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

The House is doing anything but shirking its responsibility to apply oversight to the Obama administration. The FCC in particular is getting the attention it needs. “Regulatory hubris” in picking winners and losers is part of the problem, says Commissioner Robert McDowell. He should know, as he’s on the inside.

Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley disagree on the FCC’s transparency though. Issa gives them a good grade, oddly enough, even as they continue to stonewall Grassley.

And so it’s good that Jo Ann Emerson questions the FCC’s hypocritical and questionable demand for senseless record keeping in others.

Though it’d be nice if somebody asked “Senator” Wendy’s questions about Free Press, in relation to the FCC.

Lamar Smith, House Judiciary Chairman and sponsor of SOPA, has a primary challenger: Richard Morgan. Morgan’s issues page is still in progress, but so far he sounds like a good candidate to consider supporting.

The rhetoric is getting insane in the cybersecurity bill debate. No, really. Hint: passing a bill that increases information sharing and (in the case of Lieberman/Collins) creates an effective Internet Kill Switch by giving the President dictatorial powers over the Internet, neither of those things will actually protect us from attack in the short run. To pretend there’s a crisis is dangerously dishonest.

Wireless data competition marches on, despite the fringe’s claims, with the begin of NetZero’s service. They claim it’s 4G, but I don’t know if it’s LTE, WiMax, or a pseudo-4G like HSPA+.

PATENT WARS: Motorola fends off Apple at the ITC, while Samsung and RIM are now being sued over emoticons, of all things.

The House is doing anything but shirking its responsibility to apply oversight to the Obama administration. The FCC in particular is getting the attention it needs. “Regulatory hubris” in picking winners and losers is part of the problem, says Commissioner Robert McDowell. He should know, as he’s on the inside.

Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley disagree on the FCC’s transparency though. Issa gives them a good grade, oddly enough, even as they continue to stonewall Grassley.

And so it’s good that Jo Ann Emerson questions the FCC’s hypocritical and questionable demand for senseless record keeping in others.

Though it’d be nice if somebody asked “Senator” Wendy’s questions about Free Press, in relation to the FCC.

Lamar Smith, House Judiciary Chairman and sponsor of SOPA, has a primary challenger: Richard Morgan. Morgan’s issues page is still in progress, but so far he sounds like a good candidate to consider supporting.

The rhetoric is getting insane in the cybersecurity bill debate. No, really. Hint: passing a bill that increases information sharing and (in the case of Lieberman/Collins) creates an effective Internet Kill Switch by giving the President dictatorial powers over the Internet, neither of those things will actually protect us from attack in the short run. To pretend there’s a crisis is dangerously dishonest.

Wireless data competition marches on, despite the fringe’s claims, with the begin of NetZero’s service. They claim it’s 4G, but I don’t know if it’s LTE, WiMax, or a pseudo-4G like HSPA+.

PATENT WARS: Motorola fends off Apple at the ITC, while Samsung and RIM are now being sued over emoticons, of all things.

Harry Reid may be on a mad dash to bring the radical Liebmerman/Collins/Rockefeller cybersecurity bill, but a broad spectrum of Republicans continue to fight. Democrats may have toned down its Internet Kill Switch provisions, but still is a massive power grab online, and the new SECURE IT act is a much better idea.

What I absolutely love about SECURE it is that it hits all the key points: It strengthens criminal penalties for breaking into servers. It strengthens criminal penalties for breaking into servers (Yes, I said that twice on purpose because it’s that important). It creates private sector information sharing incentives without regulating the private sector at large. It turns inward and gets government to audit its own practices.

These are all the right ideas and none of the wrong ideas. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is speaking only the common-sense truth when he says “This bill recognizes that industry is at the center of any solution. It’s a sensible step forward that allows industry to invest in innovation and job creation rather than compliance. Imposing a costly and bureaucratic regulatory regime is the wrong approach to national security. New regulations will slow down innovation and investment while companies wait years for the government to introduce outdated standards. The regulatory process simply cannot keep up with the rapid pace of technology.”

