President Barack Obama has officially come out in favor of net neutrality. Obama has asked the FCC to have the internet comply with Title 2 of the Telecommunications Act. Currently, "commercial mobile radio service providers" are given a great deal of leeway under the law. 20147 U.S. Code § 201 is where the FCC can say that telecommunication companies must compile with with regulations that serve the greater good of the public.
It shall be the duty of every common carrier engaged in interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio to furnish such communication service upon reasonable request therefor; and, in accordance with the orders of the Commission, in cases where the Commission, after opportunity for hearing, finds such action necessary or desirable in the public interest, to establish physical connections with other carriers, to establish through routes and charges applicable thereto and the divisions of such charges, and to establish and provide facilities and regulations for operating such through routes.
Buzzfeed has highlighted the main points of Obama's proposal.
-No blocking. If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP — gets a fair shot at your business.
-No throttling. Nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others — through a process often called “throttling” — based on the type of service or your ISP’s preferences.
-Increased transparency. The connection between consumers and ISPs — the so-called “last mile” — is not the only place some sites might get special treatment. So, I am also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the Internet.
-No paid prioritization. Simply put: No service should be stuck in a “slow lane” because it does not pay a fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. So, as I have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect.
The FCC could rule against Obama. So the fight for net neutrality is not over.
I wrote about auditing scandals involving Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. I questioned why the Federal Reserve of New York renew the contract with Deloitte after auditing scandal with Adelphia Communications Corp. and companies based in China.
Apparently, government agencies updating their technical services have trusted Deloitte that has proved to be a grave error.
In 2003, the California court system hired Deloitte to connect the computer systems.
Officials hired Deloitte and another firm in 2003 to create a statewide case management system, connecting 58 county courts, as well as appellate courts. By 2010, Deloitte was running the entire job, and the contract had been amended 102 times, ballooning in cost to $310 million from $33 million, according to a state audit.
Worse, the cost to install the software had been wildly underestimated. The total price tag soared to a projected $1.9 billion, so expensive that the courts could not afford to put the system into operation.
The integrated computer system was to be called the California Court Case Management System. The California's Judicial Council ended the contract with Deloitte. The financial loss to California taxpayers is estimated to be $2 billion. Even if the system was installed it would soon be outdated. The worst part was reimbursed for $16 million when the contract was ended.
Deloitte once again had problems with in California in 2013. The state's unemployment website Employment Development Department was backlogged with 300,000 claims.
Now lawmakers want answers. The Assembly is setting up a hearing to determine what went wrong with a system that cost taxpayers $110 million, almost double the original estimate.
Some blame the EDD's slow response to the problem that created the massive backlog of claims. Others are pointing fingers at a familiar name around the halls of Sacramento: Deloitte Consulting.
State employees warned government officials that the system set up by Deloitte would not be ready. Their warnings were ignored. EDD was forced to admit to the Assembly Insurance Committee. CBS Sacramento reported as many as 600 people didn't receive payment on their unemployment claims.
Deloitte set up the unemployment claim system for Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity. Many people were not able to log into the system.
The main contractor of the project, Deloitte Consulting, won the bid to modernize Florida’s unemployment compensation system by beating out nine other firms. In early 2011, the company negotiated with Florida that it could do all the work for $39.8 million and finish by December 2012, a deadline it blew — badly.
As contracts go, this wasn’t a big one for Deloitte Consulting, a U.S. company that’s part of an international British conglomerate better known as Deloitte & Touche. Since 2007, Deloitte Consulting has won $283.4 million in contracts with Florida agencies. Gov Rick Scott has been rather unresponsive to complaints about the glitches in the unemployment website. One reason maybe it is because the lobbyist for Deloitte is Brian Ballard. Mr. Ballard served as Co-Chair of Governor-Elect Rick Scott's Inaugural Committee. Scott was a guest at Ballard's Super Bowl party. Don't expect Scott to say to end Deloitte's contract any time soon.
Jill Filipovic of Feministehas written about how she was the target of online harassment from the online message board AutoAdmit. People on the board started making comments that they were seeing her on the NYU campus. Obviously, Filipovic felt vulnerable and spent as less time as possible on campus.
