Tuesday Evening Links

Entitled “Future Fiber Architectures and Local Deployment Choices,” the goal of the workshop will be to understand fiber and partial fiber networks that operate at speeds of 100 megabits per second and faster as solutions for public institutions, small-to-medium-sized enterprises, “middle mile” transport of data in rural areas, and homes. Open to the public, the workshop is intended to gather data and information for the development of a National Broadband Plan.

Thursday, November 19, 2009, 9:30 a.m. to 1 P.M.
ONLINE: Must register in advance at »www.broadband.gov/ws_future_fiber.html

Secure Federal File Sharing Act, introduced in the House, would bar government employees and contractors from downloading, installing or using so-called peer-to-peer file sharing software such as Limewire without official approval. The bill also would require the White House to develop rules for employees and contractors working on home or personal computers.

The White House Office of Management and Budget advised federal agencies in 2004 not to use peer-to-peer software. Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., the new bill's sponsor, said putting the prohibition in federal law gives it much greater weight.

Critics of the software, including the entertainment industry, have complained that personal data, including Social Security numbers, medical records and tax returns, are being unwittingly shared because users are unaware of how the programs work.

said by Rogue Wolf:

Am I the only one who believes that many major "content companies" want Hulu, and everything like it, to fail? Then they can point at its smoking corpse and say "There, see? We tried to use the Internet and it didn't work. Now give us more restrictive laws and chain down the Internet so that we can continue to cling to our outdated business model."