It tells you just how basic and correct this bill is when it has co-sponsorship from such a broad spectrum of the caucus: Ron Johnson as mentioned, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Chuck Grassley, Saxby Chambliss, Lisa Murkowski, Dan Coats, and Richard Burr.

Support Ron Johnson and the team. We want this bill passed. The common-sense alternative to the power grab cybersecurity bill.

Even extreme libertarians are cautious about the bill instead of strongly opposed, which I think we all can see is a big deal for a bill about strengthening national security. So it’s no wonder Harry Reid is promising to give the bill a fair chance. This could be the one that passes, especially if Greg Walden’s new House cybersecurity efforts make it clear that this is the one that can get through both chambers and to the President.

Criminal enforcement does matter. Why else would Anonymous online terrorists attack the Interpol webpage after an Interpol-led effort rolled up a 25-man Anonymous cell? When we arrest them and jail them, it hurts them. We need to do this more, and we need to make sure the penalties sting.

PATENT WARS: Well, again, this time it’s trademark wars. Apple is going after the EPAD in China after having won the iPad battle.

Why would we be in a rush to raise taxes on Facebook, an innovator and driver of job creation in this economy? Don’t believe me that they create jobs? Just look at Zynga and all the other companies around that exist because of Facebook and its popularity?

Should we have a whole FCC blackout regulation in place solely as a gift to major sports leagues that make billions of dollars? Probably not.

Kim Dotcom claims he’s as innocent as Saddam Hussein in defending his since-raided Megaupload operation. Look, the DMCA model of working with copyright holders is a reasonable one. If he wasn’t doing it, then he had it coming.

Thanks to George Soros, Public Knowledge, Gigi Sohn, and the rest of the anti-AT&T/T-Mobile team, AT&T is now having to stab we (as I’m one) unlimited data plan holders with throttling and caps. Lack of spectrum hurts, kids. And yet some of these people are going to complain that AT&T is doing what it has to after being the target of a team effort by Barack Obama and George Soros.

And they’re going to target AT&T’s next plan, too which is very simple one. AT&T would like to give wireless App developers he opportunity to subsidize data use by their apps, calling it the ’800 number model’ applied to mobile data. Some people are scared to death of this, because competition could force some data-heavy services to consider data costs when designing their apps. But it’s a great, innovative, market-based way to help people on metered data plans manage their use. Government shouldn’t interfere.

Some say we need a national sales tax compact to keep states from having to raise other taxes as the sales tax model breaks down. I’m not sure if it’s a bad thing to just have a smaller, simpler tax code, but it’s a fair point to consider. Some states may overreact, using the sales tax situation as cover for raising revenue.

Tech at Night continues to be on a shifted schedule this week thanks to my being detained last Friday and Monday.

Harry Reid may be on a mad dash to bring the radical Liebmerman/Collins/Rockefeller cybersecurity bill, but a broad spectrum of Republicans continue to fight. Democrats may have toned down its Internet Kill Switch provisions, but still is a massive power grab online, and the new SECURE IT act is a much better idea.

What I absolutely love about SECURE it is that it hits all the key points: It strengthens criminal penalties for breaking into servers. It strengthens criminal penalties for breaking into servers (Yes, I said that twice on purpose because it’s that important). It creates private sector information sharing incentives without regulating the private sector at large. It turns inward and gets government to audit its own practices.

These are all the right ideas and none of the wrong ideas. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is speaking only the common-sense truth when he says “This bill recognizes that industry is at the center of any solution. It’s a sensible step forward that allows industry to invest in innovation and job creation rather than compliance. Imposing a costly and bureaucratic regulatory regime is the wrong approach to national security. New regulations will slow down innovation and investment while companies wait years for the government to introduce outdated standards. The regulatory process simply cannot keep up with the rapid pace of technology.”

It tells you just how basic and correct this bill is when it has co-sponsorship from such a broad spectrum of the caucus: Ron Johnson as mentioned, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Chuck Grassley, Saxby Chambliss, Lisa Murkowski, Dan Coats, and Richard Burr.

Support Ron Johnson and the team. We want this bill passed. The common-sense alternative to the power grab cybersecurity bill.

Even extreme libertarians are cautious about the bill instead of strongly opposed, which I think we all can see is a big deal for a bill about strengthening national security. So it’s no wonder Harry Reid is promising to give the bill a fair chance. This could be the one that passes, especially if Greg Walden’s new House cybersecurity efforts make it clear that this is the one that can get through both chambers and to the President.

Criminal enforcement does matter. Why else would Anonymous online terrorists attack the Interpol webpage after an Interpol-led effort rolled up a 25-man Anonymous cell? When we arrest them and jail them, it hurts them. We need to do this more, and we need to make sure the penalties sting.

PATENT WARS: Well, again, this time it’s trademark wars. Apple is going after the EPAD in China after having won the iPad battle.

Why would we be in a rush to raise taxes on Facebook, an innovator and driver of job creation in this economy? Don’t believe me that they create jobs? Just look at Zynga and all the other companies around that exist because of Facebook and its popularity?

Should we have a whole FCC blackout regulation in place solely as a gift to major sports leagues that make billions of dollars? Probably not.

Kim Dotcom claims he’s as innocent as Saddam Hussein in defending his since-raided Megaupload operation. Look, the DMCA model of working with copyright holders is a reasonable one. If he wasn’t doing it, then he had it coming.

Thanks to George Soros, Public Knowledge, Gigi Sohn, and the rest of the anti-AT&T/T-Mobile team, AT&T is now having to stab we (as I’m one) unlimited data plan holders with throttling and caps. Lack of spectrum hurts, kids. And yet some of these people are going to complain that AT&T is doing what it has to after being the target of a team effort by Barack Obama and George Soros.

And they’re going to target AT&T’s next plan, too which is very simple one. AT&T would like to give wireless App developers he opportunity to subsidize data use by their apps, calling it the ’800 number model’ applied to mobile data. Some people are scared to death of this, because competition could force some data-heavy services to consider data costs when designing their apps. But it’s a great, innovative, market-based way to help people on metered data plans manage their use. Government shouldn’t interfere.

Some say we need a national sales tax compact to keep states from having to raise other taxes as the sales tax model breaks down. I’m not sure if it’s a bad thing to just have a smaller, simpler tax code, but it’s a fair point to consider. Some states may overreact, using the sales tax situation as cover for raising revenue.

Tech at Night continues to be on a shifted schedule this week thanks to my being detained last Friday and Monday.

The big stories this week continue to be LightSquared and cybersecurity. Even as House Democrats complain about government doing too much, incredibly, we see that Senate Democrats are so inflexible that John McCain is in a gang of Republicans to fight the Democrats on the cybersecurity bill. Consider that. That’s how extreme Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman, Jay Rockefeller, and Susan Collins are on this. John McCain is putting together a team to make a Republican bill with Kay Bailey Hutchison and others, rather than sign on with a Democrat on a bill. Danger, Will Robinson! Harry Reid is that much of an extremist!

Reid is rushing to pass it, but details come out anyway, such as an attack on FOIA. Transparency! Not.

Speaking of transparency, the firm that the Barack Obama FCC has remained oddly silent on, and that insists the FCC should remain silent on, is ready to go on the offensive. It almost seems like LightSquared bet the company on this, and will go down swinging. They may end up making a spectrum trade though, which if workable would be interesting.

There is good news, though. The tax deal has essentially forced the President to go along with some FCC spectrum reform. With current technology, spectrum is a finite resource that we must manage for the greater good. That means getting into the hands of the people who can use it the best, and we can decide that with market forces. Spectrum auctions create jobs though, as we’ve seen with LightSquared, Some spectrum needs to be held aside for national security, civil defense, and first responders.

PATENT WARS. Well, Patent and Trademark wars. China steals iPads in its fascist bias against the foreign Apple claim. Turns out though that Amazon’s recent actions in China were not anti-Apple and were unrelated to the trademark battle.

Apple is on the winning side in another country, though. Apple is winning over Motorola Mobility (the firm being acquired by Google, so soon this will be a direct Apple-Google war) over Motorola’s apparent infringement of a slide-to-unlock patent. I believe Google will solve this by using another gesture for unlocking a phone.

