Rep. Tom Lantos: Can you say in English that you’re ashamed of what your company and what the other companies have done?
Google: Congressman, I actually can’t, I don’t think it’s fair for us to say that we’re ashamed.
Lantos: You have nothing to be ashamed of?
Google: I am not ashamed of it, and I am not proud of it…We have taken a path, we have begun on a path, we have done a path that…will ultimately benefit all the users in China. If we determined, congressman, as a result of changing circumstances or as a result of the implementation of the Google.cn program that we are not achieving those results then we will assess our performance, our ability to achieve those goals, and whether to remain in the market.
Category: Politics
Will: No Checks, Many Imbalances
But, then, perhaps no future president will ask for such congressional involvement in the gravest decision government makes — going to war. Why would future presidents ask, if the present administration successfully asserts its current doctrine? It is that whenever the nation is at war, the other two branches of government have a radically diminished pertinence to governance, and the president determines what that pertinence shall be. This monarchical doctrine emerges from the administration’s stance that warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency targeting American citizens on American soil is a legal exercise of the president’s inherent powers as commander in chief, even though it violates the clear language of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was written to regulate wartime surveillance.
Is Energy’s Future Sustainable?
In his Harvard Lecture, Simmons explores the ramifications of peak energy (not just oil). The potential for world conflict is there, but it doesn’t have to be inevitable. (5 MB PDF – republished with permission)
Freedom To Connect
The need to communicate is primary, like the need to breathe, eat, sleep, reproduce, socialize and learn. Better connections make for better communication. Better connections drive economic growth through better access to suppliers, customers and ideas. Better connections provide for development and testing of ideas in science and the arts. Better connections improve the quality of everyday life. Better connections build stronger democracies. Strong democracies build strong networks.
F2C:Freedom to Connect begins with two assumptions. First, if some connectivity is good, then more connectivity is better. Second, if a connection that does one thing is good, then a connection that can do many things is better.
F2C:Freedom to Connect belongs with Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Assembly. Each of these freedoms is related to the others and depends on the others, but stands distinct. Freedom to Connect, too, depends on the other four but carries its own meaning. Unlike the others, it does not yet have a body of law and practice surrounding it. There is no Digital Bill of Rights. Freedom to Connect is the place to start.
“We Thought You Said Spend the $200 Billion on Dark Fiber”
The United States is the 19th ranked nation in household broadband connectivity rate, just ahead of Slovenia.’ Want to know why? Because, contends telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick, the Bell Companies never delivered symmetrical fiber-optic connectivity to millions of Americans though they were paid more than $200 billion to do it. According to Kushnick’s book, “$200 Billion Broadband Scandal”, during the buildup to the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, the major U.S. telcos promised to deliver fiber to 86 million households by 2006 (we’re talking about fiber to the home, here). They asked for, and were given, some $200 billion in tax cuts and other incentives to pay for it.’ But the Bells didn’t spend that money on fiber upgrades — they spent it on long distance, wireless and’ inferior DSL services.’ Some headlines from Kushnick’s work:
- By 2006, 86 million households should have been rewired with a fiber optic wire, capable of 45 Mbps, in both directions.
- The public subsidies for infrastructure were pocketed. The phone companies collected over $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks, about $2000 per household.
- The World is Laughing at US. Korea and Japan have 100 Mbps services as standard, and America could have been Number One had the phone companies actually delivered. Instead, we are 16th in broadband and falling in technology dominance.
Wonderful… More here.
Lessig on Network Neutrality
Larry Lessig, testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee this week [pdf]:
To answer that question, this Committee must keep in view a
fundamental fact about the Internet: as scholars and network
theorists have extensively documented, the innovation and explosive
growth of the Internet is directly linked to its particular architectural
design. It was in large part because the network respected what
Saltzer, Clark and Reed called “the ‘end-to-end’ principle” that the
explosive growth of the Internet happened. If this Committee wants
to preserve that growth and innovation, it should take steps to
protect this fundamental design.
Lessig makes sense, while the incumbent telcos do not. Cringely has more.
Net Neutrality: Rick Boucher Makes Sense
Recently, executives at some telephone companies have indicated that their business models for providing broadband service include not only charging their end-user customers for an Internet connection but also assessing a fee on websites for users to reach them more quickly. They claim that to offer advanced content such as multiple video-programming channels in competition with cable they need to prioritize their bits to deliver quality programs. They then propose that they will give the same priority access to other companies that pay them for it.
Essentially, what these executives are proposing is the creation of a two-lane Internet where larger, more established websites with financial resources could squeeze out smaller, emerging websites. One clear victim will be the innovation that has thrived on the open Internet. Startups simply could not afford to pay for fast-lane treatment nationwide. One must ask where the next Google or Yahoo will come from if new innovative companies can receive only inferior, slow-lane Internet access…
In countries such as Japan and Korea, network speeds over the last mile of 100 megabits per second (mbps) are common. In the United States, our typical speed is less than 1 mbps. If broadband providers would increase their network speeds to approximate those in other countries, all content would reach consumers with assured quality. No prioritization of bits would be needed.
EFF: Don’t Install Google Desktop
The Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The EFF is asking users not to use the new version of Google Desktop that has a ‘search across computers’ option. The option will store copies of documents on you hard drive on Google servers, where the goverment or anyone who wants to may subpoena (i.e. no search warrents) the information. Google says it is not yet scanning the files for advertising, but it hasn’t ruled out the possibility.”
slashdot discussion. John Paczkowski has more.
Another Cyberdissident Imprisoned Because of Data Provided by Yahoo
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the US firm Yahoo! for handing over data on one of its users in China which enabled the authorities there to send him to prison for eight years, the second such case that has come to light in recent months.
It called on Yahoo! to supply a list of all cyberdissidents it has provided data on, beginning with 81 people in China whose release the worldwide press freedom organization is currently campaigning for.
It said it had discovered that Yahoo! customer and cyberdissident Li Zhi had been given his eight-year prison sentence in December 2003 based on electronic records provided by Yahoo. “How many more cases are we going to find?” it asked.
Shared WiFi: FON
FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and enjoy WiFi all over the world! FON: small cost, great benefit!
To become a Fonero, all you need to do is register with us on our website, have broadband connection, and download the FON Software onto your WiFi router. It’s that simple. Just share your connection and the rest of the Community shares back with you. Join FON and enjoy connecting from anywhere within the WiFi World.
To start sharing, set up your access point where you can receive the most coverage, generally close to the window or outside your home. The rest of the Community will be thankful.