Internet & Technology:

There's a Solar-Powered Laptop PC In You Future, May 23, 2005
This morning, I was discussing with a co-worker my desire to one day have a laptop PC that is powered by a lightweight solar panel no bigger than its lid, attached to the lid by a hinge so it could be flipped outward to point sunward. At lunchtime, while getting my haircut, I read this Wired article, which doesn't talk about laptop-lid-sized solar panels, but does mention that "Several companies are using nanotechnology to develop...

How To Blog From Darfur, May 23, 2005
Glenn Reynolds and Bill Quick have been discussing what kinds of mobile equipment an independent online blogging journalist would need to do their job well, with the emphasis on both small and portable and also on inexpensive and yet effective and tough enough to take a beating. Of course, all the cool digital cameras and laptops and digital audio and video recorders in the world won't help a blogging reporter actually publish if they don't...

Free Franklin WiFi?, May 05, 2005
The Nashville suburb of Franklin may soon become the first citywide municipal wifi hotspot in Tennessee - but Nashville remains far behind in the emerging trend of cities offering ubiqituous wireless Internet access. The Scene has the story. A few years ago, I started sending emails to a key person 's economic development efforts, often with articles attached about what other cities are doing to make wireless Internet access available in their central business districts....

Technology Hunting, March 03, 2005
Just a quick request for my readers: I am researching to find if anyone makes and sells solar battery chargers compatible with a digital camera and with a laptop PC, or a digital camera and a laptop that are solar powered. If you know of such a thing, please post info in the comments. My goal is to find a way to equip missionaries in a remote part of war-torn Sudan, where there are no...

Looking For Tennessee Podcasters, February 24, 2005
A reporter for a Tennessee newspaper contacted me, looking for Tennessee-based podcasters. I don't know of any, but if you are a Tennessee podcaster and you want to be interviewed for a newspaper story and get your 15 minutes of fame, please leave a comment with some idea of how to contact you through your blog, email or smoke signals. If you aren't a Tennessee podcaster but you know of one, please forward them this...

Another Podcasting Post, February 23, 2005
Here's a podcasting primer, from PBS' NewsHour program....

Podcasting, February 19, 2005
The New York Times has a story today on podcasting. I haven't read it yet, but here it is. Podcasting is one of those things I know just enough about to be able to make a fool of myself in conversation about it - but also just enough to know I want to know more....

Bad Choice, February 18, 2005
I haven't seen it mentioned in the local media, but ChoicePoint, a big consumer database company embroiled in a big identity-theft case, has a big Nashville connection....

Help Wanted, January 28, 2005
I have designed a new business model for blog advertising that would complement, not compete with, Henry Copeland's Blogads, and take advantage of the viral and global nature of the blogosphere to tap into a $100 billion global industry. My problem: I'm not a programmer. I also don't have funds to pay a programmer. So I'm looking for the following things: 2. A programmer capable of building a system that, like Blogads, serves content to...

Nashville: We're Number 68!, January 17, 2005
Nashville recently claimed the top spot in an economic development trade magazine's recent ranking of good places to locate a business, but it ranks a dismal 68th on this list of cities that provide good highspeed wireless Internet access in their central business districts. Tom Neff, who writes a tech column for the Nashville City Paper, today looks at why Nashville is so far behind the curve in providing wifi Internet access in its central...

Is eBay the Future of Politics On the Net?, December 13, 2004
Business web sites that foster an aura of community trust may hold the key to the future of online politics, says CNET today. Interesting....

It's A Conversation Now, December 07, 2004
Jeff Jarvis explores the future of media in this must-read Q&A that, somehow, I managed to miss until now. Media that doesn't get - and embrace - what Jarvis is saying is Media whose life clock is rapidly ticking down....

Tracking the Blogosphere, November 30, 2004
RedHerring.com has a Q&A with Dave Sifry, founder of Technorati, which tracks the growth of conversations in the blogosphere....

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, October 26, 2004
Joe Trippi says the Internet is changing things, like political campaigns, journalism and war. Hey. Someone finally noticed that the Internet is changing things....

