Disturbing news from Washington today…

By a 410-15 vote on Thursday July 27, the House of Representatives has passed the DOPA (Delete Online Predators Act), an extension of the Communications Act. This bill seeks to cut the use of social networks in schools and libraries in order to stop online predators. However, the phrasing of the bill is such that any commercial website that provides blogs, user profiles, chat or other online discussion is included! This potentially means that not only MySpace but Blogger, Slashdot and thousands of other commercial websites with bulletin boards or user accounts will be blocked by schools and libraries lest they risk the loss of Federal E-Rate Funding.

Wikipedia is likely to start cooperation with Library of Congress and the United States Holocaust Museum. This will be an important milestone not only for those organizations, but for the cause of copyleft, since those who want to cooperate with Wikipedia have to address that issue.

Lots of interesting things to check out in the nights delicious links, but as I found myself engaged in a rather spirited argument over at CNET’s Buzz Out Loud forums I haven’t been able to write about them. The thread itself is pretty interesting as I discuss the issue with a staunchly anti-neutrality individual.

Check it out here.

Last week we saw the broadcast and print media pick up on Senator Ted Steven’s “series of tubes” speech after it consumed the blogosphere. Most of these stories focused on the comedy of the word “tubes”. Many offered the apology that his analogy was sound, but he just used the word “tubes” instead of the more commonly used “pipes”. But there is more to the story of the Senator’s statement. He clearly doesn’t understand the issue of net neutrality.

PA Senator Arlen Specter’s proposed compromise regarding the secret, unauthorized wiretapping conducted by this administration will effectively sweep all court cases regarding the wiretapping out of the public eye by sending them to the FISA court.

Call to action.

“Net neutrality is perhaps the oddest Washington debate I have seen,” says Verizon policy chief Tom Tauke. “It amounts to holding a Congressional vote on hypothetical business plans.” Taking a shot at Google and Amazon.”

Beyond the insanity of a need for a 24mbps video game, one should read this article noting that Verizon has been paid billions by state governments to roll out high speed fiber optics to people’s homes. *All* homes.read more | digg story

Check them out here.

Here is a very succinct discussion of the network neutrality issue. This topic is largely under the radar of most mainstream press and is of the utmost importance to the future of the free internet as we know it.

Hul Mal Gamay saves the day once again.

http://www.techvoice.tv/?p=26

What do you think of our new look? It’s a slightly modified version of Richard Dow’s News Print Theme.

Andrew Beckerman responds to the Wikipedia article.