Policy Blog
Senate Commerce Committee to FCC, "The Game is Changing. Are We Keeping Up?"
Follow @GriffenPKOn Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee held its first FCC oversight hearing of the year. All 5 Commissioners attended and Senators discussed their laundry list of priorities and pet projects. While Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) pressed hard on funding for FirstNet, there were several other topics important to the public interest addressed in the hearing.
No One's "Signed Away" the Right to Unlock Cell Phones
Follow @sherwinpkSeveral people have raised the specter of trade agreements standing in the way of cell phone unlocking. The basic idea is that, in a broad trade negotiation between the US and South Korea (and in a number of others), the two countries agreed to make sure their copyright laws had certain similar features. Among those were requirements that they have laws against breaking digital locks to access copyrighted works, and that they only have certain kinds of exemptions to them. Cell phone unlocking is not one of the specific exemptions.
Mike Masnick at Techdirt characterizes this (at least in the article's title) as the US "signing away" its ability to enact a more permanent exemption for phone unlocking.
Five Fundamentals for the Phone Network, Part 3: Protecting All Consumers
Continuing our explanation of Public Knowledge’s Five Fundamentals to guide the phone network upgrade to an IP-based system, this week we’ll elaborate on the third principle: protecting all consumers.
SXSW and the Future of Digital Music Distribution
Follow @jgriffinpkFor those who are journeying down to sunny Austin, Texas for the kick-off of the SXSW Music festival today, don’t forget to check out Public Knowledge’s panel tomorrow, where we’ll be talking about the effects of market concentration on consumers, artists, and digital platforms.
The panel, inspired by the recent merger between major record labels Universal Music Group and EMI, will also include artist advocate and principal of WYZ Girl Entertainment Lita Rosario, CEO of indie label association Merlin Charles Caldas, manager and CEO of V. Brown & Company Vernon Brown, and Paul Geller, co-founder of The BKRY and former SVP of Grooveshark.
If You <3 WiFi, Set It Free
Follow @bergmayerWhether or not you're in Austin for SXSW, click here and sign a petition to show your support for open networks!
Events like South by Southwest can highlight the limitations of wireless Internet access. Put a large number of techies in the same city and as they all try to tweet, share photos, and stay connected they can quickly saturate Internet connections--leading to websites not loading, messages not being sent, and connections dropping.
Engineers have already solved this problem--but there are legal challenges as well as technical challenges. Policymakers in DC have to make sure that FCC rules allow people to take advantage of new wireless technologies that are already being built. They need to set WiFi free.
AT&T is Not Invincible
Follow @bergmayerThe ill-considered bill in Georgia that would have prevented local communities from investing in their own broadband networks was defeated last night, and this is great news.
preservesthe openness of the Internet and the public's access to knowledge, promotes creativity through balanced copyright, and upholds and protects the rights of consumers to use innovative technology lawfully.
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