A Blogger On the Inside of the Net, October 12, 2004
Steven Forrest has an interesting post about the new board members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (the outfit that's supposed to keep the Internet running smoothly). One of the new board members is Joi Ito, a well-known blogger, at least in tech circles. ICANN is often criticized for being less than open. Forrest asks, will they let him blog?...

Coming Soon..., August 30, 2004
Coming soon to a desktop near you: the $10,000 supercomputer from Orion Multisystems. Only, by the time you get one it'll cost $1,799 at Best Buy and be 25 times as powerful....

Wow, August 26, 2004
The age of the disposable laptop PC is edging ever closer. Five years ago I bought a Compaq laptop with a tenth the hard drive capacity, half the RAM, a much slower processor, no built-in wireless networking, and no DVD capability on the CD-rom drive. Pre-tax, it cost me nearly three times what this costs. Sure, it was from a well-known brand-name maker with all that implies for product warranty and tech support and this...

A Costly Decision, August 23, 2004
Steven Forrest has had a handful of posts in the past few days and weeks on a recent FCC decision that the New York Times says in this story in Monday's edition will likely drive up the cost of sending voice calls over the Internet, and may hamper the growth of the VoIP (voice-over Internet telephony) industry. Lots of good stuff, so click here and pick and choose which you want to read....

And Now For Some Technology News..., August 13, 2004
Via Steven Forrest, some interesting technology news related to spam. He also has an update on the process of choosing who will run the core infrastructure of the Internet that underlies all of the web sites ending in "dot net" that has some interesting facts I didn't know before: the .net Internet zone carries 33 percent of all email traffic and $320,000 worth of ecommerce transactions per minute. Just some interesting factoids to liven up...

Kerry's Plans to Regulate Tech, August 04, 2004
Steven Forrest has links to a couple of interesting articles about Sen. John Kerry, and the regulation and government oversight of the technology sector of our economy. Kerry's stance on such things is important, as the technology sector is directly responsible for about 8 percent of the nation's total economic output, and indirectly responsible for much of the great gains in productivity in almost every sector of the economy. Kerry has a typically Democratic inclination...

Arghhh..., August 04, 2004
Tennessee is going to try to regulate and demand big licensing fees from certain people who sell on eBay. That's a bad way to encourage the growth of entrepreneurial business in the digital age....

Bzzzzzzz, August 02, 2004
Steven Forrest says you should be alarmed by the United Nations' latest moves on the issue of "Internet governance." And, let me add, don't hit the snooze bar - this is too important....

Failure is Unacceptable, July 30, 2004
The "Domain Name System" is the interlocking mass of hardware and software operated by a variety of businesses and organizations that takes you to Amazon.com when you type "Amazon.com" into your browser bar, or click a hyperlink on a webpage such as this one. Basically, when you hit enter, your browser queries a computer server for the numerical address of the website that corresponds to "Amazon.com" or the long string of letters and punctuation that...

Another Link in the Web of Terror, July 19, 2004
Via Steven Forrest:Iraq's country code top-level domain, .iq, remains in limbo and now the Dallas Morning News is reporting that it was registered by a Dallas business with terrorist ties.Ties to the Holy Land Foundation (considered a fund-raising front for the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas), and contacts with the regime of Saddam Hussein. Hamas isn't al Qaeda, but it IS an Islamofascist terror group, and this story is one more bit of evidence showing ties...

Auction the Net?, July 14, 2004
Steven Forrest has two interesting posts on a European proposal for the Internet technical oversight agency ICANN to auction off the job of running the entire .net zone of the Internet (and, later, the .com zone). The first post is here, the second here. Interesting stuff if you're interested in that kind of thing or own a web domain name that ends in .net or .com. A huge chunk of the American digital economy rests...

Amazing, June 25, 2004
Online retailer Overstock.com, based in Salt Lake City, is now the largest source of private employment ... in Afghanistan. Wired.com has the amazing story of globalization's positive impact on the impoverished nation. Who knew that you could point-click-purchase and help America help Afghanistan win the War on Terror? And it's not just Afghanistan - Wired finds a trend....

Interesting Tech Stuff, June 25, 2004
Steven Forrest has some interesting posts today over at the Free2Innovate.net tech policy blog, including a mention that the Domain Name System (the thing that results in you having to put a .com or a .net or a .org or some other dot-something at the end of a web address) turns 21 this year. More interesting is his post on a new technology called RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification, which will help manufacturers,...

