[Cybertel-Ann] 6.11 :: No WiFi For You! :: Yada Yada Yada Wimax Yada :: Someone Pls Shoot COPA :: Michael Powell Finally Finds his Political Voice :: Everybody Censor! ::

Wed Jun 11 06:43:55 PDT 2008

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"When we launched, we launched with over a million
titles. There were countless snags. One of my friends
figured out that you could order a negative quantity
of books. And we would credit your credit card and
then, I guess, wait for you to deliver the books to
us. We fixed that one very quickly." Jeff Bezos,
quoted in Vanity Fair July 2008

Naperville says no more free Wi-Fi for you!, Muni
Naperville, Illinois has decided not to  take over the
Wi-Fi network deployed by MetroFi after the company
abandoned its plans to offer Wi-Fi service in a number
of US cities, including Portland, Oregon. Taking over
the network would have required Naperville to invest
$3.7 million. Unless another ISP takes over the
network, residents will no longer have free Wi-Fi
access after June.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/muniwireless/~3/309394246/
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/muni.htm

San Francisco wants you to have free Wi-Fi (via
Meraki), Muni
While Naperville, Illinois has said no to free Wi-Fi,
San Francisco is forging ahead, this time riding on
the coattails of Meraki, a Mountain View based
company, whose goal is to cover the city with free
Wi-Fi access. Meraki has begun providing free Wi-Fi
service to the Altamont Hotel and Dunleavy Plaza, two
of the city’s low-income housing projects. They plan
to extend coverage to other areas in the city. Already
parts of the Mission, Noe Valley and Bernal Heights
are said to have Wi-Fi coverage, thanks to Meraki’s
Free The Net initiative. San Francisco mayor, Gavin
Newsom, who is never shy about grabbing every
opportunity he can to erase memories about the city’s
EarthLink fiasco, appeared with Sanjit Biswas, founder
of Meraki, at the Altamont Hotel and Valencia Gardens
to announce the “unwiring” of the city.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/muniwireless/~3/309480268/
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/muni.htm

Sprint Promises 'Third Pipe' Competition - Though
we've all heard this song before...., dslreports
The new ultra-mega-Clearwire still doesn't have
regulatory approval, so Sprint is selling regulators
on the idea that they're creating a "third pipe" to
compete with DSL and cable. Of course users will be
lucky if the network covers a third of the existing
DSL and cable footprint any time soon, and LTE
offerings from AT&T and Verizon Wireless may crush the
effort in time, but sure -- a third pipe. The last
time we heard promises of a third pipe it was from
broadband over powerline vendors, whose technology is
headed for niche-status as a smart-electric grid
monitoring platform and not much more. Sprint's going
to have to prove it.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Sprint-Promises-Third-Pipe-Competition-95174
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/broadband/wimax.htm

Reporting from the front lines: the COPA oral
argument, CDT
In Philadelphia today I attended the oral argument in
the seemingly-never-ending case in which the “Child
Online Protection Act” (COPA) has repeatedly been
found to be unconstitutional. Chris Hansen, lead
counsel in the case for the ACLU, presented an superb
argument to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit (as detailed more fully below). Although one
can never predict the outcome of any court case, the
questions posed by the three judges make clear that
they have serious doubts about the validity of the
law.
http://blog.cdt.org/2008/06/10/reporting-from-the-front-lines-the-copa-oral-argument/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/cda/copa.htm

Anti-Child-Porn Tactic Criticized, Wash Post
The decision yesterday by three Internet service
providers to block access to online child pornography
is the latest in a series of steps by companies and
government officials to curb the distribution of such
materials. But a report to be published later this
month questions whether such actions are...
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/~r/wp-dyn/rss/technology/index_xml/~3/309296982/AR2008061002544.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/cda/cppa.htm

N.Y. attorney general forces ISPs to curb Usenet
access, CNET
Time Warner Cable pulls the plug on all newsgroups
after Andrew Cuomo's office finds child porn on 88 of
them. Verizon Communications and Sprint plan to limit
Usenet too.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9964895-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/cda/firsta.htm

Michael Powell and Reed Hundt Find Their Inner
Politico, Tech Liberation Front
Michael Powell seems to have finally found his
political voice. Reed Hundt probably never lost his.
But both former FCC chairmen got into the spirit of
debate at the Federalist Society gathering today at
the National Press Club. Reporters William Korver and
Cassandre Durocher, of BroadbandCensus.com, were
present to record the exchange.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techliberation/~3/309164612/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ci/neutral.htm

CIRA Creates Backdoor WHOIS Exceptions for Police and
IP Owners, CircleID
Earlier this year, I wrote glowingly about the new
CIRA whois policy, which took effect today and which I
described as striking the right balance between access
and privacy. The policy was to have provided new
privacy protection to individual registrants --
hundreds of thousands of Canadians -- by removing the
public disclosure of their personal contact
information... Apparently I spoke too soon.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/86103_cira_backdoor_whois_police/
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/whois.htm

Time Warner Cable Denies They'll Block Websites -
Though newsgroups will be going away...., dslreports
Yesterday, reports surfaced that Time Warner Cable,
Sprint and Verizon would begin blocking user access to
websites that contain child pornography. Some were
concerned that an ISP acting as content gatekeeper
sets a dangerous precedent down the line. Time Warner
Cable's director of Digital Communications, Jeff
Simmermon, stops by our forums to note that the
NYTimes story incorrectly stated the company would be
blocking content:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Time-Warner-Cable-Denies-Theyll-Block-Websites-95184
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/industry/tw.htm

Burma - Government seeks at all cost to control news
coming out of Irrawaddy delta - 11.06.2008, RSF
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media
Association, an organisation of Burmese journalists in
exile, condemn a series of measures taken by military
government in the past few days to control news and
information coming out of the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy
delta
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27432
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/asia.htm

Belarus - Ministers urged not to follow Chinese model
of online censorship - 11.06.2008, RSF
No description
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27412
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/europe.htm

French ISPs Agree To Censor The Web, Techdirt
Well here's a news story that actually combines two
separate recent stories here. France, who we've just
talked about for its repeated mistake in blaming
platforms for the actions of their users, has followed
down the same path that New York state just trekked
concerning misguided concepts on how to stop
objectionable content online. That is, France is now
requiring ISPs to block a list of sites that it
determines as objectionable. Apparently the list will
be based on sites flagged by web users. Again, this is
targeting the wrong thing and won't do much to
actually stop the dissemination of the content. If the
content itself is illegal, go after those responsible.
Simply blocking it opens up all kinds of censorship
questions, and opens the door to that slippery slope
of what's considered "objectionable." With no real way
to make sure that the content is actually
objectionable, it's easy to see this system being
abused in an attempt to silence people or viewpoints.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080610/1549591365.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/intl/europe.htm

Anti-cruelty group sues over rodeo videos removed from
YouTube, CNET
Nonprofit group sues rodeo association, claiming it
misused the DMCA in ordering YouTube to remove videos
from the site that show animals being injured in
events.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9965238-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ip/dmca.htm

Once Again, The DMCA Doesn't Let You Takedown Any
Content You Don't Like, Techdirt
Sometimes people have a difficult time understanding
that something they dislike isn't necessarily illegal
-- and because of it, they can sometimes take legal
action even though they have no right to do so. This
is quite common with the DMCA, where we've seen
numerous examples of people abusing the DMCA in this
manner. Luckily, the EFF has been fighting back
against many of these bogus DMCA takedowns, and the
latest is the case where an anti-animal cruelty group
posted a bunch of videos showing treatment of animals
at a rodeo.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080611/0052441371.shtml
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/ip/dmca.htm

Many TV Viewers Unprepared For Switch, Wash Post
Nearly half of the households that could lose
television service after the transition to digital
broadcasting are still unprepared for the switch,
according to a report released yesterday by the
Government Accountability Office.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/~r/wp-dyn/rss/technology/index_xml/~3/309296979/AR2008061002683.html
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/media/

Senators Dodd and Feingold Criticize Bond's False FISA
"Compromise", EFF
Thanks to Senators Dodd and Feingold for sending a
great letter today to House and Senate leadership
decrying the telco immunity "compromise" being offered
by Republican negotiators:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/senators-dodd-and-feingold-criticize-bonds-false-f
More Info:
http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/fisa.htm

Debunking Republican Spin on Fake Telecom Immunity
"Compromise" in Today's NYT, EFF
Congressional Republicans have new legislation they're
pushing as a "compromise" on telecom immunity. One of
their central talking points has been that the bill
would allow a court to review whether the telcos acted
legally when they cooperated with the NSA's
warrantless wiretapping program. For instance, this
morning's New York Times reported:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/debunking-republican-spin
More Info: http://www.cybertelecom.org/vote/2008.htm

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