Actually, the chances for wiretapping immunity are probably a good deal higher. We mentioned the AT&T wiretapping scandal back in November with a handy-dandy introduction to the ongoing vote over granting telecom companies immunity from lawsuits for their complicity. Now it appears to be less of a scandal, and it seems like that whole voting thing may be winding down as well.
On Tuesday the Senate voted 68-29 to keep a provision in the current spy bill that would grant retroactive immunity to any of the network providers who happily looked the other way or encouraged the NSA to use their services to eavesdrop on American citizens.
For those of you interested in what your candidate thinks about science, you might want to take a gander at how they feel about tech: Obama voted to strike immunity, McCain to preserve it, and Clinton couldn't be bothered to show. Bush is pressing the House to follow suit.
In related news (at least in my worried head), the government is possibly redeeming itself in regards to the Internet. Rep. Edward J. Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on telecom and the Internet, introduced a bill today promoting network neutrality. The bill aims to protect content providers from "unreasonably discriminatory practices by broadband network providers."
"Our goal is to ensure that the next generation of Internet innovators will have the same opportunity, the same unfettered access to Internet content, services and applications that fostered the developers of Yahoo, Netscape and Google," Markey said in a statement.
In other words, he doesn't want your broadband provider slowing down your Internet--or stopping it completely--whenever you want to use a torrent, look at video, or simply access a competitor's website. For those of you keeping score--and who isn't?--Obama feels the same way.
Which is great considering that's exactly what Comcast is trying to justify doing. It's been slowing down traffic for torrent users, which is, okay, mayyyybe reasonable since it can affect other customers' usage. It compares the practice to installing a traffic light at a freeway entrance ramp to help moderate traffic.
"One would not claim that the car is 'blocked' or 'prevented from entering the freeway; rather it is briefly delayed," the company's statement said.
Bonus report from abroad: The UK is looking at just straight up banning Internet usage by anyone caught with three strikes for downloading illegal files.
Okkkkay. Nevermind what I said before. I'm back in the corner for BitTorrenting.
[via Reuters on Network Neutrality, WaPo on ComCast, and the NY Times on Wiretapping]
Add a comment