I've Got GMail, June 17, 2004
I'm one of those lucky few who are beta-testing Gmail. Just got my account last night, courtesy of an invite from another blogger affiliated with Blogs For Bush. A blogger I've never met - ain't the blogosphere fun and beneficial! I'll let you know. For those of you concerned by the privacy implications of the Gmail offering - Google scans the emails and serves up text-related advertising in order to fund giving Gmail account holders...

A Secret Plan, June 15, 2004
The quasi-governmental organization that oversees the Internet wants to double its budget, but refuses to release the "strategic plan" that budget would fund. Somebody ought to file a Freedom of Information Act request......

Pass the DVDs, Please, June 14, 2004
Via Steven Forrest: As much as two thirds of Internet traffic is peer-to-peer traffic, a new report says, blaming it on people trading "massive DVD files." It takes almost as long to transfer a DVD over the 'Net as it does to order one delivered by mail from Netflix. But that'll change....

Another Sign of the Boom, June 11, 2004
The "offshoring" of tech jobs isn't affecting all tech jobs. Network World reports: "Despite a steady rise in the number of IT jobs being outsourced, demand for workers with Internet-related skills such as Java and networking is helping to drive IT compensation higher, according to a report released today by Meta Group Inc." And just what is driving demand for workers with Internet-related skills such as Java and networking? The Bush economic boom. Here's another...

Economic Boom Reflected Online, June 09, 2004
Record sales of Internet domains - individuals and businesses snapped up 4.7 million online names in the first three months of 2004 - is a sign of the growing economy. Steven Forrest has the details....

The Free Net, June 07, 2004
Today's New York Times examines how the proliferation of free wireless Internet access "hot spots" is making it difficult for the companies that want to charge for such access to find a sustainable business model. Well, yeah. There is, of course, a sustainable business model - selling the wireless hardware to retailers, restaurateurs and others that want to provide free Internet access as a way to attract and retain customers. And, I suspect, someone eventually...

RSS Update, June 04, 2004
Online Journalism Review looks at the rise of RSS and says, "News sites that don't offer even a front-page headline feed in this online universe risk becoming irrelevant not only to bloggers who can drive traffic with a mention of a story but to increasingly savvy news consumers ... who want control." The story examines what various newspaper companies are doing with RSS on their websites, and the pros and cons of RSS for the...

From The Government, Here To Help You, June 04, 2004
The contract for the company that operates the heavy-duty servers and computers that keep the .net portion of the Internet up and running and make it possible for your browser to find websites that end in .net is up for renewal or assignment to a new company. So what? Yeah, that's what I thought. Until I read this. Some research firm calculated that .net is involved in $1.15 billion in business-to-consumer ecommerce every hour. The...

The Wireless World, June 03, 2004
Newsweek has an interesting look at the growth of the wireless world, as wireless Internet access "hot-spots" proliferate in large cities and small towns. Meanwhile, Craig McCaw, who built the first national cellular phone service and later sold it to AT&T, is launching a new venture, Clearwire, that intends to create a national wireless broadband Internet service....

Follow the Bouncing Conflict-of-Interest, May 26, 2004
Steven Forrest has an interesting post about ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers, a quasi-governmental non-profit agency that is supposed to oversee the technical functions of the Internet so it doesn't crash. Turns out the CEO of ICANN doesn't really work for ICANN. He works for ArgoPacific, an Australia-based tech incubator that he co-founded with Ira Magaziner. Who is Ira Magaziner? He's the former Clinton administration official who designed Hillary's Rube Goldbergian...

The Next Tech Boom 2, April 30, 2004
The all-important technology sector of the U.S. economy is once again generating job growth, reports yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Here's the link. You'll need a subscription to WSJ.com to read the whole thing....

Internet Tax Ban Passes, April 30, 2004
The U.S. Senate voted 93-3 to pass a four-year ban on Internet access taxes, but the law is filled with exceptions and conditions. For example, states that already tax broadband access will be allowed to continue to do so for two years. The House has already passed a permanent ban, and the two positions must be reconciled. Stay tuned......