It was generally harmless, if a little creepy — stuff like “Jill F is my future wife” and “Any Jill F sightings yet?” It seemed to come primarily from one poster. So I ignored it for a while again, until someone else mentioned it to me. So I went back and read it, and saw that it was getting weirder and grosser — there were mentions of “tag teaming” me, people who said they saw me around school and I was nothing special, comments that I was a feminist bitch and assorted other names, and finally one saying that he “would hate-fuck that cunt.” That put me a little over the edge, and I skipped a day or two of school and started studying at home for about a week, just so I wouldn’t have to walk around campus. I know it sounds crazy (and I definitely felt crazy), but everywhere I went at school I felt like people were looking at me, and like they were evaluating me — like they must have been thinking, “Oh, she isn’t pretty at all” or “Those guys on the board were totally wrong” or “She’s fat” or “I’d fuck her” or, the worst, that they were the people doing the posting, and they were going to go home and write about how they saw me and I was indeed ugly, or I was fuckable, or I was a bitch. It wasn’t so much negative comments that got to me — it was the evaluation of something that I have no control over, in a space where I’m not putting myself out to be evaluated. Nothing I can do is going to change their opinion of whether or not I’m attractive, and I don’t really care all that much if they think I am or not. But I do care when I feel like I can’t walk to class without people looking at me and then anonymously posting their thoughts online, and when they aren’t taking on what I say or what I believe, but what I look like — and when I’m being put in a position where I can’t fight back. If they say, “You’re wrong about feminism,” I can say, “No I’m not” and I can explain why. But if they say, “You’re ugly,” I can’t really say, “No I’m not.” It’s a feeling of powerlessless, and it’s a position that I’m not used to being placed in.
This is the kind of comments Filipovic received in a long thread on AutoAdmit attacking her.
Date: August 9th, 2008 11:13 PM
She's in Southeast Asia, killing babies and getting fucked up the ass by rice farmers.
Anybody here know that bitch?
Filipovic wrote about the sexist comments made about her on AutoAdmit on her blog and was interviewed by the media. Filipovic and other female law students received harassing comments on AutoAdmit.
AutoAdmit webmaster blamed Anthony Ciolli blamed Filipovic for having a job offer rescinding.
My impression from the phone conversation was that this was the chronology:
1) Jill Filipovic from Feministe tells WSJ that I worked at EAP&D
2) WSJ reporter calls EAP&D, and the firm says I had my offer rescinded.
3) WSJ reporter emails me saying they’re going to run a story on it tomorrow.
Believe me, the last thing I wanted was this to be public. I just want to be left alone.
Filipovic explains that she played no part in the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge rescinded its offer to Ciolli. Unlike Ciolli, Filipovic takes responsibility for what is posted on her website.
There are many things I’ve written that I no longer agree with, and many issues that I’ve changed my mind on. There are many things I’ve posted here that I wish I hadn’t. But they’re mine, and if I’m called out on them, I’ll take responsibility for writing them — I won’t blame Lauren or Zuzu or Piny for owning the site with me, or for not taking them down.
Filipovic has a op-ed at Talking Points Memo that lists the nasty comments made about her at AutoAdmit.
"Official Jill Filipovic RAPE thread"
"I want to brutally rape that Jill slut"
"I'm 98% sure that she should be raped"
“that nose ring is fucking money, rape her immediately”
“what a useless guttertrash whore, I hope that someone uses my pink, fleshy-textured cylindrical body to violate her”
“she deserves a brutal raping”
“Legal liability from posting pic of Jill fucking?”
“she’s a normal-sized girl that I’d bang violently, maybe you’d have to kill her afterwards”
Now imagine being a young woman and wondering if one of those AutoAdmit commenters is stalking you around campus. It is no wonder Filipovic skipped a few classes. I'm not a First Amendment attorney but the AutoAdmit comments are probably protected free speech. We have Constitution in this country. That doesn't mean you have to act like an asshole online.
12 year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick is dead. Sedwick jumped to her death at the Cemex cement site. The Lakeland Ledger reports Sedwick was on the receiving end of cyber-bullying.
