“Computer law” on The Daily Caller

1.) Unethical Google alumnus leaves White House one day after FCC passes net neutrality — Andrew McLaughlin should have left the White House in March, when he was found to be using his personal gmail account while at work, or even in May, when internal memos revealed McLaughlin was coordinating PR with Google’s U.S. public policy director. Instead, the nation’s deputy CTO waited until the FCC passed its net neutrality bill to bid adieu to government life. According to WaPo, “McLaughlin, who previously worked as a Google executive, oversaw many of the White House’s Internet policy initiatives including Internet access regulations, the expansion of broadband connections and global cybersecurity.” Not mentioned in WaPo’s writeup is Google’s ardent support for net neutrality regulations. McLaughlin will dive back into the startup world, creating products for state and local governments. He “also said he will return to teaching law, which he did at Harvard University’s Berkman Center seven years ago.” Interesting factoid: The Berkman center is the far-left think thank that the FCC commissioned to produce objective reports on the apparent need for net neutrality regulations. (more)

The Federal Communications Commission is poised on Tuesday to pass so-called net neutrality regulations, first-time rules that prevent Internet service providers from blocking or giving preferential treatment to Web sites on their networks. (more)

The Internet has become the greatest liberating tool in human history. It has freed people from ignorance and helplessness. It has revolutionized our personal relationships, how we are entertained, educated, and make everyday choices. The abundance and availability of information online has led to innovations that make our lives healthier, happier, and more fulfilling. (more)

The link that you can find here leads to a list of the 95 Democrats that were in support of net neutrality legislation.  If you were curious how many of them we in the free market still have to contend with, I went ahead and did the research for you so that you could save yourself the headache of counting to zero. (more)

For years, progressives have claimed that net neutrality Internet regulations have the support of “millions” of Americans. They push fear-mongering rhetoric, time after time falsely making doomsday “end of the Internet” predictions, unless government steps in to regulate. And, worse, they have led President Obama, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and some members of Congress to actually believe that net neutrality is not just good policy, but good politics. (more)

The European Union is well known for the overwhelming number of ridiculous regulations that it produces. The EU has banned horse drawn carts on rural roads; set standards on the shape and curvature of bananas; crushed productivity with minimum holidays and maximum work hours; pointlessly set three separate regulations on the loudness of lawn mowers; and subjected hot air balloon enthusiasts to the same regulations and paperwork as commercial airlines. The list goes on. (more)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just finished collecting yet another round of comments in the “net neutrality” debate over proposed regulation of Internet traffic management (you may find CEI’s latest filing by Ryan Radia here). It is important to appreciate the profound significance of the fact that the FCC is unwilling to even affirm that it will leave future managed, specialized Internet services alone. And wireless services? The FCC is chomping at the bit to regulate those. (more)

Among the Washington power set’s favorite past-times is betting on an agency head’s exit date. After all, it’s usually a question of when — not if — he or she is going to burn out, throw up his or her hands in frustration, and get hounded out of the gig. The betting tables are especially hot after a long week for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. (more)

Washington, D.C., can get hot and muggy in August, which is why lawmakers leave for most of the month, and many staffers, lobbyists and other industry-types also clear out of town in search of cooler climes. (more)

The advocacy group Free Press is inviting Twin Cities residents to turn out on Thursday for what it calls a public hearing on the “future of the Internet.”  But Free Press won’t be talking about how to bring you a faster connection, or how to bring high-speed Internet to the rural and urban communities that it doesn’t reach today.  Instead, the event is going to be a pep rally for imposing new, and to say the least, peculiar, regulations on the broadband Internet, under the name “net neutrality.” (more)

The Federal Communications Commission has called off closed-door talks with tech lobbyists, talks meant to iron out a government driven compromise on “net neutrality.” The talks ended today in the wake of as-yet-unconfirmed reports that Google—the leading neutrality proponent—and Verizon may have reached a separate agreement enshrining non-neutral treatment of online content. No firm could ever actually support the policy as a general principle, and if this development hadn’t made that plain, it’d have been something else eventually. (more)

The last great free-market regulatory decision of the 20^th century was engineered by a Democrat, former FCC Chairman William Kennard, when he refused to drag the new and promising consumer broadband market into what he called the “whole morass” of telephone style regulation. (more)

Late last month, lobbyists for the pro-net neutrality movement began circulating a letter [PDF] on Capitol Hill demanding the immediate passage of a law that would allow the FCC to regulate Internet broadband. The letter, sponsored by media reformist groups Free Press and the Nonprofit Technology Network, featured over 160 signatories, among them the Dr. Pepper Museum, Planned Parenthood of North Texas, and Operation Catnip, a spay-and-neuter clinic in Gainesville, Florida. (more)

Starting this month, colleges and universities that don’t do enough to combat the illegal swapping of “Avatar” or Lady Gaga over their computer networks put themselves at risk of losing federal funding. (more)

A lot has changed since that not-so-halcyon year 1934. (more)

“Only government can implement policies and subsidies to provide an institutional framework for quality journalism.” Does that statement give you chills? (more)

Last week, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) gave a keynote speech before a crowd of Internet regulation supporters and stated some amusing falsehoods about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) attempt to take over the Internet. At a summit held by the organization Free Press, Sen. Dorgan claimed that the government developed the Internet, established the rules underpinning net neutrality when it created the Internet, and that the attempt by the FCC to takeover the management of networks is not a government takeover. (more)

House Republicans swept the Congressional Management Office’s 2010 Mouse Awards honoring the best member, committee and leadership Websites last month, but—with at least 2 government agencies bringing complex Web issues 2 Congress’ doorstep and the GOP ill-prepared 2 handle them—their arrogance is more naive than letting Mark Foley host a boy scout camping trip. (more)

In the loud echoing outcry for net neutrality regulation over the years, there has always remained some voice of reason even if it was a low murmur. That voice has remained constant and consistent in its concerns regarding the infrastructure market. As the drum beats have grown louder in the recent months for regulation, examples of concerns over stifled investment in broadband infrastructure have increased: (more)

As the paragon of technological and business innovation, the Internet has been the most significant generator of economic wealth in America over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, fringe groups seeking to stifle creativity in a blizzard of government red tape are now threatening this economic engine. These groups want the government to federalize the Internet and nationalize innovation. (more)