Successful Blog

Net Neutrality 12-18-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Information Policy

You’ve got to hand it to FCC General Counsel Sam Feder. His opinion that supposedly “clears” Commissioner Robert McDowell to participate in the AT&T takeover of BellSouth probably wasn’t what Chairman Kevin Martin had in mind.

The idea of the exercise was to put pressure on McDowell to jump into, presumably on the side of AT&T, and force Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein into a corner.
[ . . . ]
Feder’s opinion said nothing that should cause the Commissioner to change his view. The opinion made a tepid case at best for Commissioner McDowell to participate. Feder seemed to go out of his way to stress that it was McDowell’s decision to participate. The Feder memo said it was a “very, very close call” whether McDowell should take part, and that reasonable parties could disagree on a decision.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Welcome Sandy Renshaw!

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Sandy Said Yes!

Today, I am delighted to announce that Sandy Renshaw of Purple Wren Communications takes on a role as a contributing editor.

Sandy’s main role will be a column we’re calling Sandy’s Great Graphic Find. She’ll be finding and sharing graphics tools, short how-tos, and ideas — stuff that nongraphical folks, folks who look like Chris and me, can use to tweak blog designs and make presentations cool. The tools Sandy finds will be ones that are free or under $200, ones that most bloggers might use at home or in their small business. The how-tos and ideas will be ones that we can use immediately.

Sandy is also going to be building the Tuesday Open Comment Announcement Posts to help keep Successful-Blog moving smoothily and efficiently every week!

Perfect Timing!

While Sandy and I were discussing how her arrival, Chris — without knowing that Sandy had said, “Yes,” — left a question in the comment box of yesterday’s Great Find post I wrote about Photoshop Tutorials. At the very moment when Chris’s question came, Sandy and I were talking about how her column would work. Answering questions like the one asked was just what we had been talking about . . . blogger synchronicity!!!

Chris’s question became Sandy’s first Successful Blog Post.

Welcome Sandy! Thanks for coming!

–ME “Liz”Strauss

Net Neutrality 12-15-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Net Neutrality Works Both Ways: What Happens When Websites Block ISPs?

Some anti-spam organizations believe that collateral damage is the best way to get an ISP to stop harboring spammers, so they’ll blacklist entire swaths of IP addresses in order to force non-spamming customers to complain. That tactic has been violently debated for years without consensus, and the only way outfits such as SPEWS get away with it is by remaining anonymous. One can only imagine the broader network neutrality impact if everyone erected blockades to settle digital disputes. AT&T bans Google video to hinder U-Verse competition, Google bans AT&T DSL customers in kind, and pretty soon the Internet is little more than a cratered out highway, riddled by vendettas.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Internet Net Law and Net Neutrality 12-14-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Senator [McCain]: Illegal images must be reported

Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law.

The legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain and obtained by CNET News.com, would also require Web sites that offer user profiles to delete pages posted by sex offenders.

In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, the Arizona Republican and former presidential candidate warned that “technology has contributed to the greater distribution and availability, and, some believe, desire for child pornography.

Internet service providers already must follow those reporting requirements. But McCain’s proposal is liable to be controversial because it levies the same regulatory scheme–and even stiffer penalties–on even individual bloggers who offer discussion areas on their Web sites.

[ . . . ]

“I am concerned that there is a slippery slope here,” said Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. “Once you start creating categories of industries that must report suspicious or criminal behavior, when does that stop?”

According to the proposed legislation, these types of individuals or businesses would be required to file reports: any Web site with a message board; any chat room; any social-networking site; any e-mail service; any instant-messaging service; any Internet content hosting service; any domain name registration service; any Internet search service; any electronic communication service; and any image or video-sharing service.

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A McCain aide, who did not want to be identified by name, said on Friday that the measure was targeted at any Web site that “you’d have to join up or become a member of to use.” No payment would be necessary to qualify, the aide added.

Please send the senator a copy of “Atlas Shrugged.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Even the Link Leaks Were Misbehaving!

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We Told Stories Out of School

Yep. Tuesday Open Comments Night took us back to when we were kids. We shared our stories. Water balloons and paper clips showed up. We had adventures. Wait until you hear the one where . . .

The Link Leak Virus was with us as well. — The Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes and keeps Open Comment Night a link free-for-all.

I like it when we tell stories. . . . Chris, there’s a linkto the story of how I was trained to a whistle. It’s at the end of the summary.

Cool links were shared. Here’s a list of them.

Did You Hear About the Time . . .

[Read more…]

Net Neutrality 12-13-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Alaska’s Stevens Left Out in the Cold

Senator Ted Stevens boasted this summer that he had nearly all the 60 Senate votes he needed to muscle his massive telecommunications bill through Congress by the end of the year. But as his fellow lawmakers called it quits this weekend, his quest to overhaul America’s telecom laws ended in failure.

[ . . . ]

Some doubted that a rowdy coalition fighting for such a nebulous cause as net neutrality could shut down a bill backed by Stevens, the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

“This is a huge victory for real people and a clear signal to the next Congress that standing up for big bold ideas is a winning political proposition,” declared Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, a member of “Save the Internet” group that campaigned to sink the bill

But if his crowd is serious, it will have to do more than block legislation – it will have to get laws passed requiring net neutrality in the next Congress. That will be a great deal more difficult than thwarting Ted Stevens.

Want to know what you can do?
MA Bell Monopoly Versus the Free Internet — Tell the FCC Net Neutrality Is Not Negotiable

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE