“Internet” on The Daily Caller

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released a decision on the scope of the Federal Wire Act, a 1961 law that prohibits certain types of gambling businesses. According to the DOJ’s opinion, the Federal Wire Act applies to sports betting but not to other forms of online gambling like Internet poker. I’m glad the DOJ finally listened to the pleas of thousands of Americans and clarified a vague rule that was standing in the way of the development of a fair and safe online poker market in the U.S. (more)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, following a recent anti-piracy legislative debacle with SOPA and PIPA, will lead his second effort of 2012 to push Internet-regulating legislation, this time in the form of a new cybersecurity bill. The expected bill is the latest attempt by the Democrats to broadly expand the authority of executive branch agencies over the Internet. (more)

Let’s face it. When it comes to mobile technologies, America’s innovators are leading the way in app development and wireless accessibility. It’s hard to remember a time when cell phones were the size of a briefcase and had no capabilities outside of making a phone call. But the realities we have grown so accustomed to are at risk, as are the very technologies that allow us to surf the Web, stream video and make dinner reservations from a device that fits in our pocket. (more)

It’s not every day that a Republican and a Democrat find common ground to solve a very real problem. But at this month’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) stood side-by-side to promote legislation that seeks to combat digital pirates — the ones who let you illegally download movies and songs. The two legislators were on hand at this cavalcade of innovation and progress to garner support from the technology community for their bill, the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act, or OPEN, which they officially introduced on Friday. (more)

Congress has been in a constitutionally feisty mood lately. Shortly before taking off for its traditional Christmas recess, for example, it passed the annual defense authorization bill, which included a troubling provision that apparently permits the U.S. military to indefinitely detain anyone — including American citizens — it suspects of having even remote ties to any group it has determined to be linked to terrorism. (more)

Normally, the months preceding the Iowa caucuses are a blur of rallies, phone banks, and television commercials as presidential candidates blitz the state to turn out voters on their behalf. This election cycle, the usual flurry of activity has only just begun — even as the race has seen unprecedented volatility, with six different candidates having led Iowa polls at some point. The final result on January 3 remains difficult to predict, but the presidential primary so far has made it apparent that traditional political campaigns are being transformed by forces that can be explained through a framework that is redefining consumer marketing campaigns: Google’s “Zero Moment of Truth” concept. (more)

There is an effort within the United Nations – led by Russia, China and a coalition of developing nations with authoritarian regimes — to control the Internet, and 2012 may be a crucial year for opposition to such a shift, a key U.S. overseer warned Thursday. (more)

How is it that the U.S. Department of Defense can target individuals within al Qaida but can’t shut down their websites? Al Qaida, the Taliban, Ba’athist insurgents, Iranian-supported Hezbollah and many other terrorist groups have developed websites and online magazines designed to recruit, train, and inspire violence against U.S. servicemen or innocents in the West. The latest al Qaida online magazine, “Inspire,” directed by the late Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, includes a plea for any jihadist wannabe to make triacetone triperoxide (TATP) — a powerful explosive — as well as a color, fold-out recipe with mixing instructions and a list of places to buy the over-the-counter ingredients. Previous editions have called for the killing of specific Americans, asked readers to mow down Americans in shopping malls with trucks that have swords affixed to their front grills, and explained how to use an AK-47. One edition included the now infamous article “How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom,” which may have inspired New Yorker bomb suspect Jose Pimentel. (more)

As momentum builds in favor of ensuring sales tax equity between Main Street businesses, which are required to collect state sales taxes, and many online-only retailers, which are not, a growing and bipartisan chorus of public officials and opinion leaders have voiced their support for new House and Senate measures to end this uncompetitive loophole. But that chorus does not include the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). (more)

The Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) — a bill currently before the House Judiciary Committee — is a threat to America’s ability to lead the Internet, and must be defeated before it has a chance to damage America’s ability to generate jobs and economic growth online. (more)

Over a decade ago, state officials and members of the business community began a laudable effort to simplify tax collection for companies that have physical presence, or what is known as “nexus,” in multiple states. That effort to reduce the administrative costs of collecting taxes for the approximately 8,000 tax jurisdictions in the United States is known as the “Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement,” or SST. (more)

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio delivered a speech before Senate colleagues Wednesday in defense of the Internet of the future. His speech came during a floor debate on the Republican-led effort to overturn the FCC’s Internet regulation, which is set to take effect November 20. (more)

Rural communications just got a boost from the Federal Communications Commission with a bipartisan vote by four commissioners setting into action the Connect America Fund — a modernization plan to help extend high-speed Internet to rural areas. (more)

2011 has been a year of milestone birthdays in tech. September saw Google become a teenager, email hit the big 40 in June, and even Twitter turned five back in March. (more)

In the first congressional hearing on federal cloud computing on Thursday, representatives from government agencies and the private sector agreed that even with considerable security questions — particularly from risks posed by foreign nations — moving federal data storage from server farms to the “cloud” would be inevitable. (more)

Though last week’s Federal Communications Commission filing which placed net neutrality in the Federal Register may have seemed an apparent victory for open internet advocates, a prominent free speech group is challenging the ruling, calling it “arbitrary and capricious, [and] an abuse of discretion.” (more)

The Nashua Telegraph reported Thursday that New Hampshire will be among the first states to join the new Comcast Internet Essentials program.  (more)

Here’s a dirty little secret about life for politicos in D.C.: We’re all friends here. Republicans, Democrats, Hill staffers, consultants, lobbyists, journalists — we all drink at the same bars, gossip about the same people, shop at the same grocery stores. Sure, at work we’re policy wonks and experts on talking points, but off the clock we unwind over the same drinks and drunkenly deal with life’s bigger issues like our fantasy football draft picks. We’re actual people who think for ourselves. (more)

(Reuters) – In preparation for a new triple-x Internet domain that will launch in December, lawyers for the most storied brands in the United States are scrambling to prevent an x-rated rip-off of an invaluable asset: corporate Web addresses. (more)

President Obama sure likes Twitter. Over Father’s Day, he became the first sitting president to issue his own tweet, and recently he fielded questions during the first-ever White House Twitter town hall. In 2009, he hosted the first YouTube town hall, and Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was famously adept at harnessing the power of social media to spread the “hope and change” message and generate campaign contributions. Our tweeter in chief may enjoy using new technology, but when it comes to preaching what he practices, the first new media president can sound like a crusty, old Luddite. (more)