The Next Tech Boom, April 29, 2004
Steven Forrest links to an interesting article in a new magazine, Digital World, about a new technology called RFID that may well revolutionize business. (If you don't know what RFID is, check out RFIDJournal.com.) Here's an excerpt of the Digital World story:Boeing and Airbus announce a new RFID proof of concept program. Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense set dates when suppliers must implement RFID or start losing their business. In the wake of...

Sen. Alexander Battles For Higher Taxes, April 28, 2004
Sen. Lamar Alexander is continuing his battle for higher taxes with his ongoing opposition to the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act. That legislation now pending in Congress would permanently ban states from taxing all forms of Internet access. Full disclosure: I voted for Sen. Alexander and he is a friend of my wife's parents. That said, he's just flat wrong on this issue - wrong on the policy, wrong on the politics. Upon reading a poorly-written...

Get Gmail Via Blogger?, April 22, 2004
Harry Tzetzos finds a connection between Blogger and Google's highly anticipated and controversial Gmail service....

A Story About Libya That Has Nothing to Do With Terror or WMD, April 19, 2004
Why did Libya drop off the Internet for four days recently? Details here - and scroll down for a link to a story about the coming onslaught of computer viruses on wireless networks. Oh. Joy....

Citizen-Powered News, April 19, 2004
Terry Heaton emailed to say that the recent elections in South Korea showed the power of the new online citizen-powered media.The liberal Uri Party swept into power [April 15] in the National Assembly elections, ending 44 years of conservative rule in the country. What you'll likely NOT read is that this was accomplished largely through the steady efforts of a New Media entity that fought the conservative press in South Korea. OhmyNews! is an Internet-based...

Another Newspaper Disses Blogs, April 16, 2004
Paul Chenoweth passed along the link to a Christian Science Monitor story headlined Blogs: Here to stay - with changes. Says Chenoweth: "I don't necessarily agree with the broad stroke conclusions that this guys makes, but the points on political forum 'substance vs sound bite' and 'reputation builders' seems to fit in my book." Read the story to see if you agree with the writer or the blogger. Chenoweth writes about technology in education, so...

Hobbling VoIP, April 13, 2004
One of the most exciting new technologies to me is voice-over-Internet telephony, or VoIP - in short, the transmission of voice calls over the Net instead of over the phone companies copper wires. It's rapidly moving from geekdom to the mainstream as the technology improves, and - left alone - VoIP offers the chance of revolutionizing telecommunications and greatly lowering costs, which would be a boon to small business and the economy in general. But...

'Round and 'Round They Go, April 08, 2004
Steven Forrest has an interesting analysis of ICANN's response to the VeriSign lawsuit. (If you don't know who ICANN is, what suit I'm talking about, or why it's important, just scroll on to the next item...)...

My Google Myself, March 29, 2004
Interesting story about Google in the Tampa Trib today.If you haven't tried it yet, you will. Google yourself, that is. Vanity searching your own name is among the most popular ways to exercise Google. A survey by the Pew Internet Project found that nearly 25 percent of self-Googlers say they are stunned by how much information about themselves is online.I Googled myself. Here is what I found. I'm #1 on Google....

Will A Speedier Internet Bring Press Releases Faster?, March 15, 2004
The Internet about to get a whole lot faster, according to a press release I just received via email - a press release I'm pretty sure was sent to me because I blog regularly about the Internet. At any rate, it seems interesting enough to pass along to you....

Who Will Run the Internet?, March 09, 2004
More on the VeriSign/ICANN legal tussle here....

Robot Bloggers, March 08, 2004
Somebody hooked up a mobile blogging/digital images application to two Sony Aibo robot dogs and a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner and, poof:Robot Blogging!Shoot. Just when I get good at something, along comes a robot to replace me. I found it via Evan Kirchoff via an email from reader Paul Chenoweth, who comments "Posting by robots may seem strange now, but I'd guarantee the wheels are spinning for practical applications..." UPDATE: Some wag just suggested Robot...

The Next Big Thing, February 27, 2004
The Associated Press has published a very good story about RSS, "a somewhat crude but nifty software tool that automatically delivers updated information to your computer directly from your favorite web sites." Read it if you want to know the future of news distribution....

