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Call to Action from IPaction.org

Posted by geeknews at 3:00 PM on June 26, 2006

This just in and your help is needed in stopping another piece of legislation that will affect yoru fair use rights. This is a direct quote from the folks at IPaction.org

“Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary committee continues its markup of Senator Ted Stevens omnibus communications bill. Is a lengthy and complicated piece of legislation, but hidden deep within are the broadcast and audio flags. Both represent the latest and perhaps most desperate attempts by the Hollywood cartels to control innovation, roll back fair use, and disrupt the free market.

The bill mandates a government technology committee that would approve or reject devices based on their functionality, just like Hollywood wants. For example, new personal video recorders could be blocked from the market for having too much functionality, allowing users to tweak its settings, or interfacing with non-approved devices in your entertainment system. This kind of silly bottleneck would be laughable if it wasn’t so close to becoming law.

Now is the time to let our representatives know how the flags would decimate the consumer electronics industry while erasing our fair use rights.

Please call the Senators on the Judiciary committee and let your voice be heard.”

Do you have a Senator on the Judiciary Committee? If so get busy!

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Posted in Fair Use, Politics

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Net Neutrality: This is serious, No it’s a National Emergency

Posted by geeknews at 1:52 PM on June 22, 2006

If you don’t know who Tim Berners-Lee then I encourage you to click on the link, and read his Wikipedia entry so I will say he is justified in making the following statement.

“When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.”

If you think that my standing on a soap box, and screaming at the top of my lungs for you to get active politically has been a lot of Hype, then I would like you to read the linked article and watch the video.

I will say it again. The Telcos by technology advances are being made irrelevant, the only business model in their future is that of moving bits and bytes. In 20 years no one will have a hard wired copper based telephone in there home, everyone will be using IP or similar technology, and people’s primary data provider will either be the cable company or the company that has purchased the telco, and converted all of it’s infrastructure to IP based technology. Current and Future technology will eliminate the need to have a hard wired phone in your homes and this has them scared to death.

No some will argue my economic outlook on this but because the telcos are positioning themselves to be the traffic cops setting speed limits and how much the tool booth charges are going to be they are angling to make sure that they are still in business in 20 years and that they can control the flow of data.

They know if they don’t squash Net Neutrality they will be on the loosing side of the equation. This is why they have spent millions on a advertising campaign to hood wink the general public, we know it, they know it, they are using Congress to save their business model. They will do everything in their power at any cost.

This is why Net Neutrality is not only serious but a National Emergency. [dig.csail.mit.edu]

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Posted in internet, Politics

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Petition for ‘Podcasters’ Rights and the WIPO Broadcast Treaty’

Posted by todd at 5:38 PM on June 19, 2006

Seems a treaty being proposed by the WIPO will make it harder for Podcasters to use music and other materials in their podcast. They have a petition online for people to sign. More details at [log.hugoschotman.com]

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Posted in Podcast, Politics

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Senator John Edwards to Keynote Gnomedex

Posted by geeknews at 8:08 PM on June 17, 2006

I am not sure what I think about this, I have had 24 hours to let it sink in, and received a reply to a message that I sent to Chris about it. The only Politics I talk about on this Blog, is how it seems that a great number of senators, and representatives have not a clue what they are doing in some of these tech bills they have supported.

I have been around politicians all my life, and honestly most of them tell ya what you want to hear, while trying to sell you a bill of goods. I swear though if he starts getting political I’m not sure I will be able to sit their and listen. But I am going to dig around on his voting record on key items that are important to the readership of this blog, and I am gonna ask some hard questions.

But the verdict is still out on whether it is a good idea to bring a speaker in that at least half of the people in the room do not care for. At least if you follow general wisdom that the political split in geeks will be pretty much down the middle risky and yet very interesting pick to say the least.

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Posted in gnomedex, Politics

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House of Representatives sell out to the Telecommunication Industry

Posted by geeknews at 2:10 PM on June 9, 2006

I am today quite sickened by the events in the House of Representatives in them selling their souls to the telecommunication industry. It is highly obvious that those largely Republican representatives that voted for this ignored the will of the people as usual, and gave the industry everything they wanted.