Oh yes, and another Google/Apple thing to pas the popcorn on: Google tries to track you even when your iPhone tries to stop it. Google is almost certainly lying through its teeth when it claims that it’s not tracking anything at all. That’s what Google does, it’s their core product: the synthesis of information to sell targeted advertising. That’s why they made the huge stink about unifying your accounts across sites and unifying the privacy rules for them.

But this an industry matter. The inflated egos on Capitol Hill need to take Will Riker’s advice to the fake Jean-Luc Picard: “Shut up. Close your mouth and stop talking.” Nobody wants to hear them talking to hear themselves talk, and nobody needs any legislation.

Mary Bono Mack: You’re still my representative. I so badly wish you’d find something productive to do. We don’t need a privacy nanny. We really don’t. Government regulation is harder to avoid and more dangerous than anything Google is doing. Google is optional. You people aren’t.

The fact is people want to sell their privacy. It’s just not that valuable to them. Firms off the Internet have worked that angle for years. And guess what? When people can buy a little of your privacy, they can sell you stuff cheap, or even free. You have a choice. Use it, or not. Leave government out of it.

The Anontards keep hitting webpages. Anonymous is even a failure at life than the Occupations. These social outcasts, jerks and losers who tell themselves they have Asperger’s Syndrome so that they don’t risk killing themselves for being just total wastes of human flesh, they are unbathed, semi-literate, lazy fools who can’t have a conversation and barely even try. And they deface webpages! Inconveniencing innocent third parties, costing the taxpayers (including their parents, I’m sure) without actually accomplishing anything. Joy!

Again, Add the SEC to the list of runaway regulators being cheered by George Soros-funded front groups like Free Press. We have to beat Obama. I’m sorry, but you’re blind if you can’t see that there’s a striking, huge, wide gap between this radical socialist and any Republican. That’s right. Any Republican. Yes, including the one you don’t like. I don’t care. Read, study, and watch this. The EPA, the FCC, the FTC, the SEC, they’re all packed with radicals who believe themselves above the law. Next they’re coming after school lunches. Just watch. This administration is dangerously out of control.

The big stories this week continue to be LightSquared and cybersecurity. Even as House Democrats complain about government doing too much, incredibly, we see that Senate Democrats are so inflexible that John McCain is in a gang of Republicans to fight the Democrats on the cybersecurity bill. Consider that. That’s how extreme Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman, Jay Rockefeller, and Susan Collins are on this. John McCain is putting together a team to make a Republican bill with Kay Bailey Hutchison and others, rather than sign on with a Democrat on a bill. Danger, Will Robinson! Harry Reid is that much of an extremist!

Reid is rushing to pass it, but details come out anyway, such as an attack on FOIA. Transparency! Not.

Speaking of transparency, the firm that the Barack Obama FCC has remained oddly silent on, and that insists the FCC should remain silent on, is ready to go on the offensive. It almost seems like LightSquared bet the company on this, and will go down swinging. They may end up making a spectrum trade though, which if workable would be interesting.

There is good news, though. The tax deal has essentially forced the President to go along with some FCC spectrum reform. With current technology, spectrum is a finite resource that we must manage for the greater good. That means getting into the hands of the people who can use it the best, and we can decide that with market forces. Spectrum auctions create jobs though, as we’ve seen with LightSquared, Some spectrum needs to be held aside for national security, civil defense, and first responders.

PATENT WARS. Well, Patent and Trademark wars. China steals iPads in its fascist bias against the foreign Apple claim. Turns out though that Amazon’s recent actions in China were not anti-Apple and were unrelated to the trademark battle.

Apple is on the winning side in another country, though. Apple is winning over Motorola Mobility (the firm being acquired by Google, so soon this will be a direct Apple-Google war) over Motorola’s apparent infringement of a slide-to-unlock patent. I believe Google will solve this by using another gesture for unlocking a phone.