Lawsuit!, February 27, 2004
VeriSign, which operates the .com and .net Internet addressing system, is suing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It's a battle royale for control of the Net. Well, not exactly, but it is a significant lawsuit and if it results in ICANN being reined in a bit, that'll be a good thing. If it results in less quasi-governmental interference in the technology and Internet industries, that will be a very good thing for...

Who Will Govern the 'Net?, February 26, 2004
Recent rumblings about a possible United Nations takeover of the governance of the Internet have me paying a lot more attention these days to news and commentary about developments along that front. The Internet was created in the United States - though not by Al Gore - and its early development funded by American taxpayers. Currently, a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, called ICANN, is charged with coordinating the technical functions...

Anonymity At Risk, February 16, 2004
Do you publish a blog or website at a domain name you registered? Are you an entrepreneur who plans to start a business, and you'd like to have a website - but you don't want all your personal information made available to spammers and online fraudsters? Then you need to pay attention to a bill pending in Congress called the Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act, or FOISA......

Taxing the 'Net: Alexander Backs Down a Bit, February 16, 2004
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is pushing a "compromise" on legislation to restore the federal ban on Internet access taxes. That's a good thing, I guess, since last fall Alexander was obstinately refusing to allow the ban to be reinstated, arguing in favor of allowing states to raise taxes. Alexander said his was the conservative position - he was simply making a "state's rights" argument. But he's wrong about that. As I wrote back on...

Internet Anonymity Threatened, February 05, 2004
Somewhat related to the anonymous blogging debate raging in some parts of the blogosphere (see the posts below) - there is a potentially dangerous piece of new legislation in Congress called the Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act, or FOISA. Naturally, it's backed by the entertainment industry. Read this post at Free2Innovate.net, and then the next more recent post for comments from a law professor in why it is dangerous. According to Free2Innovate.net, FOISA "would mandate...

Who Will Govern the Net?, February 04, 2004
Internet "guru" Ester Dyson says the Internet needs less regulation, and more accountability. Interesting comments in an article in The Guardian, which I found via Free2Innovate, a tech blog. Your privacy is at stake.The debate about how much information should be held on users within the Internet infrastructure is raging within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the non-profit organisation that ensures machines connected to the Internet can speak to each other. Pressure...

A Secret Hearing on Bad Legislation?, February 02, 2004
Tony Campbell of the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network writes regarding activity in the tennessee legislature on a bill that may threaten your freedom to use cable TV service you purchase in the way you see fit. (Several posts involving last year's debate over similar legislation are now archived in my Internet & Technology section....

Snubbed the Wrong Way, January 27, 2004
Interesting report at the Free2Innovate.net blog about ICANN, a government sponsored private corporation that oversees the Internet's technical operations, and how it is snubbing a federal agency, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness. Why should you care? Because ICANN's oversight of the technical functions of the Net have, in recent years, raised hackles around the world and opposition to ICANN is growing. Why does that matter? Because there are those who want to strip ICANN of...

A National ID Card Requirement for Net Access?, January 27, 2004
Some are saying Howard Dean actively supported a national ID card as recently as 2002 - and a requirement that it be used to gain Internet access so that identification information could be tracked on line. Rightwing conspiracy theory? Nutjob tinfoil hat stuff? No. Solid news reporting from Blogs for Bush, sourced from tech journalist Declan McCullagh at CNET News, and a copy of a Dean speech, which I downloaded in case it gets "disappeared"...

Digital Copyright News, January 27, 2004
The New York Times had an interesting story Sunday, The Tyranny of Copyright?, exploring how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is short-circuiting your First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Here's an excerpt from the Times article......

Will the UN Run the Internet?, January 15, 2004
Will the United Nations one day govern the Internet? Let's pray not, but here are three interesting items published recent days at the Free2Innovate.net blog discussing how necessary Internet innovation is being hampered by the existing regulatory structure - and how that's encouraging the forces who want to strip the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers of its authority over certain Internet technical standards and hand governance of the Internet to a United Nations...

NYT Thinks Technology Of Little Impact, January 14, 2004
A century or so ago, the New York Times was published using metal type smeared in ink and pressed against paper. Today, the NYT rolls off modern high-speed offset presses - and also rolls around the world on digital pixels in cyberspace. But the New York Times editorial writers think technology doesn't do much to revolutionize the human experience, judging from a rather silly editorial they published a few weeks ago. I'll let Chris Alden,...

