Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 14 May 2012 07:13:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120514/04460218906/protestors-give-ustr-corporate-power-tool-award-replace-toilet-paper-hotel-with-tpp-tp.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120514/04460218906/protestors-give-ustr-corporate-power-tool-award-replace-toilet-paper-hotel-with-tpp-tp.shtml had won the 2012 Corporate Power Tool Award. A protestor by the name of David Goodwin commandeered the microphone at the event and announced that he was Git Haversall, of the "Texas Corporate Power Partnership", and was giving the award to Ron Kirk because "The TPP agreement is shaping up to be a fantastic way for us to maximize profits, regardless of what the public of this nation—or any other nation—thinks is right."
The protestors actually came very close to giving the plaque to Kirk himself, but security got in the way at the last second. Somewhere around that point, a bunch of protestors apparently started dancing around and chanting "TPP! TPP! TPP!" You can see much of this in the video below:


Apparently the protestors also successfully replaced much of the toilet paper in the public bathrooms in the hotel with special TP-TPP:


I'm generally of mixed opinions on these kinds of protests. However, seeing as we're dealing with Ron Kirk, who seems to go out of his way to avoid the public concerning TPP and only listen to corporate interests, any method of making it clear to him that the public is unhappy seems worthwhile.

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]]> wow http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120514/04460218906 Mon, 5 May 2008 17:56:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080503/2344201023.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080503/2344201023.shtml was unlikely to succeed. Despite the FCC calling it the "the great broadband hope," many people referred to it as "the great broadband joke." The technology just wasn't able to deliver what was promised and certainly couldn't scale effectively. Now, as Broadband Reports points out, one of the big "flagship" deployments of BPL, in Dallas, has been sold and is going to shut down internet access. Instead, the buyer is just going to use it for monitoring the electrical grid. Given that this is just the latest in a long line of failures -- and that the technology has never worked up to the level promised, can we finally put to rest the idea that BPL is a legitimate "third pipe" for broadband?

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