Since the dawn of the Internet era, people have condemned the big American entertainment industry players for failing to meet the challenges of the new age with a spirit of innovation. But that ignores the tremendous amount of creative energies that the RIAA (music) and MPAA (movies) have put into crafting new ways to squash […]
Nancy Scola
Nancy Scola is a writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in Science Progress, Politics Magazine, AlterNet, and the Columbia Journalism Review.
Posted inArticle
Great White Spaces Now Full of Wireless Win.
This morning, the Federal Communications Commission made a much-anticipated announcement that it was opening up “white spaces” for unlicensed use. “White spaces” are those open portions of the radio spectrum that were freed up last year when the U.S. made the big switch from analog to digital television. Sure, that ancient Sony set in the […]
Posted inArticle
The Internet Is Not A Tuna Sandwich
TAP talks to a digital-media expert on net neutrality and policy responses to Internet freedom.
Posted inArticle
The Neutral Internet’s Non-Abandonment Issues.
Julian Sanchez floats a troubling idea. Adamant and stalwart net-neutrality advocates like Free Press and Public Knowledge have come out with great fervor against the Google-Verizon proposal that would exempt from neutrality regulation wireless traffic that is Internet-Protocol-based, or IP-based, along with “differentiated” IP-based services; the latter, explained Google’s Eric Schmidt and Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg […]
Posted inArticle
Depending on the Kindness of Google.
The anger at Google over its “compromise” net-neutrality proposal with Verizon is understandable, but it’s also a reflection of the fact that what exists of a modern media reform movement in the United States isn’t exactly awash with good options. Yesterday’s attempt by Google to quell some of the anger made the case that they […]
Posted inArticle
No One Elected Verizogoogle.
Here’s a little something to keep in mind when it comes to the new Google-Verizon “deal” about the future of net neutrality, the principle that all Internet content should be equally available and at the same speed: It’s a proposal. The Federal Communications Commission and Congress still have to weigh in on the matter. Just […]
Posted inArticle
Why a Google-Verizon Deal’s Believable.
Google is now saying that despite what you might have read in The New York Times, it hasn’t reached an agreement with Verizon on how the corporate giants will determine the future of the Internet. The Kremlin was, I suspect, easier to read than the telecom policy world. But whatever the truth is here, it […]
Posted inArticle
McConnell Calls Transparency’s Bias.
Nothing conveys a legislator’s deep commitment to being a constructive part of the democratic process like accusing your colleagues of being complicit in stealing elections. The DISCLOSE Act, you’ve probably heard, failed to get past filibuster yesterday, coming in short with 57 votes. DISCLOSE was a Democratic-sponsored response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling […]
Posted inArticle
Master of My Mobile Device.
You’ve been newly empowered to go ahead and “jailbreak” your iPhone. That’s according to a decision by the Library of Congress, which in addition to compiling all the world’s books also happens to be home to the U.S. Copyright office. What the decision seems to mean, in practice, is that you no longer are dependent […]
Posted inArticle
The Trouble With Tech Reporting.
Things have reached such a state that one can’t swing a cat on the Internet without hitting a reference to the “Internet Kill Switch” that the Senate is supposedly (but not actually) scheming to hand over to the president of the United States. The meme is a creation of CNET News’ Declan McCullagh, and it’s […]