UK Hacker Loses Extradition Appeal Yet Again

from the time-to-come-stateside dept

While the US gov't clearly overplayed its claims that Gary McKinnon was the "world's biggest hacker" after having him arrested for breaking into US military computers, that doesn't mean that McKinnon hasn't overreacted back in response. The US offered him a plea bargain deal that seemed fairly reasonable, given what he did -- and he flipped out about it. Now he's lost his latest appeal against extradition, and it looks like he may finally get sent to the US in the next few weeks to stand trial, for breaking into US military computers, supposedly while high and looking for info on alien encounters.

Filed Under: extradition, gary mckinnon, hacking, uk, us

Turns Out Americans Are Watching More TV Than Ever

from the not-going-away-just-yet dept

While there's been some talk that other forms of entertainment, such as the internet, were starting to cut into TV watching time, someone apparently forgot to inform Americans. The latest Nielsen numbers show more TV being watched than ever before. Of course, there are plenty of additional factors to consider. As some note in the comments to that post, the high price of gas may make some folks stay at home more often than go out -- potentially leading to more TV watching. Also, it's not clear how much is actual TV watching vs. just leaving the TV on in the background while they do something else (such as surf the internet). The report also finds (not at all surprisingly) that more people are time shifting content they view on TV, though it still seems like a rather small percentage of overall TV watching. On the whole, though, it appears that the demise of TV is still a long ways off.

Filed Under: tv, us, watching habits

Has Broadband Growth Stalled In The US?

from the reaching-saturation? dept

A new survey on broadband adoption in the US suggests that broadband adoption in the US may be leveling off, or stalling out completely as the numbers aren't all that different than they were at the end of 2007 (55% have broadband now, compared to 54% in December). Of course, there are a variety of different groups out there trying to measure broadband penetration in the US, and they all seem to turn up different numbers -- so these numbers shouldn't necessarily be taken as fact. The report suggests the economic situation may have something to do with it, though there appears to be a variety of reasons that factored into the decision of many not to sign up for broadband.

Filed Under: broadband, broadband penetration, us

Japanese Broadband Caps Compared To US Broadband Caps

from the take-a-look-around dept

With various US broadband firms implementing usage caps sometimes as low as 5GBs/month, we are quite concerned about how these moves will hinder innovation by effectively placing much greater mental transaction costs on using any kind of application online. In defense of these caps, some have pointed out that even Japanese ISPs (sometimes used as an example of a much better broadband system than in the US) are also implementing caps.

Broadband Reports now has the details on some of those caps, and they're much higher than in the US (just like Japan's broadband speeds). The cap is 30 gigs per day of upload. There are no download caps. So, yes, the Japanese caps (that some want to use as an example of why caps are necessary) are many times greater per day than what some US firms want to offer per month -- and it's only for upload, rather than download. Suddenly, I get the feeling we'll be hearing the example of Japanese broadband caps a lot less frequently.

Filed Under: broadband, broadband caps, japan, us

Isn't It Better To Keep Smart Foreign Workers In The US Than Sending Them Home To Compete?

from the just-wondering dept

It's amazing how short-sighted some people can be on the immigration question. Rep. Zoe Lofgren has a wonderful idea, suggesting that we make it much easier for skilled foreign workers to establish residency if they get a job in the US. It's difficult to see why anyone would oppose this. Keeping those workers in the US, working for US companies, means that they're contributing to the American economy. Sending them home only lets them compete against us, potentially harming the American economy. The argument most often brought up against such proposals, that it hurts American jobs, is easily shown to be false. It's based on the incorrect assumption that jobs are a zero-sum game, and if a foreign-born worker takes a job, it means one fewer job for an American-born worker. Yet, if that foreign worker goes back to his home country and works for a company that takes down an American company, then we have a lot fewer jobs in the US, due to that worker going home. At the same time, if that foreign-born worker stays here, and while working for an American company, helps build up an industry, it will create many new jobs for both foreign and American-born workers.

Filed Under: competition, immigration, us, zoe lofgren

While US Blames P2P For Everything, EU Invests Money In It

from the a-study-in-contrasts dept

US politicians have, for years, been coming up with bogus arguments about why P2P technology is just plain evil. Most of these have little to do with file sharing of unauthorized material, but you can bet that it was the entertainment industry who put these ideas in our elected repesentatives' minds. There was the bogus claim that P2P was responsible for porn on the internet (despite the fact that studies have shown there's no more porn on P2P networks than on the rest of the internet). Then, of course, Congress started talking about how P2P technology was responsible for identity theft and was potentially endangering national security.

Over in Europe, however, the good news is that some folks there have at least realized that P2P is merely a tool, and as such, can help enable very good things as well. That's why it's nice to see the EU invest $22 million in helping to build a new, open source, BitTorrent client, designed to help broadcasters better distribute their content. Kind of nice to see in comparison to the grandstanding and misleading rhetoric coming from US politicians, blaming a technology, rather than recognizing that the technology itself is neutral.

