D.C. Circuit Takes a Swipe at Net Neutrality
Just last week, Comcast won its federal lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission, reversing an FCC order that would have prevented Comcast from intentionally slowing traffic from BitTorrent, a file sharing site often used for video. The ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is a setback for the FCC’s defense of net neutrality, a principle that states that both content and types of communications on the web should remain unrestricted. It was bad timing for the FCC, which is currently pushing the popular (so far) National Broadband Plan.
At first glance, it appears that the worst fears of net neutrality proponents are one step closer to realization. If the FCC truly lacks the authority to tell telecommunication companies that they cannot discriminate against certain types of traffic, companies like Comcast could effectively block people’s access to particular web services. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski was more optimistic, issuing this statement:
“The court decision earlier this week does not change our broadband policy goals, or the ultimate authority of the FCC to act to achieve those goals. The court did not question the FCC’s goals; it merely invalidated one technical, legal mechanism for broadband policy chosen by prior Commissions.”
Time will tell whether the decision proves to substantially limit the FCC’s general authority over the industry. To be sure, the FCC lost a significant battle, but this war is far from over.
Congratulations Jelena, Champion of the Official Fastcase March Madness Pool
Last night concluded a riveting NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, which will be remembered for early upsets, disappointing Big East performances, and busted pools across the nation. While underdogs stole headlines much of the tournament, Coach K and the Bluedevils won it all.
The rise of Duke in the NCAA tournament coincided with the success of our Quality Assurance Director, Jelena, in this year’s official Fastcase office pool. Unlike the actual Championship game, our competition wasn’t even close—Jelena dominated the field, crushing the rest of our team in both points scored and total number of correct picks. Jelena is also one of a handful of people across the nation to pick Duke to win it all. Her foresight and unquestionable knowledge of the game are truly impressive. Congratulations, Jelena, the bragging rights are all yours.
cc licensed flickr photo shared by max_m
Not ready for the Madness to end? Click here to read Business Insider’s 10 Best NCAA Lawsuits.
Law & Tech Roundup: Google, Tufte, and Obama’s Twitter Account
Certainly the story everyone is talking about this week is Google’s battle with the Chinese government over censorship on the Internet. Beginning a new chapter in the battle, Google announced announced on Monday that it would “stop censoring [its] search services” on Google.cn. Instead, Google.cn was redirected to Google.com.hk (Hong Kong).
As many expected, China reacted quickly censoring searches on Google.com.hk as well. Read more at News 24.
Will other companies follow Google’s lead and take a stand? PC Magazine reports that at least one company already has. Go Daddy announced on Wednesday that it has decided to end its .CN domain name registration services citing concerns about China’s policies regarding internet registrant’s personal information. And there are rumors that Dell is considering moving $25 billion of its business from China to India in order to obtain a “safer environment.” Read more at Engadget.
We were also delighted to learn this week that information design guru Edward Tufte has been appointed to advise the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, a body that keeps tabs on the way that the $787 billion in stimulus funds is being spent. A big part of his task will be to tweak and improve Recovery.gov — the RATB’s primary method of communicating with the public. Tufte is a legend in the field of information design and we cannot think of a better person for the job. Read more about his appointment at the New York Times or listen to this On the Media podcast.
And just this morning, we learned via the Wall Street Journal that a French hacker who goes by the name “Hacker Croll” has been arrested for hacking into some high profile Twitter accounts including the accounts of President Obama and Britney Spears. French state prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat told the WSJ that, “[t]he man . . . hadn’t aimed to profit financially by hacking into the accounts . . . Neither did he post anything on the accounts . . . Instead he simply wanted to prove that he was capable of hacking into the accounts.”
Introducing Fastcase Video Search Tips
Learn how to perform searches on Fastcase in seconds with our new search tip videos. You can find the videos on our You Tube channel, FastcaseVideo, by clicking here.
Here’s a preview for your viewing pleasure:
We will be adding many more in the near future, so make sure to check back often. And as always, we love your feedback, so send your search tip suggestions to support@fastcase.com
Big Brother Is Watching You . . . From Your Pocket
Law enforcement authorities and privacy advocates are eagerly awaiting the Third Circuit’s ruling in: In the Matter of the Application of the United States of America For An Order Directing A Provider of Electronic
Communication Service To Disclose Records to the
Government.
cc licensed flickr photo shared by alancleaver_2000
In addition to having one of the longest titles we have seen (so let’s just call it In re Application for the purposes of this post), this is a case with serious implications for the 84% of the nation’s population (that’s an estimate of how many American’s currently own mobile phones).
The dispute in In re Application centers around the government’s ability to access your phone’s location data. As you might already know, your cellphone periodically sends location data to your carrier. What you might not know is that this happens about once every seven seconds while your phone is on and that depending on the density of cell sites (and whether or not your phone has GPS) this data can pinpoint your location within a few feet.
Allowing government entities to have this type of data can certainly be very useful and desirable – for example, it can help emergency services locate you if you call 911. But to some, the idea that law enforcement authorities have access to this location data — in other words, access to information about exactly where someone is now and has been (every seven seconds) for days, weeks, or months — it can start to sound a bit Orwellian.
Of course, law enforcement authorities regularly gain access to all kind of information in the course of their investigations — they can even search your home or wiretap your phone. But in those circumstances, the ability to engage in this type of invasion of privacy comes with a backstop: investigators must obtain a search warrant from a judge upon a demonstration of probable cause. And this is precisely what is at issue in the In re Application — whether cell phone users have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their location data such that the government should have to follow similar procedures to access it.
According to the government, the answer is no; “One who does not wish to disclose his movements to the government need not use a cellular telephone,” wrote a prosecutor in brief in the case. Not surprisingly, privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU disagree. Both organizations filed an amicus brief in the case. You can read the brief, here.
For media coverage of the lawsuit, check out: