Politics

The Internet Knows No Borders

Wayne Hartman — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:02:32 GMT

One of the underpinning tenants of the Internet is the concept of self-healing, world wide access. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, as long as you're connected to the 'Net, you're connected to everything else. The Internet knows no borders, political boundaries, or frontiers. Once you are plugged in, the world is at your fingertips. Unless you live in China. Or the United States--what?

One of the things I find goofy about content producers is the idea of U.S. only content. You can go to Hulu, MySpace Music, and Pandora to listen to free, ad supported movies, TV shows, and music, but only if you happen to be geographically located within great U.S. of A. And why is that? Is it because shows that end up on Hulu usually aren't seen until weeks or months later in international cities? Is it because the ad targeting is geared towards an American audience, thus making ad campaigns pointless?

It's hard to say, really, but to me it speaks volumes about how the MPAA/RIAA don't understand the digital age. They don't understand what it means to make a true transition and embrace the concept of how content wants to be free from the restrictive controls that they try to set.

In response to such backward thinking, several free products have appeared such as AlwaysVPN, a mechanism that allows users in foreign countries to fool these websites into thinking that that users are located on American soil. It's interesting to note that this organization supports itself on ads as well, but I have a sneaking suspicion (if they're as smart as they seem) that ads presented would be relevant to the location that you're connecting from, taking advantage of revenue earning potential that content providers seem to be missing out on.

Even still, though, it is very apparent that while making sites like Hulu and MySpace Music available for 'free' consumption seems to be a step in the right direction, the content providers still have a lot to learn about how to cast the widest net possible for generating revenue.

So in the end, content producers, free your content, come up with a model that works well for you and your consumers, and please, let me know what ads you'll be showing me if I surf from Antarctica.

My 2009-2012 Tech Wish List

Wayne Hartman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:07:06 GMT

Christmas is almost here, but with last nights election I have a nice little technology wish list for the next administration.

Net Neutrality

The concept of Net neutrality spans the idea that Internet service providers (ISPs) should give traffic neutral passage regardless of protocol and source/destination. What this means is that people shouldn’t have to pay more to get the same speeds from (or even access to) Disney.com and say, Joe’s Gadget Shack. It also means that whether I’m surfing the ‘Net, checking my email, uploading photos to Flickr, or playing a video game with some friends, that data should not be filtered or slowed based upon what I am doing at the time.

I’m looking for Obama to quash the hopes of ISPs to create a tiered Internet where one may have to pay more to reach ‘premium sites’ or content. This is a bad idea for everyone because the mainstays of the Internet are based upon a platform with a level playing field where you have just as much a right to get to ESPN.com as you do to read this post on my site.

Copyright

For the past ten years, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been the lawyers delight in beating people over the head for ‘copyright infringement’. From DVDs to music, the DMCA has provisions in there that explicitly prohibit the circumvention of anti-copy protection schemes in an effort to criminalize piracy of digital content. Where the law goes too far is that there isn’t any provision in there that allows for duplication for legitimate archival purposes.

DVDs don’t lend themselves to withstanding much abuse, and a five to twenty dollar price tag per disc makes the media pricey if you have kids putting their peanut butter covered hands all over them. The reality of the situation is that many people do this (software to do this has been around for quite a long time) but any commercial venture to attempt to capitalize on it has found itself vaporized by DMCA wielding lawyers. Let’s get over the fact that people aren’t inherently criminal and are only trying to protect their media investment.

Universal Broadband

To be clear, Internet access is a privilege and an opportunity, not a right, but the U.S. severely lacks a clear broadband strategy for not just getting access to all those who desire it, but increasing bandwidth to existing users as well. Billions have been poured into the usual telcos and ISPs as a stimulus to innovate and expand offerings, but it seems the service has not scaled to the amount of funding provided.

I’m not calling for a government sponsored ISP, but a certain degree of regulation to promote alternatives and ‘openness’ in our digital destiny. This has some tenuous ties to net neutrality, mentioned above, but this has more to do with legislation to provide an even playing field that doesn’t favor existing broadband networks. The recent C Block spectrum auction earlier this year is evidence that rules and legislation can have a positive influence on how our digital assets are used amongst the masses, but more need be done to encourage things such as municipal networks to compete with the ‘good ol’ boys’ of traditional network service.

So for the next four years, this is what I (and I think a lot of Americans) would like to see on the forefront of the next administration’s tech policy. We’ll see how it goes.

President Obama

Wayne Hartman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:23:45 GMT

Whether you voted for the guy or not, one cannot deny the magnitude of Barack Obama's clinching of the U.S. Presidency. Numbers are still yet to come in, but this election has seen a level of participation from a large cross-section of our nation, showing America's concern for it's future, both home and abroad. While the tea leaves aren't revealing much about what the future holds, one can see that we have chosen to go down a different path than we have been going for the past eight years. Early results are also showing that the Democratic party has accrued a substantial amount of seats in the Senate, though it is still in doubt whether they will gather the sixty total seats necessary to have a super-majority in that house of the Congress.

It will be interesting in Obama's freshman year to see the challenges that confront him, how he'll deal with them, and how the public will react. We have a unique moment in history in which we will be asked what it was like when the first African American president was elected, to which we'll reply that it was exciting and uncertain. Exciting because it seems that we have grown from our bigoted and biased past, but uncertain, not because he's black, but because of the economic and foreign calamities and troubles that have been layed before us.

Obama, I'm looking to you to guide us through these disturbing times.

