Comcast van. Source: Titanas on Flickr. License: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Ars Technica reports that Comcast has filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission over its ruling against the provider for Comcast’s use of throttling technology.

Almost a year ago, Comcast pledged that it would sue the Federal Communications Commission over its Order sanctioning the cable ISP for peer-to-peer throttling. Now, the company has filed its case with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Although Comcast’s legal arguments are complex, the crux is simple: there were and still are no statutes or credible regulations that support the Commission’s authority to act on this matter, the company says.

“For the FCC to conclude that an entity has acted in violation of federal law and to take enforcement action for such a violation, there must have been ‘law’ to violate,” Comcast’s Opening Brief to the court contends. “Here, no such law existed.”

Well, it certainly took them long enough.

• Ars Technica
• Slashdot

net neutrality... to the power of you - Credit: markrabo on Flickr (CC BY)

Once again Network Neutrality has been brought back to the table in Congress, this is already the third time. But since we now have  a new President and a new FCC chairman it seems more likely that there will be a different outcome this time.

The war over network neutrality has been fought in the last two Congresses, and last week’s introduction of the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009” (PDF) means that legislators will duke it out a third time. Should the bill pass, Internet service providers will not be able to “block, interfere with, discriminate against, impair, or degrade” access to any lawful content from any lawful application or device.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I definitely support net neutrality and I think it’s extremely important but maybe a better approach to insure net neutrality is to increase ISP competition.

• ars technica
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stephen_conroy by Dr Ron on Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

Yesterday, Australian Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy unveiled a report that vowed to crack down on illegal filesharing:

“The Government recognises a public policy interest in the resolution of this issue,” the report said. “A number of submissions received during the consultation phase for the development of this paper argued that a role for Government exists in addressing the apparent popularity of peer-to-peer file sharing of music and movies, without the necessary permissions of the relevant copyright owners”.

The report goes on to outline submissions made to the department by various stakeholders.

“One solution proposed by copyright owners is a “three strikes” or “graduated response” proposal under which copyright owners would work together with ISPs to identify the ISP’s customers who are suspected of unauthorised file sharing and the ISP would then send a notice on behalf of the copyright owner to that customer advising of this allegation”.

Why does Conroy hate the Internet so much? First he tries to filter it, now this. One has to wonder if it beat him up and took his lunch money when he was a kid…

• iTnews.com.au article

Freedom of Speech (CC-BY Credit : danstrange on flickr)

In a dangerous judgment for British bloggers and whistleblowers, a British court has ruled (absurdly) that because blogging itself is a public activity, bloggers have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding their identities, and newspapers are allowed to publish their identities if they can find them by fair or foul means

Something similar happened in India few months back. The question remains should internet really be anonymous?

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• Times Online

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seal - Credit: U.S. government (Public domain) http://www.uspto.gov/

The nature of innovation and technology has changed a lot but patent law may not be keeping up with the changes. In this Wall Street Journal opinion piece, L. Gordon Crovitz, argues that patent reform is long due because in their current form they maybe causing more harm than good for innovators.

The last time the Supreme Court heard a case on what kinds of innovations deserved patents was in 1981 — the year IBM launched the first personal computer using a disk operating system from a young Microsoft. The Internet as we know it was still years in the future.

This month, the Supreme Court agreed to reconsider what can be patented. At stake are tens of thousands of existing patents and a rethinking of why we have patent protections in the first place.

I hope the Supreme Court opens its eyes to the disaster that is patent law in the United States. Hopefully this also the beginning of the end of software and business methods patents.

Why Technologists Want Fewer Patents

Donald Knuth: Mathematical Ideas, or Algorithms, Should Not Be Patented

"To the grieving minister of Culture...." Source: http://www.laquadrature.net/. License: CC-BY-SA.

Ars Technica reports that HADOPI, the infamous French “3-strikes law” passed in May after an initial defeat, has been overturned by the Constitutional Council.

“Moreover, whereas under section nine of the Declaration of 1789, every man is presumed innocent until has has been proven guilty, it follows that in principle the legislature does not establish a presumption of guilt in criminal matters,” wrote the Council. This basic principle applies “to any sanction in the nature of punishment, even if the legislature has left the decision to an authority that is nonjudicial in nature.”

