Tales of the Sausage Factory

An insider’s view of the media hegemony

So much for my career as a professional prognosticator

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Well, the only thing I can say in my defense is that a fair number of oher folks believed the same thing on Tuesday afternoon. At 5 p.m., exit polling looked very good for Kerry in almost all battleground states.

While something may turn around in OH, I admit I don’t expect it. It appears that a small but sizeable majority don’t care about economic issues nearly as much as keeping gay people from marrying. Not sure how we survive the next four years economically, but right now, I’m off to get some sleep.

Tales of the Sausage Factory: All Quiet on the W. Va Front

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Live from the W.Va Voter Protection Project in Wheeling, W. Va. The big news is- no news. So far, no one has called to complain about any sort of voter supression or inappropriate behavior.

No word on other states. W. Va was likely to be quiet, given that the local government is Dems not Republicans (unlike FL and OH). Still, it’s good to be bored. As they said in the training: we’re in the recount prevention business.

Stay tuned . . . .

Tales of the Sausage Factory: Homeland Security and the Rubik's Cube

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While busier than I could have imagined, I just have to share this.

According to the Daily Oregonian, the Department of Homeland Security is now keeping us safe from Rubik’s Cube Knock-Offs. What next threat to our national security will they foil? Perhaps they will save us from those counterfeit “Garfield” dolls with suction cups? (Does anyone even _buy_ Rubik’s Cubes anymore?)

Stay tuned . . .

Tales of the Sausage Factory: Alert on INDUCE

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I am reproducing below a legislative call to action from the Association of American Law Libraries. You can find similar alerts and more infromation at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge.

Remember — if we do not act, we get the legislation we deserve. Pick up the phone and call these folks!

Stay tuned . . . .

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Tales of the Sausage Factory: Live at Cool Conference

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What a blogging cliche! I am posting from the excellent Bellhead v. Nethead conference at Cardozo Law School, put together by my friend Susan Crawford (which explains why I am on a panel with such luminaries as Eli Noam).

But what is this conference and what makes it cool? And why are such things the life blood of public policy? My humble opinions below . . .

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UTX OTARD UPDATE

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I’m informed by my contacts that the FCC has traditionally exempted colleges and universities from OTARD on the grounds that the relationship is not a standard landlord/tenant relationship. As a consequence, the OTARD declaratory ruling does not apply to UTX or other dormitory situations. The June 24, 2004 ruling did not change any existing OTARD exemptions. It merely clarified that OTARD applied to unlicensed services as well as licensed services.

Looks like the UTX policy is therefore legal. Whether it is wise or not is an entirely different question, and not for yr hmbl obdnt to judge.

Stay tuned . . . .

Tales of the Sausage Factory: UTX, OTARD, UH-OH!

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As readers of Slashdot may have seen, The University of Texas at Dallas has prohibitted students in certain dorms from setting up wireless access points. If you read the policy, you will find out that the University is not simply amending its acceptable use policy (AUP), it prohibits setting up access points using residential DSL or cable.

Rather than break into the raging debate in the comments on how this policy meshes (as it were) with the FCC’s recent ruling prohibiting landlords from mandating such things, I’ll use Wetmachine to say what I want (but feel free to refer anyone from Slashdot over here to our humble corner of the internet if they would like to hear from a lawyer who dabbles in such things).

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