Spore: DRM Backlash

Wayne Hartman — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:34:56 GMT

C|Net News has an interesting blog post highlighting Spore from EA Games. This game has been in the works for a couple of years now and its unique gameplay and concept have stoked the fires of anticipation for some time. However, one of the biggest things to come out with its release has not been its intriguing gameplay, but the strategies used to curb piracy. Spore uses a anti-copy protection scheme called SecuROM, which is considered by some to be much more than just an anti-copy protection scheme, but system subversive malware.

The controversy seems to seems to revolve around EA's activation scheme that only let's you install the game a total of three times. If your computer hard drive crashes, you reinstall Windows, you remove the game because you don't want to play it anymore--all legitimate activities on your computer-- don't matter because EA doesn't want people to pirate it. If you take a gander to the Pirate Bay, you can see that the numbers are quite substantive and send a very clear message: Consumers don't like DRM. At the time of this publication there were over 6000 seeders and nearly 20,000 leechers actively downloading a torrent of the cracked version of the full game. C|Net points at estimates that the game has been illegally downloaded nearly half a million times!

It seems that backlash seems to be making a very pointed comment on the state of DRM and anti-piracy efforts: the more you push honest people with malware-like software to keep them in check, the more you are going to drive them to do dishonest things. DRM only hurts, or is an inconvenience, to those who want to pay for creative works. The pirates will always find a way to do defeat and circumvent control mechanisms. But, as Princess Leia succinctly put: "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

Alternatives To New York Ecommerce Taxation

Wayne Hartman — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:39:42 GMT

In a move sure to brazen other states into enacting laws to collect sales tax on out of state purchases, Amazon.com has stated that it "will begin collecting sales tax on items shipped to destinations within the State of New York". Lame. One of the main staples of Internet commerce is the fact that items purchased 'there' are not subject to sales tax, if the company has no presence in your home state. New York has a long history on overreaching its bounds on taxation issues, but this one seems to strike at the heart of ecommerce.

To be fair though, the tax exemption can't last forever. I realize that as people conduct more and more business online, the amount of money collected through traditional channels will certainly decrease. But, is this really the answer to the problem?

I think not. Exploring some possibilities, what if a tax was instead put on items shipped *from* a given location? This way, a state can get in on what it feels are its share of revenues on *any* commercial exchange within the jurisdiction of its own state? This feels more just because it targets all exchanges instead of singling out Internet originations. This has the interesting side effect of spreading the cost a little more evenly across all sorts of commercial interactions. In addition, it provides a tax 'loophole' for those that exchange in virtual or electronic goods, that, in my opinion, ought to enjoy tax free status for the time being anyway.

In the end, I think it unfortunate that Amazon is not taking a more aggressive stand on this because my own state legislature is licking its chops at the prospect of cutting into the revenue rich ecommerce taxation issue. We’ll see how long this all lasts.

John McCain In The Flesh

Wayne Hartman — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:11:07 GMT

Today I shook hands with the (possibly) next President of the United States. John McCain came and visited my place of employment to share his message with us. Not only did I get to shake his hand, but I got his autograph and he fielded a question of mine.

I went and got a seat an hour early which was positioned towards the front and in the aisle. I figured that if he came off the stage to shake hands, I could definitely get the chance. He gave his spiel, which wasn't all that different from the sound-bytes that you can hear on the news.

After that, he started fielding questions. Nobody seemed to be brave enough to ask, so I shot my hand as far as it would go, at which point a mic was stuffed into my palm. I asked him, "Senator McCain, have you given any thought to whom you would consider being your running mate for the general election in November?" He responded, "Well, I want to secure the nomination, first, then I will give consideration to whom that would be."

BS. We all know that he has someone or some people in mind. Inquiring minds want to know. Huckabee and Paul are irrelevant. Just tell us!

After he was finished fielding questions, we all gave him a standing ovation and he proceeded down the center aisle to shake hands. It's awesome that I'm able to say that I shook his hand as he filed through the crowd. I kicked myself, though, because someone behind me had a pen and paper handy and caught an autograph from him. I complained out loud that I should have done that, but the person sitting next to me remarked that at least I got to shake his hand. I replied, "Well, I don't have any proof that I was that close", to which she conceded that that point was true.

I had written it off (pun intended) and started filing off to the side aisles to let people pass through, but noticed that security wasn't letting more people through that aisle because apparently, McCain was coming back around right where I was to leave. I thought quick, whipped out my pad and paper, and got his autograph!

So, at the end of the day, I got to ask him a question, shake his hand, and get his John Hancock! What an awesome day!

Night of the Living Democrats! Yikes!

Wayne Hartman — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:18:34 GMT

I was watching the news tonight and they spotlighted a fun little thing to do over at JibJab. I haven't heard from these guys since the last presidential election, so it's nice to see that they're up to no good again. ;)

Execution of Saddam Hussein

Wayne Hartman — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 05:08:54 GMT

For all those curious about the execution of Saddam Hussein, below is a link to a video taken by a cell phone camera.

Please be aware that the content is very graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers.

If you are having trouble viewing the clip above, you can view it here as well.

Reinstatement of the Draft?

Wayne Hartman — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:06:57 GMT

For those of you who don't live with their heads in the sand, President Bush announced during a press conference today that he is "inclined to believe that we need to increase in — the permanent size of both the United States Army and the United States Marines."

With troops already stretched thin by several tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, what other solutions are out there to increase the size of the military other than through conscription? President Bush has already voiced opposition to the idea of reinstating the draft, but resources seem to be scarce in a time when plans are being made to increase our presence in the Middle East.

So what's in store for the youth of our nation? Who knows, but the whole situation seems to be spreading a whole bunch of fear, uncertainty, and doubt without even mentioning a draft.