The juicy, overblown press coverage of the possible predators lurking in MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites has had one clear consequence: The House of Representatives yesterday passed by a 410-15 vote a bill that is intended to restrict access to social networking sites in schools and libraries.
The Deleting Online Predators Act is part of a new Republican poll-driven legislative program, which aims to tap into suburban voters’ biggest concerns and then, well, pass legislation that panders to them.
As CNET’s Declan McCullagh points out, however, the overly broad language of the bill could sweep in all kinds of sites into the restrictions.
The zeal to capitalize on voter sentiment in this crucial mid-term election season is reflected in the apparent rush to get the bill to the floor. It was supposedly rewritten Wednesday night without the benefit of committee approval.
At least one Member calls it like it is
“So now we are on the floor with a piece of legislation poorly thought out, with an abundance of surprises, which carries with it that curious smell of partisanship and panic, but which is not going to address the problems,” said Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat. “This is a piece of legislation which is going to be notorious for its ineffectiveness and, of course, for its political benefits to some of the members hereabout.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:07 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Reuters’ Jeremy Pelofsky has this interesting piece today about Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK). It’s interesting because the real news in Pelofsky’s piece, namely that Senator Stevens believes he has enough votes, 60, to shut-down a filibuster on his controversial telecom reform bill, is buried deep in the article.
“I believe we have the 60 votes,” Stevens said. He said he was planning to meet with senators to ensure he had those votes, a move Senate leaders had requested before they were willing to bring up the measure.
That’s a big deal because it means that Stevens, who has been struggling to find enough votes to cap debate on the bill, might have a good shot at getting the bill passed this session. Congress is running out of time to pass legislation and if opponents of the bill, mostly net neutrality advocates, can kill it by filibuster, the legislative body has to start all over again next year when the political landscape might be quite different.
The bulk of the article, its lede, is that Senator Stevens is willing to go on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which has mercilessly mocked Stevens for his “dump truck” “tubes” rant.
Stevens, whose committee has authority over many Internet issues, defended his comments and said he had even received support from experts.
“I have a letter from a big scientist who said I was absolutely right in using the word ‘tubes,”’ he told reporters. However, Stevens said he had not been invited to appear on the show to respond.
When pressed whether he was willing to go on the show, Stevens slowly grinned and said, “I’d consider it.”
Update: The National Journal’s David Hatch has this more in-depth piece on Stevens’ success in gaining the 60 votes. According to this article, Stevens says “he’s close” but not there yet.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:06 AM | Print | Comments (0)
It’s the official end of an era — the big news yesterday and today is the $100 mil.+ settlement that former renegade P2P company Kazaa entered into with the music industry and Hollywood studios. Kazaa owner Sharman networks, headquartered in Vanuatu (which, by the way, calls itself the “world’s happiest place”) but operating out of Australia, has reportedly agreed to pay $115 million to settle its longstanding legal battles with the copyright holders.
The deal covers the four major record companies, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music and the EMI Group, and anticipates that these companies will work with Kazaa to produce legitimate music licensing deals, with the recording companies getting 20% of Kazaa’s take.
In a press release, Sharman Networks CEO Nikki Hemming said “This settlement marks the dawn of a new age of cooperation between P2P technology and content industries which will promise an exciting future for online distribution in general and Kazaa users in particular.”
It’s a new age indeed. Napster, the first P2P technology to burst onto the scene, has already gone legit, and video-oriented P2P service BitTorrent is actively trying to woo the Hollywood studios. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the founders of Kazaa who are named in the settlement, founded VoIP company Skype, sold it to eBay for tons of money and are now trying to work out a legit online video service.
I suppose it’s better late than never for the record companies, but all this drama and litigation around file-sharing was unnecessary. Back in 1999, when Napster first hit like a meteor, the music industry’s visceral reaction was to shut down P2P for good, not take advantage of it, despite Napster’s willingness then to work out legitimate deals.
Now, after millions in litigation costs, not to mention the revenue loss and bad publicity, the record companies are on board. The object lesson: disruptive technologies can’t be stopped so it’s better to figure out early on how to take advantage of them.
Update: Reuters’ Adam Pasick has this item today about where, exactly, Kazaa, which really doesn’t generate much revenue, got the $115 million from — Zennstrom and Friis paid the tab.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:06 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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