Blogging the Google IPO, January 13, 2004
The Washington Post has a very good story today about the upcoming Google IPO, which I and Jeff Cornwall were discussing yesterday. The story is really about the propsoects for a Google IPO, the intense comeptition in the search industry, and how going public might change Google. But it starts off with a mention of blogs and other online commentary sites....

Is a Google IPO a Good Idea?, January 12, 2004
Professor Cornwall over at The Entrepreneurial Mind is urging Google's founders to think long and hard before taking the company public.Things always change when a company goes public. The founders often think that this will not happen to their company, but I have never seen a case where, eventually at least, the pressures of the broader group of shareholders fail to win out over the desire of the founding entrepreneurs to keep things the way...

How the Internet Boom Helped Tiny Tuvalu, January 07, 2004
Free2Innovate.net links to an interesting story from Business 2.0 magazine about how the small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu cashed in on the Internet boom....

Five Lies about Internet Taxation, November 17, 2003
Dave McClure, president of the US Internet Industry Association, examines what he says are the five big lies being told by opponents of making permanent the federal ban on Internet access taxes, in this excellent piece at TechCentralStation.com. McClure's association is lobbying for making the ban permanent. Among the five lies McClure debunks are two false themes pushed by U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee: #1. This is an issue of state's rights that the...

Sabotaging the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act, October 29, 2003
An editorial in today's Tennessean praises Sen. Lamar Alexander for trying to block passage of the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act, which would make permanent a five-year-old moratorium on states taxing Internet access - and extend the ban to eight states that had such taxes in place before the ban was first enacted. Alexander portrays the issue as one of states rights versus federal mandates, but that's a red herring. There's no federal mandate involved, simply...

Digital Freedom Update, October 29, 2003
Tony Campbell, webmaster and forums administrator for the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network, sent the following email to myself and Glenn Reynolds, providing a recap of yesterday's Tennessee legislative hearing on proposed legislation that would give the cable industry the power to control what devices you connect to the cable plug. (For background click here and follow the links):Dear Sirs: Jody Leavell suggested that I forward my notes from today's Joint Committee hearing to you. I...

Like a Bad Penny, October 28, 2003
Those folks who want to give the motion picture and cable TV industries the authority to outlaw digital video recorders like TiVo and control what devices you plug into the cable outlet haven't given up. The Tennessee Digital Freedom Network has the details on Tennessee legislative hearings scheduled for today and Wednesday. If you want to see everything I've written about the subject - and it's a long list - go here and scroll down...

Lamar Pushes for Higher Taxes, October 23, 2003
Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander wants you to pay taxes on your Internet access. He's fighting legislation that would roll back taxes for millions of Americans - including every Tennessee resident who pays for Internet access - and would ban such taxes forever in the states where they are already temporarily banned. UPDATE: The bill to make permanent the ban on taxing internet access passed the House last month and has the votes to pass the...

Digital Freedom Update, September 10, 2003
Jody Leavell files this report from today's Tennessee legislative hearing on legislation that will limit your digital freedoms. Here it is:...

Digital Freedom Update, September 09, 2003
The folks intent on making it legal for the cable television industry to control what digital video recorders you connect to your cable outlet, and bar you from using a wireless hub to share your cable Internet connection with more than one PC in your house, are still trying to pass their lousy legislation in Tennessee. Sidelines, the student newspaper at Middle Tennessee State University, has the details...

R-E-S-P-E-C-T , July 15, 2003
The contemporary Christian music industry is taking a different approach to try to curb illegal music downloading. Rather than preparing to sue thousands of its fans, the industry is "responding to the problem by appealing to their customers’ faith and moral values," reports Nashville City Paper:The Christian Music Trade Association has formed an anti-piracy task force that is meeting weekly to develop ways to spread the word to Church groups and CD buyers that downloading...

Digital Freedom UPDATE, May 16, 2003
From Instapundit:FREEDOM TO TINKER has a table showing the status of state "super-DMCA" bills. I don't think they're so super, though....

