Tech Policy

Better enjoy your free wireless access in Austin parks and libraries while it lasts. It might not be around much longer.

Adina Levin has noted that the omnibus telecom regulation bill (HB 789) up before the Texas legislature prohibits municipal networks. All across the country, the incumbent communication providers have been fighting for (and winning) special protections at the state level, so it's no surprise to see this in Texas.

What is a surprise is the shocking breadth of the Texas language. It wouldn't merely block the deployment of for charge municipal networks. It would force a significant rollback of current free services. Wireless access in city hall, city parks, and even city libraries will all be gone if this passes.

No internet access in city libraries??!?! Why not just ban books and magazines from the libraries while we are at it?

Here is the proposed language of the bill:

Sec. 54.202. PROHIBITED MUNICIPAL SERVICES. A municipality or municipally owned utility may not, directly or indirectly, on its own or with another entity, offer to the public:

(1) a service for which a certificate is required;

(2) a service as a network provider; or

(3) any telecommunications or information service, without regard to the technology platform used to provide the service.

The bill is sure to change in committee. Hopefully this provision will disappear entirely. The legislature should refuse anti-competitive protection for special interests.

I recently posted news of a DMCA takedown notice I received. The notice claimed illegal file sharing was occuring on a network that doesn't exist.

I never got around to responding to the MPAA about that notice. Nevertheless, I received followup correspondance from them last week. They said, in essence, "Ooops, we goofed."

Yeah, no shit.

This morning I received email from Hollywood. I wish I could report they want to turn my spam fighting adventures into a major motion picture. Alas, I was the recipient of a DMCA takedown notice.

A takedown notice is sent to a network operator by the owner of copyright material. It alleges that there is infringing material on the operator's network. The network operator may be afforded legal protection if they remove that material promptly. If they don't, they could have big trouble on their hands.

A takedown notice is not something I want to treat lightly. There is, however, a small problem here.

The MPAA sent me a takedown notice for a network that doesn't exist.

The IEEE-USA performs an annual salary survey of electrical engineers and technology professionals. The recently released their latest survey, based on 2003 data. The news is disturbing. For the first time in the 31-year history of the survey, professional salaries fell. This has never happened before, even during previous tech recessions.

I think the news is even worse than it appears. The survey only covers people working full-time in their area of professional competence. This means the legions of people who have been unemployed or underemployed during the recession are omitted from the numbers. Even when you exclude those hardest hit, the numbers look crummy.

The insult upon ourtage is that companies continue to expand their outsourcing and guest worker programs. The justification always given is the lack of skilled professionals in this country. The declining salaries prove the falsity of that excuse. If there was such tight demand, salaries would be going up.

Tomorrow evening (March 18, 7:00pm), CACTUS is presenting a talk on copyright and intellectual property. The presentation will be by noted author Siva Vaidhyanathan, so it could be pretty cool. The talk is open to the public. See the CACTUS Newsletter for more information and directions to the event.