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The Telecom Digest for April 5, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 86 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 06:49:02 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Forget SOPA, You Should Be Worried About This Cybersecurity Bill
Message-ID: <p06240892cba1d69e8ef2@[10.0.1.4]>
Forget SOPA, You Should Be Worried About This Cybersecurity Bill
by Mike Masnick
Apr 2 2012
Techdirt
While most folks are looking elsewhere, it appears that Congress is
trying to see if it can sneak an absolutely awful "cybersecurity"
bill through Congress. We've discussed how there's been some fighting
on the Senate side concerning which cybersecurity bill to support,
but there's a similar battle going on in the House, and it appears
that the Rogers-Ruppersberger bill, known as CISPA (for Cyber
Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) or HR 3523 is winning out,
with a planned attempt to move it through Congress later this month.
The bill is awful -- and yet has somehow already gained over 100
sponsors. In an attempt to pretend that this isn't a "SOPA-like"
problem, the supporters of this bill are highlighting the fact that
Facebook, Microsoft and TechAmerica are supporting this bill.
However, this is a terrible bill for a variety of reasons. Even if we
accept the mantra that new cybersecurity laws are needed (despite a
near total lack of evidence to support this -- and, no, fearmongering
about planes falling from the sky doesn't count), this bill has
serious problems. As CDT warned when this bill first came out, it's
way too broad and overreaching:
...
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120402/04425118325/forget-sopa-you-should-be-worried-about-this-cybersecurity-bill.shtml
Cyber Intelligence Bill Threatens Privacy and Civilian Control
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/greg-nojeim/112cyber-intelligence-bill-threatens-privacy-and-civilian-control
Comparison of Cybersecurity Information Sharing Legislation
American Civil Liberties Union
March 2012
http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu_cs_info_sharing_leg_chart_march_2012__final.pdf
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 10:42:15 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Forget SOPA, You Should Be Worried About This Cybersecurity Bill
Message-ID: <20120404144215.GA16587@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Wed, Apr 04, 2012 at 06:49:02AM -0400, Monty Solomon wrote:
>
> Forget SOPA, You Should Be Worried About This Cybersecurity Bill
>
> by Mike Masnick
> Apr 2 2012
> Techdirt
>
> While most folks are looking elsewhere, it appears that Congress is
> trying to see if it can sneak an absolutely awful "cybersecurity"
> bill through Congress. We've discussed how there's been some fighting
> on the Senate side concerning which cybersecurity bill to support,
> but there's a similar battle going on in the House, and it appears
> that the Rogers-Ruppersberger bill, known as CISPA (for Cyber
> Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) or HR 3523 is winning out,
> with a planned attempt to move it through Congress later this month.
> The bill is awful -- and yet has somehow already gained over 100
> sponsors. In an attempt to pretend that this isn't a "SOPA-like"
> problem, the supporters of this bill are highlighting the fact that
> Facebook, Microsoft and TechAmerica are supporting this bill.
As the authors of the articles cited point out, CISPA is a terrible
bill, but not from the perspective of the Congress. I've written about
SOPA in my blog (http://billhorne.com/), and CISPA is the next step on the
road that started with the Clipper chip and will end only when the
cop in the woodpile and the cop on the corner and the cop knocking at
your front door know everything you've done online and everyone you've
written to.
There is a devious agenda in this and previous monitoring bills: Uncle
Sam is scared silly that the lower classes will start using the tax
havens and offshore banking previously reserved for the elites and
their friends - in other words, the ruling class. Online banking is
now so common that ordinary citizens are realizing that they can use a
different URL and avoid the tax collector in the woodpile and the tax
collector knocking at their front door, and that's something that
right-thinking, loyal Americans aren't supposed to do.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:36:45 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@ikillspammers.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Wireless Taxes and Fees: A Tragedy of the Anticommons
Message-ID: <jlhpqe$4lq$1@dont-email.me>
On 4/3/12 6:27 PM, Bill Horne wrote:
> Two researchers at George Washington University's Mercatus Center have
> analyzed the tax burden telephone users bear, and found that it's out
> of proportion to other levies.
>
> by Matthew Mitchell, Thomas Stratmann Jan 23, 2012
>
> Combined federal, state, and local taxes on wireless services are
> about twice as high as the average retail sales tax. While the
> normative justification for above-average taxation of wireless
> service is weak, there is a compelling public-choice explanation:
> The mobile service tax base appears to suffer from a tragedy of the
> anticommons. That is, multiple parties have the power to block or
> partially block access to a resource, resulting in
> under-utilization of the resource.
>
> Numerous overlapping tax authorities seek to obtain revenues
> through wireless-service taxation, and this may lead to
> overexploitation of the tax base. The anticommons problem has two
> dimensions. First, the mobile-service tax base funds numerous
> distinct projects at each level of government. Second, the base is
> taxed by numerous overlapping levels of government.
>
> Rest at
>
>
> http://mercatus.org/publication/wireless-taxes-and-fees-tragedy-anticommons
>
> -or-
>
> http://goo.gl/FO0UM
>
>
>
>
In California at least cities can't tax cell phones, the reason is
because the nature of the phone; not used in the city were it is billed.
Some years ago Riverside tried it and was blocked from doing so. In
January a third party billing service for Sprint and T-Mobile added a
city utility users tax, the city had no idea it was being billed until
they started getting calls, it took Sprint 2 months until they were able
to stop the billing, we have yet too get a refund, even more stupid is
the city was sent 2 checks for over $120,000 each and they are trying to
send the checks back.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2011 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co.
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