Legislation
It appears as though Amazon’s email to affiliates regarding North Carolina’s pending taxes was not a bluff. I just received a follow-up email from the company saying it has decided to shut down its affiliate program in the state, as of today.
Facebook, Facebook. A year ago, it seemed we could hardly go a day without some newsworthy tidbit from the sweetheart of the social networking scene. These days, positive headlines—or any at all, since “ink is ink”—are much fewer and further between. But today, Facebook has two reasons to make the news: they’ve endorsed the new KIDS Act from the US federal government and they’re finally disbursing the fbFund for startups.
WebProNews previously reported how Kentucky State Representative, Tim Couch, proposed a bill that would not allow Kentuckians to comment anonymously on the Internet.
First rule of politics for incumbents: During an election year, try not to highlight your general uselessness, especially if you share a name with a famous football player, because people will notice.Second rule of politics for incumbents: If you go to the trouble to introduce a bill, be prepared to defend it until the bitter end, even if you know in your heart it will never pass, not in a million years, unless futility somehow becomes a desired legislative virtue.
No elected official is going to vote against something called "the KIDS Act," especially when it aims to curb sex offenders' access to children online. It's like voting against anti-kitten-punting legislation. In a perfect policy world, though, lawmakers would not just agree on terms, but would also address limitations.
Torrents and peer-to-peer networks have had a rough couple of weeks lately. In addition to Cox and Comcast's recent blocking of torrent sites, file-sharing has been under assault in France and Canada, not to mention from billionaire Mark Cuban.
The latest contribution to the Google Public Policy blog, on the topic of patent reform and Google's stance, received a pointed rebuttal from a Brookings Institution guest scholar.
It's comforting to know the previous Congressional idiots were replaced by fresh Congressional idiots from the other side of the political fence. Really? This is the best we can do?
Something very cool is happening. Something historic. For the first time in American history the people are being directly consulted about legislation, and it's being done via the Internet.
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