The court also made a strong statement about freedom of speech: “Freedom of expression and communication is so valuable that its exercise is a prerequisite for democracy and one of the guarantees of respect for other rights and freedoms and attacks on the exercise of this freedom must be necessary, appropriate and proportionate to the aim pursued.”

Good to see that this guilty-until-proven-innocent law did not muster the tests of the Council.

• Ars Technica
• Digg

Floppy Disks - Credit: matsuyuki or Flickr (CC BY-SA)

Data.gov, a website hosting US federal government data has launched.

Data.gov, an OA warehouse of datasets created by the U.S. federal government, launched yesterday. See, e.g., coverage by the Washington Post.

Also yesterday, the Sunlight Foundation launched a new contest for best re-use of data from Data.gov, Apps for America 2. First prize is $10,000.

OK, so a cool app idea: make charts on the names of different congressmen. Did they use to begin with more vowels? But seriously, someone should come up with some good ideas.

• Open Access News

Textbooks. Source: "The reason I don't sleep at night..." by Amanda Munoz on Flickr. License: CC-BY 2.0.

Ars Technica reports that the state of California has started a project to write free digital textbooks for the state’s public schools. The project is focusing on high school math and science courses.

Schwarzenegger has tasked California Secretary of Education Glen Thomas with making sure that the new textbooks are ready for deployment in fall 2009. Thomas will be collaborating with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the president of the State Board of Education.

Public education is costly in California and accounts for roughly 40 percent of the state government’s annual budget. The state’s current financial woes have forced Schwarzenegger to search for ways to cut some of the fat out of school spending.

“As California’s budget crisis continues we must find such innovative ways to save money and improve services,” said Governor Schwarzenegger in a statement. “California was built on innovation and I’m proud of our state’s continued leadership in developing education technology. This first-in-the-nation initiative will reduce education costs, help encourage collaboration among school districts and help ensure every California student has access to a world-class education.”

This is great news, however it is worth noting that the article points out a number of roadblocks in California’s school system with regard to textbooks. Hopefully these can be overcome, although that will be a huge battle. Even so, education, whether K-12 or higher, desperately needs free (libre) resources, and it’s good to hear that California is stepping up and starting this initiative.

• Ars Technica
• Slashdot

EU Parliament - Credit: Antonio Bonanno on Flickr (CC BY-SA)

A recent poll by a major Swedish newspaper suggests that the Pirate Party will have enough votes to get a seat in the EU Parliament.

Now a new poll conducted by Swedish newspaper DN.se predicts that the Pirate Party will get 5.1% of all votes in the upcoming EU elections this June – enough to guarantee a seat in the European Parliament. The poll further shows that the party is the second largest party among younger voters in the age group 18-30.

“This poll confirms our recent phenomenal growth in support, and says there will be pirates in Brussels after this election,” Pirate Party Leader Rick Falkvinge told TorrentFreak. “Scoring like this in a poll will further enhance support for the party. While there’s still much work to be done, we’re on the home stretch and have the goal in plain sight. June 7 is election day. On the morning of June 8, we’ll know.”

Wow, I’m surprised.  I keep imagining them putting some really argumentative socially awkward guy with an eyepatch in the seat.  Hopefully this is not the case.

• TorrentFreak

Demonstanter - Credit: komponisto on Flickr (CC BY)

After the verdict in the The Pirate Bay trial, Pirate Party membership has increased from 15,000 to 18,000 within hours.

“We’ve surpassed another party in parliament, making us the 5th largest in member count, and our youth section is about to take the number 1 position,” Swedish Pirate Party Leader Rick Falkvinge told TorrentFreak in a comment.

Christian Engström, vice-chairman of the Swedish Pirate Party said in a comment that the verdict is their ticket into the European Parliament. For the upcoming European election, the Pirate Party requires 100,000 Swedish votes to get a seat, a goal that is within reach after today.

They seem a little optimistic, but I guess this is good news.  How do things like this work?  I’d love to support a party that wants to reform copyright, but I doubt that would ever outweigh my opinions on other political issues that they might take a stance on.

• TorrentFreak