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Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-05-03 17:08
It is always a joy to read clear thinking rigorous analysis. I have known and respected Marius Schwartz's mind and work for several years, and I am delighted that he brought the heft of his intellect and DOJ experience to the question of "wireless net neutrality" in his white paper:
For anyone who cares about the merits or substance of net neutrality as a proposed public policy, it would be hard to find a better debunking of Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu's sophomoric and vacuous work on wireless net neutrality than Marius'.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-05-03 10:33
The WSJ yesterday had an illuminating interview with David Rosenblatt CEO of DoubleClick about its acquisition by Google.
Mr. Rosenblatt engaged in some pretty effective "spin" so I thought it would be helpful to shine a brighter light on some of his pat answers that were... how should I say it... less than forthcoming.
In response to a question about whether he could reassure web publishers that Google did not have too much market power, he said: "Google shares revenues with publishers so it makes sense that their interests are pretty much aligned."
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2007-05-02 14:33
I recommend listening to Larry Irving's, (President of the Internet Innovation Alliance) keynote at the Killer App expo that can be heard by podcast.
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On one point near to my heart, not taxing the Internet, Irving asked, "Why is telecommunications such a highly taxed product (3rd behind alcohol and gambling) when it's such an important tool for growth and competition?" Two of those products can hurt people, but better communications access can only help the economy.
He makes a great point. It makes no sense to tax an engine of economic growth as mucha s we do.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2007-05-02 10:06
I recommend a strong academic paper that debunks the sloppy thinking and analysis behind Columbia Professor Tim Wu's call for wireless net neutrality -- its by: Robert Hahn and Robert Litan of AEI/Brookings and Hal Singer of Criterion Economics.
- It is an important rebuttal that concludes that the costs of wireless net neutrality would exceed any benefits.
What I like most about the study is that it is a systematic evisceration of the logic and evidence behind Mr. wu's call for wireless net neutrality.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2007-05-01 19:10
I always love to juxtapose a couple of stories to point out irony.
Yesterday, I blogged that Tech Daily reported that the Google gang, AKA ItsOurNet ... will be relaunched in May as the "Open" Net coalition.
Well today I laughed out loud when I read in Tech Daily, that Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales is promoting a new collaborative search process like the wiki online encyclopedia.
Seems like those who really know "open" don't think Google is worthy of its self annointed name of the "Open" Net Coalition.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2007-04-30 18:40
The ItsOurNet coalition is relaunching under a new name the "Open Internet Coalition" in May according to Todays' National Journal's Tech Daily .
I must say I am sad to see the ItsOurNet name fall by the wayside, it was a glorious pinata of a concept.
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I needled ItsOurNet when they announced their name that it was a tad bit greedy for the online giants to claim in their name that they "owned" the Internet.
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I suggested it would have been a little wiser and fit with their "democratic" message to have called it "ItsEveryonesNet" or "ItsEverybodysNet".
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But no, they apparently are calling it the "Open Net coalition" or "OpenNetCoalition.com."
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Not bad but for grins, quickly checkout an Internet artifact before they pull it down: opennetcoalition.org.
It also will be interesting to see if they have retooled the substance of their message and if they will abandon Moveon.org and the Dorgan-Snowe bill to try and appear more reasonable and practical.
Reading between the lines of the article it seems Moveon is "on" the defensive so to speak.
lastly it will be interesting to see if:
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2007-04-30 17:49
The New York Times article today on Google highlights another reason all Americans should be worried about Google's anti-competitive arbitrage of U.S. privacy laws and consumer expectations.
- "Google has been working with officials in Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia to make some of that information more broadly available."
- That "information' is the data on state websites; and is part of Google's mission "to make all the world's information accessible and useful."
- "But the increased exposure of government records through web searches is likely to raise privacy concerns."
- "It will be easier to collect disparate facts about a person, which bound together and aggregated, can present troubling problems..."
I just heard someone joke:
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-04-27 18:18
I first wanted to share some very interesting quotes that are relevant to the GoogleDoubleclick merger and privacy in general -- before I delve into the issue of "intimacy theft" more specifically.
In Comm Daily Thursday, a widely respected attorney in Washington, Christine Varney, who identified herself as a longtime attorney for DoubleClick said:
This is the marketplace context that the government will review the Google-DoubleClick merger.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2007-04-27 15:32
Declan McCullagh of CNET has a very insightful piece called: "Missing : Politicians who take a clear stand on tech" where he spotlights that net neutrality is not on either the Democrat or Republican tech policy agendas.
- It is not at all surprising that the Congressional Republican agenda does not have Net neutrality on its agenda, since Republicans almost universally see net neutrality for what it is: an unnecessary and dangerous back door attempt to regulate the Internet for the first time.
- However, it is suprising and downright embarassing that Moveon.org and Google, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, and IAC could not manage to get net neutrality on the Congressional Democratic tech policy agenda.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2007-04-26 15:56
I listened in to SaveTheInternet's conference call with reporters in celebration of their one year anniversary.
Senator Dorgan (D-ND) author of the pending Dorgan-Snowe Bill was the keynote and star.
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He framed net neutrality as "Internet freedom" and "open architecture" and breathlessly stated that "the future of the Internet is at stake."
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He announced that he was seeking a hearing on his legislation with the goal of moving it to the Senate floor implying he had the votes to pass it.
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He also anticipated and asked himself the core question of "why is the legislation needed?"
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His only answer was to read the December 2005 Business Week quote by then SBC Chairman Ed Whitacre about how it was "nuts" for Google to use its pipes for free.
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I was stunned that he as the keynote and the name author of the legislation that he could not come up with a more recent or better piece of "evidence" or at least come up with a real world example of a problem or instance he is concerned about.
Craig Newmark was second to speak and he asserted everyone he knew was for NN. (I guess we should give up now.)
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