Americans were sold a bill of goods today and even worse telecommunications companies are now going to be able to setup toll booths on the Internet. This telecommunication monopoly on the way representatives vote in the house showed how the people are not being represented and it’s beyond a travesty. This statement sums it up:

“In a concession to the telephone and cable companies, the legislation does nothing to prevent the phone and cable providers from charging Internet content providers a premium for carrying services like video offerings that could rival those of the telecommunications companies.”

If this does not get you mad you need to get mad, you need to find out how your rep voted on this and let him know your opinion, then you need to get on the phone and let your senator know too. Makes me mad enough that any candidate will be better than the one currently in my district. [CNET Part 1] [Cnet Part 2]

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Posted in Crime, Politics

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Bloggers are Jailed?

Posted by geeknews at 8:10 PM on November 6, 2005

Political bloggers jailed, detained | Tech News on ZDNet

What happened to Freedom of Speech? I usually do not discuss politics, nor do I get involved in a lot of political talk. There are some things that I just stay away from, but in doing that, I don’t think anyone should have the right to shut down a blog for practicing their Freedom of Speech. Are blogs going to be ok, just as long as they are not political?

I realize this is not in the US, I just found this hard to believe.

Posted in Politics

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VeriSign the gift that keeps on giving!

Posted by geeknews at 3:53 PM on June 9, 2005

It looks like we are stuck with VeriSign for six more years as they have been given a renewal on thier contract with ICANN. My questions is did this come with restriction on them playing fair and not try to pull that same stunt they pulled two years ago when the re-directed mis-typed domains to their own website.

In my personal opinion this smells of protectionism and monopolization. [Yahoo]

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Posted in ICANN, Politics

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U.S. Homeland Security Shuts Down BitTorrent P2P Site

Posted by geeknews at 10:44 PM on May 25, 2005

U.S. Homeland Security Shuts Down BitTorrent P2P Site
Ten people suspected of involvement with the EliteTorrents webserver were served warrants by homeland security agents. According to the U.S. government agency, this is the first criminal enforcement action taken against violators of copyright law who use the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) file swapping software. The operation, codenamed D-elite, targeted administrators and content providers working through the EliteTorrents website.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted in Commerce, Crime, Dave's Muse, Fair Use, Information, Politics, Services, Software, Technical

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Jason Calacanis is calling CNet to task for not giving blogger credit!!

Posted by geeknews at 1:01 PM on May 20, 2005

Jason like some other people out here in weblog land are not afraid of calling people out, and I applaud him for that. I understand his frustration completely, and having heard the commentary Rush made on his radio show about professional journalist not recognizing bloggers earlier this week by pure luck fits into a theme that seems to be prevalent this week.

Hi commentary gives an interesting perspective, and gives me some things to ponder about on the perspective I have had on a couple of topics lately. Did I tell you I really like straight shooters.

I come from a family of great debaters who love to play devils advocate we just love to have a lively discussion. But I have also learned that having that type of personality requires restraint in being able to pick your battles wisely and only strike when you know you will win. The exception to that rule is you always stand your ground when something that is happening is illegal, unjust, hurtful, immoral or degrading of another person. [Jason Calacanis]

Posted in Politics

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Freedom isn’t Free in Technology and War

Posted by geeknews at 3:44 AM on May 11, 2005

I have been pretty vocal on some of my other sites on were I stand on supporting the troops etc. But a interesting post caught my eye today over on O’Reilly that although starts out as some political commentary it then turns into commentary on the fight for Technological Innovation, in order to assure that we will still remain one of the technological advanced countries in the world we need to stand up and fight for the freedom of technological innovation.

Just how many great consumers products have been squashed because of laws and restrictions. Example I have a stack of VHS tapes that I would like to put on DVD “easily”. I want a consumer box that will do this without restrictions, because hey I believe in fair use. But because the MPAA has had their hands into designs of consumer devices I am regulated to doing this the hard and agonizing way via my PC.

He list in that article some organizations that need our support. I have contributed money to more than half of those on the list because I know Freedom isn’t Free. [O'Reilly]

Posted in Politics

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