, here’s the cheap-as-possible product: http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZS3PW1&pp=1

If you have a means of distributing the DVD to representatives or candidates, I’m happy to ship some to you free. gordonmcdowell@gmail.com

The DVD gives an overview of how THORIUM can be consumed in a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (to end our energy dependence), and WHY solar/wind don’t cut it.

TV-friendly statement likely aimed at white working class voters