E-Commerce Blog

The vote is set for Nov. 4, and the activism is approaching historic — some say hysteric — levels. Phone calls, e-mails and press releases are flying in attempts to sway opinions; there are charges and countercharges of questionable political tactics and quotes taken out of context, along with a little name-calling. McCain vs. Obama? Try the National Association of Broadcasters, including networks and local stations, vs. the Wireless Innovation Alliance, including Google and Microsoft, all centering on the contentious white spaces broadcast spectrum issue.

Original post:
Lawmakers Whip Up War of Words Over White Spaces

The weekend media spotlight was on the heated Congressional negotiations that produced a financial bailout bill, which promptly went nowhere. But hidden somewhere in the static of dealmaking, rhetoric and counteroffers was a strong signal of support for Internet radio. The Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 passed the House on Saturday and was scheduled for a vote in the Senate on Monday. Although it doesn’t rank on the priority scale with keeping the U.S. economy from riding off its rails, the bill is the result of similarly tough negotiations.

See original here:
Congress Stalls on Economy but Moves on Net Radio Royalties

The long-running debate over net neutrality took another turn Thursday when two lawmakers introduced a bill that would make it a violation of antitrust law for broadband providers to discriminate against different types of content in routing traffic on their networks. John Conyers Jr., a Democrat from Michigan who is also chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, introduced the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008.”

Excerpt from:
House Democrats Dig Up Decades-Old Antitrust Law in New Net Neutrality Fight

Let’s consider the problem first. It wasn’t until 1997 that credit cards could be “securely” used online. Obviously the definition of “securely” was rather subjective, but the consuming public was told to trust the new world of ecommerce. Ten years later, data breaches and related identity thefts are exploding in volume. Reported losses of sensitive personal data such as credit card numbers or financial information are up 40 percent, and in 2007 there were reportedly 446 breaches exposing over 128 million records. Since the very infancy of viable online commerce, there has been in the making a recipe for disaster. And that recipe begins with a little bit of self-indulgence, continues with a tad of self-regulation, is spiced up with a spoonful of regulatory intervention, and is consummated with a heaping helping of new laws.

And new laws are the ingredients of today, laws that will control the life of data. How important is control of data to the online world? Pretty important….

Read more from the original source:
Legal: Security Regulation Is Coming