Filed Under: blame, eu, p2p, us

Online Gambling Deals Between US And Other Countries Are A Matter Of National Security?

from the seriously? dept

Remember back in December, the EU, Canada and Japan suddenly agreed not to side with Antigua in the longstanding dispute over the US's online gambling ban violating free trade agreements? It was pretty clear that the US had cut some sort of deal with these countries (who had previously indicated they would side with Antigua). In order to understand what happened, a freelance writer named Ed Brayton filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the actual agreement between the countries. And, as The Agitator points out, the US Trade Representative has denied the request, claiming that the agreement is classified, as it's a matter of national security. Yes. The US gov't is actually claiming that an agreement over online gambling between two countries is a matter of national security. Perhaps this really shouldn't be such a huge surprise. Remember, the law that was passed to ban online gambling was hidden as part of a law to protect our ports. Clearly, the EU, Canada and Japan had to side with the US against Antigua to protect our ports.

Filed Under: antigua, canada, classified info, eu, japan, national security, online gambling, us

When Will We Have a Comprehensive National Sneaker Strategy?

from the parallel-processing dept

My fellow Arsian Nate Anderson blasts the Bush administration for its laissez faire attitude toward the development of broadband infrastructure. He laments the fact that the administration lacks a "vision" or "national target" for broadband deployment. DSL Reports chimes in, noting that Japan claims to have deployed 100 Mbps fiber to eighty five percent of its homes. But Matt Sherman points out that while "we," meaning the government, may not have a single, unified broadband strategy, "we" the broader marketplace have several broadband strategies being developed in parallel. As he says, Verizon's strategy is fiber-to-the-home, AT&T's strategy is fiber-to-the-node, Sprint's strategy is WiMax, etc. Which of these will prove the most effective? I have no idea. But it's also not clear to me how greater federal government involvement in these deployments would speed them up. Matt also notes the peculiarity of using advertised broadband speeds as a measure of broadband quality. He's got a graph showing that, by at least some measures, North America leads the world in the deployed speed of actual measured broadband connections. Comparing advertised speeds can be problematic, especially since some countries have low usage caps that make the high advertised speeds and low advertised prices extremely misleading. There are certainly plenty of problems with the broadband marketplace, not least the limited amount of competition in many markets. But calling for a "comprehensive national broadband strategy" doesn't make a lot of sense. We need to find ways to increase competition and remove obstacles to the deployment of more capacity, but we don't need a national strategy for the broadband industry any more than we need a national strategy for the production of tennis shoes.

Filed Under: broadband policy, competition, us

China Can Access Mobile Phone Data To Spy On People

from the but,-you-know,-only-for-good-reasons dept

Given China's mentality towards its citizens, it probably won't surprise many people to find out that the head of the country's biggest mobile phone operator gleefully acknowledges that it can spy on anyone's location and has no qualms about handing that info over to authorities. He also talks about how the company is considering using this data to better target advertisements. While the article paints this as somehow shocking, it's been widely assumed that this was true already. And, the idea, as expressed in the article, that it wouldn't or couldn't happen in the United States seems a bit naive as well. Given how telcos helped the US government spy on phone calls without warrants, it seems like it may already be happening here as well.

Filed Under: china, civil rights, mobile phones, privacy, surveillance, us

WTO Gives Antigua Only $21 Million In Sanctions; US Says 'Not So Fast...'

from the this-ain't-over-yet dept

The battle between the US and Antigua over online gambling is rather long. You can go back here to read a summary of the back and forth -- but the quick version is that the US violated its own free trade agreements by banning some forms of online gambling (while allowing others). Antigua, home to many online gambling firms, filed a complaint with the WTO. The WTO repeatedly sided with Antigua, and the US repeatedly ignored those rulings, before the US eventually unilaterally claimed that it had changed its trade agreement so that online gambling wasn't covered. In response, Antigua (with very little power) started pushing for a different kind of sanction against the US: it asked to be allowed to violate intellectual property of US firms, including copyrights, patents and trademarks. Antigua didn't really want that to happen -- it wanted to use that to put pressure on the US to back down and allow online gambling. A bunch of other countries started siding with Antigua until the US bought them off, leaving Antigua and a few other small countries fighting the US at the WTO.

Today the WTO came down with its final (no, this time they swear, it's final, dammit!) ruling, saying (again) that the US definitely did violate trade agreements, but that Antigua is only entitled to $21 million. The WTO did allow Antigua to target US copyrights in order to make up that amount, but the way folks like the RIAA "count" the value of copyright, $21 million is, what, like 10 songs? This is obviously far short of what Antigua was hoping for. You would think that the US might just pay off the $21 million and be done with it... but that would only be if you didn't recognize the way our government worked. Instead, even though there's no appealing the WTO's decision, the US is already warning Antigua not to put in place any sanctions based on this ruling. The US claims that it's in the process of "revising its commitments" with regards to its trade agreements and that Antigua should wait until those revisions are complete before it thinks about putting in place sanctions. While Antigua "wins" again, the reality here is that the US appears to have bullied its way into the real winning position.

Filed Under: antigua, gambling, trade agreements, us, wto