Net-Neutrality: A Digital Panacea?

It has been a good couple of months for net-neutrality supporters. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is championing the idea and the Democrat-controlled Commission appears likely to commit ink to paper in order to institutionalize neutrality principles.

However, there are some that suggest that barring discrimination at the ISP level can only go so far to ensure that all content and legal activity on the internet remain on equal footing. An article at ars discusses how additional chokepoints exist and how these chokepoints could be manipulated by companies for pecuniary gain. One company well-suited to benefit from such activity? None other than one of the biggest cheerleaders for net-neutrality, search giant Google. Read the article here.

Less Fear = Less Alcohol Tragedies?

An esteemed co-worker of the Murphy blog team brought this article to my attention this afternoon. A bill recently passed the Michigan House that would exempt underage drinkers from criminal liability in the event that they place an emergency call to 911. Lawmakers hope the exemption from prosecution will lead more underage drinkers to utilize 911 in emergencies and cut down on the number of alcohol-related fatalities.

Your Utility Bill Lies Like a Rug

ars has an interesting article about a report issued by the National Academies of Science (NAS). At the request of Congress the NAS attempted to put a dollar figure on the cost of externalities of the U.S. energy economy, including electricity, transport and heating. As the article indicates, the cost of climate change was not included in the NAS estimate. Even without accounting for the costs of climate change, the number produced by the NAS is staggering at $120 billion. Oh, and the report suggests that the number is conservative. Comforting. Read the article here. Read the report online here.

You Don't Have to Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here

Today the Supreme Court set the stage for the next legal showdown in the Guantanamo detainee saga. The Court granted cert in the case Kiyemba v. Obama. The detainees involved in the case are Muslim men from the Uighur region of China. The Bush administration determined that the men posed no terrorist threat and the Justice Department has stated that the men are free to leave Guantanamo for any country that will accept them. The case is complicated by the fact that the men fear being tortured if they are returned to their native China, where they are viewed as terrorists. Despite capturing them and hauling them off to an island prison, the United States has refused to accept the men. The issue in Kiyemba focuses on the power of the courts to make immigration decisions, an area previously reserved for the legislature and executive. The Obama administration is arguing that the courts do not possess the power to order that the men be accepted into the United States. The Kiyemba team is arguing that without the power to order that the men be accepted, the ruling in the Boumediene case, which authorized federal courts to hear habeas petitions from Guantanamo prisoners, would be hollow. The New York Times and the Washington Post both have articles on the issue.

Pirates With a Conscience

If you haven't noticed already, this Murphy blogger has been on quite an ars technica kick lately. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, they do a really nice job of covering a range of issues in the tech world. From science to law and policy to business, ars covers issues in a manner that makes tech accessible to the less tech-savvy, like myself, for instance. Also, they have a pretty good sense of humor. Finally, as an added bonus, I can get my video game news fix while still appearing to be hard at work on this blog. Everybody wins!

Those of you following the library via the intarwebs and our print publication, the Murphy's Law newsletter, may recall a book review of Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. One of the central theses of that book was that with the rise and apparent permanency of p2p file sharing technology, the content industry must abandon its antiquated business model if it wishes to survive as a lucrative business. That has not happened. The RIAA and the MPAA continue to pursue their scorched earth policy of attempting to sue illegal filesharing into oblivion.

However, just because the industry itself is not exploring other models does not mean that everyone is standing pat. In fact, ars posted an article today detailing the efforts of an Australian man to provide means for guilt ridden pirates to clear their conscience and compensate artists. According to the article, the website, piracypayback.org, isn't exactly setting the world on fire (or even self-sustaining) just yet. Regardless, it does provide an example of someone trying to create a novel system where consumers and artists get what they want out of content.

Net Neutrality Update

Here's an interesting update to the post of September 21 dealing with the FCC's desire to enact rules regarding net neutrality. It appears that the GOP is lining up for a fight, arguing that neutralitiy requirements for ISPs/Telecoms will reduce competition, reduce investment in new technology, and be detrimental to consumers. Already, we have seen a rider thrown into a Department of the Interior appropriations bill that would have prohibited any funds going to promulgating rules requiring neutrality. Additionally, House Republicans sent a letter to President Obama expressing their disappointment that the FCC would be looking at neutrality rules given the current economic quagmire.

I think they have a valid point. Afterall, it was excessive regulation of the finance world that created this quagmire. Wait...that's not actually true. In any case, rest assured that this is not the last we'll hear of Republicans on this issue as the FCC continues in the rulemaking process.

Patriot Act Revisited

The USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009 (S. 1692) would have required the government to show that any records it seeks access to pursuant to a section 215 order have some connection to a suspected terrorist--in other words, no more fishing expeditions.

But before the mark-up, Patrick Leahy, a cosponsor of S. 1692, along with
Senators Ben Cardin, Ted Kaufman, and Dianne Feinstein drafted a substitute bill that waters down several of the provisions in the original bill.

Click here to learn more. Or take a look at the 2009 Patriot Act Resource Guide.

Can education be saved in Detroit?

It's that time of the year again. Students around the nation have begun filing into their classrooms for the start of the 2009-10 academic year. In Michigan, the questions most critical to their future academic achievements might not appear in any exams, but instead be tasked to the administrators and politicians in whose charge they have been placed. As the state confronts a budget deficit of approximately $2.7 billion, education spending is increasingly viewed as a target for cutbacks by lawmakers in Lansing. The problem is particularly dire where it is especially vulnerable.

Despite the widely publicized, $500,000 "I'm In" pupil retention campaign occurring in Detroit, there has been a continuing exodus of schoolchildren away from its K-12 elementary school system (ABC 7 Action News). The district emergency financial manager Robert Bobb has prepared the 2009-10 budget anticipating 83,777 pupils, 16,223 fewer than necessary to secure "first class" status for Detroit public schools (Id.). The designation is significant for protecting the district against the encroachment of charter schools which have increasingly been viewed by parents as an attractive alternative to the city's beleaguered public school system. Bill Cosby's recent visit to Detroit as part of the "I'm In" campaign was directed principally at this problem. The actor and activist made door-to-door visits to area parents exhorting them to keep their children in the system and lauding the efforts of Mr. Bobb and the school board in reforming the elementary education system (Id.).
Highlighting the difficulty of this effort is the fact that public school aid is calculated according to the number of enrolled students (Detroit News). In the budget being contemplated by Lansing, aid to Michigan schools stands to be reduced by $483 million, or about $218 per pupil, for the remainder of the school year. Among the other measures being considered are a 25% reduction in early childhood grants, and the elimination of Governor Jennifer Granholm's small high schools initiative (Id.). The usual casualties of education cutbacks: afterschool programs, student to teacher ratios, centers and facilities closures, among others, are taken for granted along with the actual educational damage that they each entail. The $18.6 million dollar cut designated for Detroit public schools is the most significant of all district reductions in Michigan (Detroit Free Press). Notwithstanding the city's own $18.6 million budget deficit, and the stark possibility of bankruptcy still looming in the offing, we will see whether the city can be resilient in the face of further financial malaise. Are you in?