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Surprises

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Nov 4th 2010 4:58pm




Filed Under:
ed felten

Companies:
ftc


Surprising, But Good, News: FTC Appoints Ed Felten As CTO

from the excellent dept

This is a surprise, but really excellent news. Princeton Computer Science professor Ed Felten -- one of the few folks out there who seems to really understand various tech issues having to do with e-voting, DRM, net neutrality, copyright and other issues has been appointed as the first ever CTO of the FTC. Felten is the guy who was threatened by the RIAA years ago for cracking their DRM and daring to want to actually publish an academic paper about how weak the DRM was. He's also been heavily involved in exposing security weaknesses with e-voting machines (and has been legally threatened about that as well). His blog (which now includes posts from lots of others), called Freedom To Tinker, has long been a must read. Hopefully Felten is able to actually make a difference.

12 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
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    ChurchHatesTucker (profile), Nov 4th, 2010 @ 5:18pm

    Good news

    *crosses fingers*

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 4th, 2010 @ 6:12pm

    Hope he turns out ok and not like the Fedora forums :)

    ps: Go to the Fedora forum and try to criticize the admnistrators/forum/Linux there and you see what I mean LoL

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
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    Karl (profile), Nov 4th, 2010 @ 6:34pm

    Nice

    I love his blog. Hopefully he'll actually make a difference.

    Perhaps this even makes up for the loss of Rick Boucher.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Dave, Nov 4th, 2010 @ 6:42pm

    WOW!

    Mike,
    That's great news! I truly can't believe it, especially after mountains of political stupidity regarding technology or music.

    That's the best news in a long time!

    Thanks.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
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    Chris in Utah (profile), Nov 4th, 2010 @ 8:15pm

    Love the spearhead on allourideas.com as well. I considered working on a project such as that a while back. Never did get it off the ground though ie forumforideas.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    AW, Nov 4th, 2010 @ 11:32pm

    Waiting for the other shoe to drop...good things don't happen in America without a heavy price paid for them. Mark my words it's a Trojan horse somehow.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    icon
    Jay (profile), Nov 5th, 2010 @ 12:18am

    Looks like someone may have a score to settle...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 5th, 2010 @ 6:13am

    Wow! Nice choice for a change. I can guarantee it wouldn't have happened with a Republican President. But the lobbyists will make him ineffective because they own the house and the senate and the politicians will ignore him because they will be told to.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
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    JustMe (profile), Nov 5th, 2010 @ 6:22am

    Way to go Ed!

    Nice to see when good guys are rewarded for hard work and placed in positions where they can do some good.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    identicon
    Gene Cavanaugh, Nov 5th, 2010 @ 6:31am

    Felten

    Good article, well written.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  
    icon
    weneedhelp (profile), Nov 5th, 2010 @ 10:18am

    Humans are weak

    I hope he does good things, but once the lobbyist start flashing money his way... lets hope there are still some ppl with integrity out there.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  12.  
    icon
    Thomas (profile), Nov 5th, 2010 @ 12:34pm

    Unfortunately..

    once the Republicans take over in the house, this guy will be out the door so fast since the lobbyists will tell the congresspeople "We gave you multiple millions for your campaign, get rid of this turkey or else."

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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