Oh yes, and another Google/Apple thing to pas the popcorn on: Google tries to track you even when your iPhone tries to stop it. Google is almost certainly lying through its teeth when it claims that it’s not tracking anything at all. That’s what Google does, it’s their core product: the synthesis of information to sell targeted advertising. That’s why they made the huge stink about unifying your accounts across sites and unifying the privacy rules for them.

But this an industry matter. The inflated egos on Capitol Hill need to take Will Riker’s advice to the fake Jean-Luc Picard: “Shut up. Close your mouth and stop talking.” Nobody wants to hear them talking to hear themselves talk, and nobody needs any legislation.

Mary Bono Mack: You’re still my representative. I so badly wish you’d find something productive to do. We don’t need a privacy nanny. We really don’t. Government regulation is harder to avoid and more dangerous than anything Google is doing. Google is optional. You people aren’t.

The fact is people want to sell their privacy. It’s just not that valuable to them. Firms off the Internet have worked that angle for years. And guess what? When people can buy a little of your privacy, they can sell you stuff cheap, or even free. You have a choice. Use it, or not. Leave government out of it.

The Anontards keep hitting webpages. Anonymous is even a failure at life than the Occupations. These social outcasts, jerks and losers who tell themselves they have Asperger’s Syndrome so that they don’t risk killing themselves for being just total wastes of human flesh, they are unbathed, semi-literate, lazy fools who can’t have a conversation and barely even try. And they deface webpages! Inconveniencing innocent third parties, costing the taxpayers (including their parents, I’m sure) without actually accomplishing anything. Joy!

Again, Add the SEC to the list of runaway regulators being cheered by George Soros-funded front groups like Free Press. We have to beat Obama. I’m sorry, but you’re blind if you can’t see that there’s a striking, huge, wide gap between this radical socialist and any Republican. That’s right. Any Republican. Yes, including the one you don’t like. I don’t care. Read, study, and watch this. The EPA, the FCC, the FTC, the SEC, they’re all packed with radicals who believe themselves above the law. Next they’re coming after school lunches. Just watch. This administration is dangerously out of control.

Sometimes, the anarchists lose. Even in leftist Sweden, The Pirate Bay’s founders lost their last appeal. It’s guys like these, who deliberately put up a system for infringing on US copyrights while playing word games to justify it, that motivated SOPA and that drive the desire for a treaty like ACTA.

Google considers its privacy changes a public policy issue as the firm is getting plenty of criticism. This suggests to me they believe the critics won’t actually stop using Google services like Gmail, but will rather try for government regulation.

Considering Google is implementing a censorship plan much like that Twitter recently announced, and yet you don’t really see the same angry protestors saying they’ll quit using Google services in protest, that did a “Twitter blackout,” I think Google’s right that nobody will quit them over any of this. Hey, people: If you don’t like Google, use somebody else. It’s not that hard.

A former Clinton and Obama administration official is angry that the House Republicans have the nerve to demand the FCC obey the Congress. AT&T seems to think the FCC needs put in its place, though. I still support efforts to put limits on the FCC’s ability to dictate arbitrary spectrum rules.

The FCC is feeling the heat. As Chuck Grassley demands transparency on LightSquared, the brand new Chief of Staff lashed out at the Senator, and had to apologize. Watch the name Zachary Katz. He may embarrass himself and his bosses again in the future, and let slip their controlling agenda in his rage.

Grassley’s now gotten pushback from the FCC and from LightSquared. What do they have to hide? Why not just go transparent on this, instead of criticizing the man simply asking for openness in government? It couldn’t be because LightSquared is now under pressure from Sprint to deliver the goods, eh?

After all, it was when FCC critics exposed abuse of the “Lifeline” program that the need for reform of the wireless phone subsidy became apparent.

Don’t you just love it when firms ask for favors from the FCC, openly asking for legal action that benefits them against others? When it’s out in the open, we see the corruption inherent the regulatory system. Help, help, America is being oppressed.

Oh boy, Herb Kohl wants to block more spectrum deals. This is out of control. It’s like DC Democrats want to keep high-speed wireless Internet prices sky high or something.