During their investigation, detectives found multiple social media applications where Sedwick was constantly being cyber-bullied with messages, including “Go kill yourself,” and “Why are you still alive?”
As many as 15 girls are being investigated for possibly bullying Sedwick online. No matter what the Polk County Sheriff's Office investigation uncovers; Sedwick will still be dead. Apparently, this nightmare all started over a boy several of the girls liked.
“We can see from what we've investigated so far that Rebecca wasn’t attacking back," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters Thursday. "She appeared to be beat down. She appeared to have a defeatist attitude. And quite frankly, the entire investigation is exceptionally disturbing to the entire investigative team.”
The harassment began in 2012 over a boy, Judd said. Girls who used to be Rebecca's friends turned against her; at one point, she got in a fight with one that resulted in her getting suspended.
"The blackout scared (legislators)," said Michael Hussey, editor of the Tampa Bay area political blog Pushing Rope, who paticipated in the protest. "It worked."
Marco Rubio didn't suddenly become a champion of the internet. Congress was flooded with angry emails and phone calls. Online web sites Google, Wikipedia and Facebook made people aware of the overreach of SOPA, and the Senate bill PIPA. Rubio and other Republicans weren't worried that web sites could be shut down for only providing a link to a web site that provided a link to pirated material. (Guilty by link assiociation.) Congress was worried about angry constiuents with pitchforks.
The internet is a powerful form of communication that the members of Congress have no understanding of. Billions of Americans use Google every day. The search engine reaches more people then a Republican talking to Rush Limbaugh on AM radio.
SOPA would require Facebook and Twitter to delete every questionable link that may lead to pirated material. Someone can just say that Twitter and Facebook lead to pirated material. No burden of proof is needed. It is literally impossible to go through the internet and delete every link. I have a hard enough time monitoring spam comments left on this blog. This just goes to show how clueless Congress is.
Rupert Murdoch hysterically attacked internet companies for lobbying Congress against SOPA and PIPA. Murdoch has given massive amounts of money to Republicans. Murdoch's hypocrisy is not surprising. If you don't think that Murdoch would not use SOPA to crush his internet competitors then you are in denial. Mudoch was just forced to pay 37 people for his company News of World hacking private phones. Murdoch uses technology in the most Orwellian of ways.
All five people who hit my website in a day probably won't be disappointed enough to call their Congressman," admitted Johnson, a software consultant for a Tampa firm. "But Wikipedia has enough clout that they can get everyone involved."
SOPA and PIPA is an government overreach of the internet supported by people like Ruport Murdoch. Media moguls such as Murdoch would benefit from the government. An internet provider could decide to take any web site off its search engine under the claim that site is hosting pirated content. No proof is needed on the part of Google. Fortunately, Google is against the current forms of the SOPA and PIPA bills.
The legislation is unenforcibly. I cannot image Twitter and Facebook going through millions of updates looking for pirated content to delete. It is not possible. This is legislation created by members of Congress who have no understanding of just how vast and complex the internet is.
I have decided to withdraw my support for the Protect IP Act. Furthermore, I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor. Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the internet.
Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) have dropped their support for SOPA.
When the going gets tough politicians fold. Rubio, Terry and Quayle have not suddenly become fans of free speech. They are scared of voter backlash against the bills. Politicians want campaign donations from movie and music corporations. Campaign dollars don't mean a thing if they cannot get re-elected.
Side note: Rubio, Terry and Quayle are suppose to be less government conservatives. Internet piracy is already illegal. How is it conservative to make unenforcable laws that could have a financially negative impact on Google, Pay Pal and MSN conservative? The answer is it isn't. The wise thing to do is hire more federal government employees to enforce the anti-piracy laws that are already in place.
Andrew Rasiej, chairman of the New York Tech Meetup, told the New York Daily News that not only would SOPA and PIPA open the door to censorship of the Internet, but the laws would also have negative effects on the ability of the U.S. to remain a leader in the global tech industry.
"Because a new innovation by a start-up could be interpreted by a judge unfamiliar with how the technology works as infringing on copyright, investors and entrepreneurs would be discouraged from moving forward with a start-up due to a significantly increased risk of legal entanglement," Rasiej told the New York Daily News. "This in turn would dampen job creation and future opportunities for New Yorkers and Americans as a whole."
Schumer and Gillibrand are the co-sponsors of PIPA.
The Young Turks on Ruport Murdoch's support of SOPA.
Update: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted why he is against SOPA and PIPA.
The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet. The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet. You can read more about our views here: https://www.facebook.com/FacebookDC?sk=app_329139750453932.
There are some people angry that Zuckerberg didn't shut down Facebook for the day like Wikipedia. However, that is an inside the internet story.
Obama campaign just sent out an anti-SOPA fundraising email. #bandwagoning
President Obama wouldn't send out that email unless it was safe to oppose SOPA. It's official. People hate SOPA and PIPA. Politicians are running away from this legislation.
Illegal piracy should be punished, but I have serious concerns with SOPA and PIPA. We need to deal with piracy without chilling the innovation, diversity, and free exchange of ideas that define the Internet and have shaped our increasingly interconnected world.
Update:Daily Kos has a SOPA petition you can send to your Senator.
On Saturday, the White House announced that the Obama administration will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.
As Congress works to address the very real issue of online piracy, we must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity—and we must not inhibit innovation by businesses large and small.
Online piracy hurts our economy, threatens middle-class jobs, and undermines the work of some of our most creative companies and entrepreneurs. The President has called on all parties to work together to find solutions that address the problem of online piracy while remaining true to our values.
Update Video of State of Sunshine blogger Jom Johnson being interviewed on Action News.
Forbes has released their list of the top 100 web sites for women. I'm very pleased to see that Feministe and Feministing. A site that didn't make the list but as many great feminist activist blogging about women health matters is RH Reality Check. I urge you to check out that site and the Forbes list.
Blogger Pam Spaulding has been hacked by Astalavista Team. Pam's House Blend is hosted on Soapbox. Other Soapbox sites such RadicalRuss.net, American Liberalism, BeThink.org have been hacked. These hack attacks were sophisticated. The Astalavista Team left this image on the sites they hacked.
Soapbox has announced they are shutting down.
It was a good ride, but it's over. Thanks for all the fish.
All these hackers messing with our stuff, and we here at SoapBlox have no clue what to do. We don't have enough knowledge, time, money, or care to fix it.
So I hope the Hackers are happy.
If you want the data from your blog, we will get it. But we are not going to try and restore anything.
Consider this the "We're Out of Business" post.
Most of the servers have been taken off line because they were being used to hack and exploit other websites. The hackers install this crap on servers after they get in. SoapBlox's ISP then takes the servers off line.
We do not know when they will come back online.
We do not know if they will come back online.
It is sad how a few bullies can end the hard work Soapbox did to build a community for progressive bloggers. The Astalavista Team hacked into these to show theyt can "destroy online communities." That is it. The same reason a bigger kid pushes a smaller child into the mud, because he can. How sad.
Pam will be moving her site. It is up currently, but who knows for how long.
Some people have no shame: people are claiming to be from Iraq when doing their internet scams.
Dear Sir/Madam
I am Mr. ZAID RASSAN a citizen of Baghdad in Iraq . Due to the Situation here in IRAQ those of us in the business circle are Finding it very difficult to cope with the situation here, no stable Government, bomb explosion at strategic places every now and then, Sometimes people find it very difficult to go about their normal Businesses due to fear of being victim of terrorist attack, above all. The crisis in Iraq now has made business activities totally paralyzed for quite sometime now. for instance, no good telephone facilities, no Adequate security, infact all most all the basic infrastructure were Destroyed during the recent war in Iraq, ever s ince then the Environment in Iraq has never been conducive busin ess wis e .
Why I am contacting you is that I have a huge amount of INHERITED sum to invest in your country with your help and if you are really interested in knowing please kindly contact me to my personal email address below then I will explain further on this proposal you will never regret it.
I wait patiently for your urgent response to my personal email below then I can explain more on how to finalize this transaction for security reason.
