January 12, 2007 5:58 PM PST
Tech Politics Podcast: Net neutrality back in new Congress
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Start of the 110th Congress brings with it proposals for privacy and digital copyright as well.
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It's been just over a week since the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, and we're seeing a flurry of technology-related bills. This week, for instance, a Net neutrality bill was introduced that would bar network operators from blocking or degrading access to Internet content and services. Network providers aren't going to be a big fan of this, and they successfully derailed it last year by a series of relatively narrow votes in a Republican-controlled Congress. But now that the Democrats are in charge, the outcome could change.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill that would attempt to set national requirements for consumer notification in the event of a data security breach. And the third bill deals with digital copyright.
The latest crop of satellite radio receivers are handy gadgets that can do more than just play back music: they can record it as well. That irks the Recording Industry Association of America, so some U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would effectively wrap satellite radio and Internet radio broadcasts in a thick layer of encryption. It would be illegal to break that encryption without the RIAA's permission, so unauthorized recording couldn't happen. It's too early to know whether this bill will go anywhere in the new Congress, but it is fair to say the Democrats have been closer allies of the entertainment industry than Republicans in the past.
Join CNET News.com's Harry Fuller and Declan McCullagh for this week's tech politics podcast.
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