When Congress wants to grab power for government, one of the easiest ways to disarm opposition is to say it’s being done to fight child pornography. People’s brains shut down and they rush to join in that fight. So I’m not sure we’re fully thinking through the risks of this data retention bill. Once we create this database, we’re not only creating a huge new legal mandate on a fast-growing, innovative industry, but we’re creating risks that the data could get out, or be used for other purposes. Do you really want Eric Holder to have access to all you do online? Really? I think I oppose this bill, despite the misleading name it has: the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act. A more accurate name would be: Keeping Records Of All You Do Online act, because the real goal is data retention for government to check up on you.

Databases always find new uses. When they created the ‘deadbeat dad’ database, they couldn’t help from using it to track other things. Mark my words: If these database are protected, they will be used to track more than child pornographers. This I promise you. The warrants will be issued. The laws will be passed. This data will get out.

It’s not really a “snooping” bill. It’s a data retention bill. But just as we don’t like it when Google creates a massive database of all we do, so should we fear government demanding that such databases be made. It simply creates the risk of future snooping, and that’s bad enough.

Also, we’ve really got to primary Lamar Smith. He’s producing one stinker of a bill after another. He clearly has no concept of limited government in his mind.

Meanwhile, as we keep trying to regulate Americans, Wikileaks operates abroad, and none of the bills Lamar Smith is putting up would do one thing about it. Nor would the latest power grab of a “cybersecurity” bill by Jay Rockefeller and Susan Collins.

You don’t create security by regulating the victims; that just hinders innovation and distracts from retaliation and prosecution. You don’t stop criminals by creating massive schemes to track everyone online; that just hurts the innocent.

Fascinating issue to consider: How do we apply the concept of the search warrant to encrypted data? How do you compel the accused to admit to the knowledge of a cryptographic key, which if the encrypted data is illegal, amounts to a self-incriminating statement? As the world goes digital, the lines between information and ‘stuff’ get more and more blurry.

Again, what good is ACTA if China doesn’t join it and trashes Apple trademarks?

Sometimes, the anarchists lose. Even in leftist Sweden, The Pirate Bay’s founders lost their last appeal. It’s guys like these, who deliberately put up a system for infringing on US copyrights while playing word games to justify it, that motivated SOPA and that drive the desire for a treaty like ACTA.

Google considers its privacy changes a public policy issue as the firm is getting plenty of criticism. This suggests to me they believe the critics won’t actually stop using Google services like Gmail, but will rather try for government regulation.

Considering Google is implementing a censorship plan much like that Twitter recently announced, and yet you don’t really see the same angry protestors saying they’ll quit using Google services in protest, that did a “Twitter blackout,” I think Google’s right that nobody will quit them over any of this. Hey, people: If you don’t like Google, use somebody else. It’s not that hard.

A former Clinton and Obama administration official is angry that the House Republicans have the nerve to demand the FCC obey the Congress. AT&T seems to think the FCC needs put in its place, though. I still support efforts to put limits on the FCC’s ability to dictate arbitrary spectrum rules.

The FCC is feeling the heat. As Chuck Grassley demands transparency on LightSquared, the brand new Chief of Staff lashed out at the Senator, and had to apologize. Watch the name Zachary Katz. He may embarrass himself and his bosses again in the future, and let slip their controlling agenda in his rage.

Grassley’s now gotten pushback from the FCC and from LightSquared. What do they have to hide? Why not just go transparent on this, instead of criticizing the man simply asking for openness in government? It couldn’t be because LightSquared is now under pressure from Sprint to deliver the goods, eh?

After all, it was when FCC critics exposed abuse of the “Lifeline” program that the need for reform of the wireless phone subsidy became apparent.

Don’t you just love it when firms ask for favors from the FCC, openly asking for legal action that benefits them against others? When it’s out in the open, we see the corruption inherent the regulatory system. Help, help, America is being oppressed.

Oh boy, Herb Kohl wants to block more spectrum deals. This is out of control. It’s like DC Democrats want to keep high-speed wireless Internet prices sky high or something.

