obama

During a press conference earlier today unveiling his proposals for new gun-control regulations, President Obama said he will ask Congress for $10 million to fund a study by the Centers for Disease Control on the impact of video games and "media images."

It's a reasonable enough request. Gaming industry groups have said they'd welcome serious scientific research into the issue, though it's entirely unclear what the results of that research will lead to. And after what happened in Newtown, Conn., everyone -- from video game makers to movie producers to local news outlets to gun … Read more

Future petitions to the White House to build a Death Star, have Piers Morgan deported, or fire Aaron Swartz's prosecutor will have to attract more support to merit the White House's attention.

Beginning today, petitions filed on WhiteHouse.org's We the People platform will need to log 100,000 signatures in 30 days to receive an official response from the Obama Administration, quadrupling the previous minimum of 25,000.

The higher threshold will "ensure we're able to continue to give the most popular ideas the time they deserve," Macon Phillips, the White House's … Read more

President Obama signed Netflix-backed legislation today that makes it easier for people to share their video-viewing habits online.

With his signature on H.R. 6671, Obama approved an amendment to the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act that allows video rental companies to obtain customer consent to share information about their viewing preferences on social networks such as Facebook. The law was enacted after a weekly newspaper printed the video rental history of Judge Robert H. Bork during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

The House bill is similar to a proposal approved last November by the Senate Judiciary Committee, minus language … Read more

It's hard to imagine a group that adheres to anarchic ideology would want its actions legalized under U.S. law. But that is exactly what Anonymous is doing.

The loose-knit group of hackers submitted a petition to President Obama this week asking that distributed denial-of-service attacks be recognized as a legal form of protest.

The petition, which is posted on the White House's "We the People" Web site, claims that DDoS attacks are not illegal hacking but rather a way for people to carry out protests online. Similar to the Occupy movement when protesters pitched tents … Read more

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, outrage is turning into political and social action. In a "Demand a Plan" ad in The New York Times, a number of technology industry executives and other leaders called on President Obama and Congress to come up with a plan to end gun violence.

In a blog post, one of the signatories of the ad, venture capitalist Fred Wilson, wrote that tech industry leaders are working to mount a "sustained social media and regular media campaign to pressure our leaders to do something about the gun safety problem in … Read more

news analysis When the history of early 21st century Internet politicking is written, the meltdown of a United Nations summit last week will mark the date a virtual Cold War began.

In retrospect, the implosion of the Dubai summit was all but foreordained: it pitted nations with little tolerance for human rights against Western democracies which, at least in theory, uphold those principles. And it capped nearly a decade of behind-the-scenes jockeying by a U.N. agency called the International Telecommunication Union, created in 1865 to coordinate telegraph connectivity, to gain more authority over how the Internet is managed.

It … Read more

In a stunning repudiation of a United Nations summit, an alliance of Western democracies including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada today rejected a proposed treaty over concerns it hands repressive governments too much authority over the Internet.

"This conference was never meant to focus on Internet issues," said ambassador Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation to the Dubai summit. "The Internet has given the world unimaginable economic and social benefit during these past 24 years -- all without U.N. regulation."

Delegates from the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, the Philippines, … Read more

A United Nations summit suddenly ran aground today after China, Algeria, and Iran objected to a U.S.-backed proposal that would include a mention of "human rights obligations" in a proposed telecommunications treaty.

Algeria's delegate warned at the U.N. summit in Dubai that there were many other nations -- calling them "silent member states" -- that also opposed the human rights language and forced a temporary adjournment of the proceedings.

China criticized the human rights language as well, saying "we also have a very serious question about the necessity of the existence … Read more

A United Nations agency has used a summit in Dubai to renew its efforts to gain more control over how the Internet is managed.

The International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency, has circulated draft language, which was leaked today, that would let the organization take what it describes as a more "active" Internet role in the future.

It shows that the ITU would become involved in "Internet-related technical, development and public policy issues" -- a broad phrase that sweeps in hot-button areas including cybersecurity, spam, surveillance, and censorship.

The draft document (PDF) was disclosed the … Read more