Digital Freedom UPDATE: Unintended Consequences, May 15, 2003
The big newspapers in Tennessee continue to ignore the story, but NashvillePost.com, an online business news service that tends to break a lot of stories in advance of local daily The Tennessean has published an excellent story on the controversial cable industry-backed legislation making its way through the state legislature. NashvillePost.com is a subscription-only site so I can't give you a link to the story. But you can sign up for a free 30-day trial...

Digital Freedom Update: It's a Person-al Thing, May 15, 2003
Glenn Reynolds wonders if there's a connection between the cable companies that are pushing the privacy-destroying, freedom-curtailing legislation known in Tennessee as HB 457 and SB 213 and the newspapers across Tennessee that are ignoring the story. Well, there's certainly a connection between the cable companies and the sponsor of the legislation in the Tennessee state Senate....

Digital Freedom Update, May 14, 2003
Here's the latest news on the cable industry-backed anti-consumer legislation known as HB 457 and SB 213, courtesy of the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network:The House Budget Subcommittee hearing on HB457 has been deferred until next Wednesday, May 21st. Quite a few members of our group showed up for the hearing, and soon after it began, [Rep. Rob] Briley requested that his two bills be rolled for one week, and that was granted. So, it looks...

Digital Freedom Update, May 13, 2003
Why is the cable industry pushing legislation in Tennessee and other states that will give the cable industry the power to control what kind of devices you hook to the cable outlet in your home? Because they want to be able to force you to rent their devices. Soon, if HB 457 and SB 213 become law in Tennessee, the cable industry will be able to declare the TiVo digital video recorder an "unauthorized" device...

Digital Freedom Update, May 12, 2003
The Tennessee Digital Freedom Network has the latest schedule of legislative committee hearings on HB 457 and SB 213, the legislation pushed by the Motion Picture Association of America and the cable teevee industry that will, if not stopped, severely curtail your freedom to use digital media - hardware and content - in the way you see fit. It's a developing story that one of Nashville's two daily newspapers has chosen to ignore, even though...

Digital Freedom UPDATE, May 08, 2003
The Tennessee Digital Freedom Network has posted an update on HB 457, the bill pushed by the Motion Picture Association of America and the cable industry that seeks to exert extreme control over how you use digital media and digital media devices:Flash News - House Judiciary Committee Approves HB0457! HB0457 has been "recommended for passage if amended" and referred to the House Finance, Ways & Means Committee. Luke Kanies, one of several technology activists at...

The Internet Wants to be Free, May 08, 2003
The New York Times has an interesting report today on how more and more retail establishments are using free wireless Internet access to attract customers."It remains to be seen how many users will be willing to pay the $30 a month being charged for Wi-Fi access at places like Starbucks, given the monthly communications fees many people already shoulder. In a growing number of places, an alternative is available - at no charge. Internet access...

Digital Freedom UPDATE, May 07, 2003
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a bad law that's going global....

Digital Freedom UPDATE, May 07, 2003
I noted yesterday that I attended a meeting hosted by state Rep. Rob Briley, sponsor of the MPAA-drafted legislation designed to severely hobble your rights to use digital media and the Internet in the way you see fit. So did several folks with technical expertise that far surpasses mine. Tony Campbell of the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network, which is opposing HB 457 and its companion SB 213, posted the following analysis of the legislation, which...

Digital Freedom UPDATE, May 06, 2003
NPR has covered the controversy over "super-DMCA" legislation that the Motion Picture Association of America and the cable industry is ramming through state legislatures coast to coast, including here in Tennessee. The brief story - the audio is available by clicking a link at the top of the NPR web page I linked to - gives a good explanation of how this horrible legislation is managing to move through the legislative process. Basically it is...

Digital Freedom Update, May 05, 2003
Here's the latest from Nashville City Paper, which continues to do a far better job than its local competitor in covering the issue of whether the state legislature will passed legislation on behalf of a single special interest - the Motion Picture Association of America - that will take away many of your basic digital content usage rights. "You hear things about getting government off your back … this is getting government not only on...

