America was the birthplace of the Internet, but it has fallen behind when it comes to getting its citizens hooked up. More competition, and possibly Federal Communications Commission intervention, is needed to bring the United States into the 21st century. Anyone who has ever signed up for broadband Internet knows the options are fairly limited. […]
Author Archives: Derek Lazzaro
The hustler
Larry Flynt’s office looks as gaudy and flashy as you would expect of a porn king ““ but the mahogany desks are real wood, and the gold leaf isn’t spray-painted yellow. Flynt has made a lot of money selling smut, but he is also a serious critic of the political and media elite. He has […]
Copyright war going too far
“This report is not an ending, but a beginning.” So concluded a sweeping new U.S. Department of Justice report on the theft of intellectual property. The report, issued earlier this month, lays out a Department of Justice strategy that will make piracy punishable by criminal enforcement as well as civil procedures. In the process, John […]
Stop spyware and surf safely
A clandestine information war is being waged across the Internet, and your computer is on the front lines. Spyware is trying to get at your personal information, and running isn’t an option. EarthLink Inc. and Webroot Software Inc. scanned 1.1 million computers between July and September and found there were an average of 25 spyware […]
UCLA policy protects privacy
Imagine you are accused of sharing copyrighted material with other people. Now there are three possibilities: Your name is subpoenaed and you land in federal court, UCLA decides to totally block all peer-to-peer networks, or UCLA briefly suspends your Internet access and makes you sign a letter saying you agree not to illegally trade files. […]
Internet can be a dangerous place
This summer I traveled to Italy and plugged my laptop into a DSL line there. In less than a day, I noticed someone in China had planted a virus called “youwish.exe” on my hard drive. I was doing all my banking online ““ and the virus freaked me out. I spent the next five hours […]
Itamar Marcus discusses Palestinian media
On Monday, I sat down with Itamar Marcus, the director of Palestinian Media Watch ““ an Israeli organization dedicated to the reform of Palestinian media sources. I learned he was concerned deeply about the impact of anti-Israeli Palestinian media sources on the ultimate outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I asked him about the interaction between […]