Lessons in economics

The U.S. Senate is moving to put an end to one of the biggest scandals ever to shake online retail.

Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced a bill on Wednesday designed to prevent post-transaction marketers from duping consumers into enrolling into monthly memberships.

Rockefeller's committee has said marketers Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue were responsible for mysterious credit card charges that millions of Americans, including elderly citizens and wounded Iraqi veterans, have complained about for years. Rockefeller's bill, called "Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act," is the result of a yearlong investigation … Read more

In what seems to be the clearest evidence yet that Gawker Media editors didn't talk to an attorney before buying a lost or stolen prototype iPhone, new court documents reveal the gadget blog balking after Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally requested its return.

The affidavit, prepared by detective Matthew Broad in the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, says Jobs contacted Gizmodo editor Brian Lam on April 19, the same day the gadget blog published a story about the 4G iPhone.

Jobs requested via phone that the blog's editors return the device--but Lam refused to do so, unless … Read more

They tell me you're never alone in Arizona. Somebody, somewhere, is always there to keep an eye on you, just in case you might be the sort of person who might do, or simple be, something undesirable.

So those of an equitable state, which may even include some from within the state of Arizona, might find their breakfast muffin slipping down more slowly when I reveal that Arizona has this week made a huge stand against excessive surveillance.

Has the state decided that, after all, it might not be wise to stop every car containing Lopez look-alikes (that's … Read more

Rep. Rick Boucher, a Democrat from rural Virginia, has been unsuccessfully pushing for Internet privacy legislation for a very long time. In 1999, he proposed a bill that would give regulators more power over commercial Web sites, and he cosponsored the Consumer Privacy Protection Act in 2005.

That history probably didn't prepare Boucher for the almost uniformly hostile reception his latest legislative effort, a still-unnamed discussion draft (PDF) regulating data collection efforts, received on Tuesday.

Liberal special interest groups announced they were "disappointed" that Boucher didn't slap even more regulations on Internet businesses. Free-market think tanks … Read more

I am writing this while wearing a rather cool sweatshirt that I put on for the occasion. I bought it at a 70 percent reduction. It is sort of a beige color, and it has a weird diagonal zip. It was designed by an Austrian.

What else would you like to know? I'll tell you anything. I want to be a truly modern human. A model human, really--one who just doesn't care what people know about me. One who will divulge anything to anyone. (Which, incidentally, many Europeans believe is exactly what Americans do on first meeting.)

You … Read more

An Internet start-up wants to sell you the ability to protect your privacy, allowing you to create different online identities for different purposes and cloak your true self from prying eyes.

Early press coverage has been uniformly positive. CNN.com's review says "Total digital privacy may be on the horizon." The San Francisco Chronicle's article is titled "Online disguises from prying eyes." To BusinessWeek, it's a "A big boost for Net privacy."

"Think about how much business is predicated on the flow of personal information!" one of the founders … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

While much of the technology policy conversations at CES concerned positive developments such as the imminent National Broadband Plan, one dark cloud appeared at every turn.

Nearly every speaker invoked fears of a looming "spectrum crisis" in wireless communications. Simply put, the faster that U.S. consumers embrace new mobile devices and services, the faster we will run out of available frequencies that can handle the increased traffic.

Wireless communications, including 3G and now 4G information services, have seen remarkable expansion over the last five years, … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

I'm finally recovering from the case of information overload I caught at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month. A great deal of policy was discussed at gadget central, thanks to the hard work of Tech Policy Central, which, for the first time at CES, put on a partner conference focused on information law and policy.

Boiling down my notes from the entire week, it's clear that the White House is developing an ambitious new plan to support information technology that previous administrations … Read more

When it comes to the U.S. biofuels strategy, it's no longer just about ethanol.

The Department of Energy and Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that $564 million in stimulus act funding would be used toward constructing biorefineries to make liquid fuels from plants. Out of the 19 projects receiving funding, nearly half focus on the development of "drop-in" replacements for gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel. The rest focus on technologies for making ethanol or chemicals from sources other than corn. (Click this PDF for a full list of recipient projects).

In one example, San Diego-based … Read more