Digital Freedom Update, May 02, 2003
Here's a good piece from eWeek explaining why the DMCA-like legislation being rammed through the Tennessee legislature is not a good thing. Excerpts:One of the common aspects of these laws is that they make illegal any device or program that can "conceal or to assist another to conceal from any communication service provider or from any lawful authority the existence or place of origin or destination of any communication." ... This makes a whole set...

Digital Freedom Update: Legislator Responds, May 02, 2003
A reader of this blog has forwarded the text of a letter he received by email from state Rep. Rob Briley, a key sponsor of legislation pending in the Tennessee General Assembly that would abridge many of your digital freedoms. He received the email from Briley after writing Briley to urge him to pull HB 457. Here is what Briley wrote:There has been much misinformation spread about this bill, my intent in sponsoring it (contrary...

Digital Freedom Update, May 01, 2003
I'm a bit late with this, but the Knoxville News Sentinel carried a perceptive column about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The column was written by Diana Holden, a graduate student in the University of Tennessee's School of Information Sciences. It doesn't mention efforts to enact a state version of the DMCA, which I've written about extensively below. (Start here, follow links.) Also, here's a story from Information Week about the negative impact of state-level...

Digital Freedom: Stop the Mini-DMCA, April 30, 2003
If you're here from the link at Instapundit, and looking for how to help stop the mini-DMCA in Tennessee, please be sure to visit the website of the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network as well as reading the rest of this post and following my links. The TDFN is leading the fight. I've got more on that at the end of this post. If you're from Tennessee, PublicKnowledge.org has provided the text of a letter that...

Tennessee Digital Freedom Network, April 29, 2003
I've mentioned before the really lousy legislation making its way through the Tennessee state legislature that would establish a state version of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The legislation is being pushed by the Motion Picture Association of America. Sen. Curtis Person and Rep. Rob Briley are carrying the industry's water (and I'd sure like to know how much Hollywood PAC money they're gonna get in their campaign coffers for doing so.) Good news:...

State DMCA Update, April 25, 2003
Today's Tennessean has a good op-ed by the operator of a local Internet cafe/coffee shop regarding the truly horrible legislation moving through the state legislature that would create a state version of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Finally, opposition to the legislation appears to be getting some traction in the press. Writes Joe Dougherty:Do you enjoy taping Tennessee-Florida football? Under this law, your cable company could decide you may not do that unless you...

Stop the state DMCA!, April 24, 2003
Rich Hailey has some comments on my post yesterday about efforts to pass a state version of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Says Hailey: If you use a firewall, if you archive music, if you listen to CD's on your computer, if you time shift shows off cable or satellite, if you think you have the right to watch what you want, when you want, and that it is nobody's business what you watch,...

Assaulting Your Digital Rights, April 23, 2003
Here's an update on some truly lousy legislation making its way through the Tennessee legislature. The legislation - which I wrote about here and here in the last month - would create a state version of the controversial federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Unfortunately, this bad legislation is moving rapidly through the legislature without press scrutiny or the public outcry it deserves. The Tennessean finally covered the legislation today, in a story that seems to...

Update on Legislature's Attack on Internet Privacy, April 01, 2003
Respected technology journalist Declan McCullagh, who writes for CNET News, has been following the troubling trend of legislation proposed in several states that would criminalize key privacy tools now embedded in and and a key foundation of the operation of the Internet. I wrote about Tennessee's version of that legislation here on Monday. McCullagh says the proposed legislation is, essentially, a state version of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and is being pushed by...

Tennessee Lawmakers Threaten Internet, March 31, 2003
For years, Tennessee has taken pride in being proactive in wiring the state and its schools and libraries for Internet access, and millions of dollars of state funds have been expended for that purpose. Now, Tennessee lawmakers are putting much of that at risk with silly legislation that could render the Internet useless in Tennessee by outlawing "firewalls" and other software and hardware that are crucial to the operation of the Net. Several other states...

Disintermediation Bites Back, November 05, 2002
Darwin magazine suggests that Orbitz, the online airfare merchant owned by a consortium of airlines, is sowing the seeds of its own destruction.Orbitz is a shining example of two of the consequences that Internet gurus used to make good money blathering on about. The website has eliminated one expensive middleman (the travel agents), and has another (reservations systems) in its crosshairs. And it has made an incomprehensible pricing system transparent (if not comprehensible) with the...