When Congress wants to grab power for government, one of the easiest ways to disarm opposition is to say it’s being done to fight child pornography. People’s brains shut down and they rush to join in that fight. So I’m not sure we’re fully thinking through the risks of this data retention bill. Once we create this database, we’re not only creating a huge new legal mandate on a fast-growing, innovative industry, but we’re creating risks that the data could get out, or be used for other purposes. Do you really want Eric Holder to have access to all you do online? Really? I think I oppose this bill, despite the misleading name it has: the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act. A more accurate name would be: Keeping Records Of All You Do Online act, because the real goal is data retention for government to check up on you.

Databases always find new uses. When they created the ‘deadbeat dad’ database, they couldn’t help from using it to track other things. Mark my words: If these database are protected, they will be used to track more than child pornographers. This I promise you. The warrants will be issued. The laws will be passed. This data will get out.

It’s not really a “snooping” bill. It’s a data retention bill. But just as we don’t like it when Google creates a massive database of all we do, so should we fear government demanding that such databases be made. It simply creates the risk of future snooping, and that’s bad enough.

Also, we’ve really got to primary Lamar Smith. He’s producing one stinker of a bill after another. He clearly has no concept of limited government in his mind.

Meanwhile, as we keep trying to regulate Americans, Wikileaks operates abroad, and none of the bills Lamar Smith is putting up would do one thing about it. Nor would the latest power grab of a “cybersecurity” bill by Jay Rockefeller and Susan Collins.

You don’t create security by regulating the victims; that just hinders innovation and distracts from retaliation and prosecution. You don’t stop criminals by creating massive schemes to track everyone online; that just hurts the innocent.

Fascinating issue to consider: How do we apply the concept of the search warrant to encrypted data? How do you compel the accused to admit to the knowledge of a cryptographic key, which if the encrypted data is illegal, amounts to a self-incriminating statement? As the world goes digital, the lines between information and ‘stuff’ get more and more blurry.

Again, what good is ACTA if China doesn’t join it and trashes Apple trademarks?

If I had voted for a bill that not only screwed my party, but also screwed the country, I would keep a low profile.  If I had passed a bill that was unworkable for businesses and helped preserve the entities that precipitated the housing crisis, I wouldn’t show my face in public for a while.  Evidently, there are five GOP senators, some of which have flirted with “No Labels,” who are unfazed by their vote for McConnell’s pathetic extenders package.  Worse, they are demanding that the House join them in helping their own reelection prospects at the expense of the rest of the country.

This, from CQ:

Republicans Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Dean Heller of Nevada, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine called on the House to change course, which Senate Democrats are gleefully noting. [...]

“I’m hopeful, maybe without basis, the House of Representatives will pass the bill the Senate passed and it will do so tonight,” Lugar said on MSNBC on Monday. “I’m hopeful that our majority, Republicans and Democrats today, will proceed, because it seems to me this is best for the country as well as for all the individuals who are affected.”

Snowe told Maine’s Portland Press Herald that it was “paramount at this point” that the payroll tax cut not lapse. Collins added, “At this point, we must act, as the Senate has done, to prevent a tax increase that will otherwise occur on Jan. 1.”

Heller said in a statement that [“There is no question we need to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance for the entire year..."]“there is no reason to hold up the short-term extension while a more comprehensive deal is being worked out.” Heller is set to face Rep. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev., in a close race next year.

“The House Republicans’ plan to scuttle the deal to help middle-class families is irresponsible and wrong,” Brown said in a statement. “The refusal to compromise now threatens to increase taxes on hard-working Americans and stop unemployment benefits for those out of work.”

Blocking a two-month extension that is untenable for payroll processors is “irresponsible,” Senator Brown?  Really?  You can’t think of any reason to hold up a short-term extension, Senator Heller?  We need another 99-wees of unemployment together with a tax cut, really?  This is really the best thing for the country, Mr. Lugar?  Or is this the best thing for your reelection?

The best thing for the country is to remove some of these political hacks, who hypocritically place their political ambitions ahead of the good of the country.

We can start by helping out Lugar’s primary opponent.