Blackhacker

BetaNews | EC clears Google + DoubleClick merger
The two largest players in the Internet advertising industry are now officially one this morning, as the final hurdle to their merger has been cleared, and the final lines on the papers have officially been signed, according to Google’s CEO.

In the meantime, we do have a statement from the EC, which includes the following: “The Commission’s in-depth market investigation found that Google and DoubleClick were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other’s activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment. Even if DoubleClick could become an effective competitor in online intermediation services, it is likely that other competitors would continue to exert sufficient competitive pressure after the merger. The Commission therefore concluded that the elimination of DoubleClick as a potential competitor would not have an adverse impact on competition in the online intermediation advertising services market.”

emphasis mine
All I can say that Google must have GREAT lobbyists.

You end up with crap like this coming out of Kentucky.

Lawmaker’s attempt to criminalize anonymous posting doomed
Kentucky lawmaker Tim Couch has proposed a bill that would criminalize anonymous Internet posting. Web site and forum operators would be forced to collect and publicly disclose identifying information about all of the visitors who post content on their sites. Failing to do so would lead to a fine of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.

The bill, which extends Chapter 369 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes, would mandate collection of the complete name, mailing address, and e-mail address of all visitors who post Internet content. Web sites would have to display names next to all relevant content and establish procedures that enable anyone to obtain the rest of the information. The bill stipulates that mailing address and e-mail address only have to be supplied to supplicants in cases where someone has posted “false or defamatory” information.

I think the main problem is that people, especially those who seek to regulate the Internet, don’t understand that all things are different where the Internet is concerned. While I do think it is a good attempt to try to try to control those would defame, and libel others on the Internet. Such a law, even if it where constitutional, would have absolutely no teeth. Fact the WORLD WIDE WEB is bigger than Kentucky. How many web hosts are based in, or even have a presence in Kentucky? I don’t think it is that many.

Before we where consumed with Elliot Spitzer’s sexual appetites, and is apparent indiscretions, the following was the top story of the day running page one, column one above the fold of the WSJ:

NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans’ privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the data-sifting effort didn’t disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.

This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. If there is such thing as a scary Government Agency, none fit the profile better than the NSA. Its entire reason for existing is eavesdropping. But it was created to spy on our enemies. Not us. But not anymore:

Two former officials familiar with the data-sifting efforts said they work by starting with some sort of lead, like a phone number or Internet address. In partnership with the FBI, the systems then can track all domestic and foreign transactions of people associated with that item — and then the people who associated with them, and so on, casting a gradually wider net. An intelligence official described more of a rapid-response effect: If a person suspected of terrorist connections is believed to be in a U.S. city — for instance, Detroit, a community with a high concentration of Muslim Americans — the government’s spy systems may be directed to collect and analyze all electronic communications into and out of the city.

So they ID A possible terrorist and they monitor the and ENTIRE CITY.

That’s not only a flagrant a total side step of the constitutional rights, it is also the STUPIDEST way to to find the related terrorist. As programmer who has written a program or two that needed to process large amounts of data: the easiest way to find a needle in a haystack is ID the hay and get rid of it, not pile on more hay.

Anyway in case you have for gotten this is the law of the land:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Just to be clear I consider who I talk to, on the phone, and the Internet also part of my effects. I just wish the supreme court agreed with me.