Michael Burstein, assistant professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, discusses his paper entitled, Exchanging Information Without Intellectual Property. Burstein begins by discussing theories behind IP law and why it exists. According to Burstein, IP law incentivizes creation of intellectual works because it protects the creator’s investment by preventing others from copying the work and obtaining a benefit without any effort. He then goes on to discuss the critiques of these theories, the costs that are involved in protecting intellectual works, and the effect IP law has on innovation. Burstein then discusses practical examples in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry where actors structure the flow of information in a way that is reciprocal but only requires a small role from IP law. According to Burstein, norms protect intellectual works. He believes these norms allow disclosure of intellectual works in stages and facilitate a trusting relationship between two firms. Burstein ends the discussion by addressing policy conclusions surrounding IP law and what role it should play in information exchange.

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Related Links

• Exchanging Information Without Intellectual Property, by Burstein
• “Emerging Markets for High Tech Ideas”, Small Business Trends
• “Frischmann Predicts Prometheus”, Concurring Opinions

Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, and Ryan Radia, associate director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, discuss Congress’s recent interest in cybersecurity. Harper and Radia begin by discussing why Congress wants to legislate cybersecurity and the potential threats that have Congress frightened. Harper and Radia then discuss the types of bills before Congress, which include aspects of information sharing that would promote cybersecurity intelligence but may have privacy implications, and mandates for a security infrastructure. The discussion then turns to the role of government in cybersecurity and whether the protection of online information and assets should be left to markets. The discussion ends with Harper and Radia predicting the future of the proposed bills.

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Related Links

• “Cybersecurity Bills? No, Thanks”, cato@liberty
• Government Bureaucrats Can’t Prevent Data Breaches, CEI.org
• “Cyberwar Is the New Yellowcake”, Wired

“Cybersecurity bill passes, Obama threatens veto”, CNN Money

Jennifer Shkabatur, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet Society at Harvard University, discusses her new paper, “Transparency With(out) Accountability: The Effects of the Internet on the Administrative State. Shkabatur begins by discussing the focus of her paper, a critical look at open government initiatives. Shkabatur believes promises of transparency in government fall short and do not promote accountability. She then discusses innovations in accountability facilitated by the Internet, which she divides into three categories: mandatory transparency, discretionary transparency, and involuntary transparency. Shkabatur then sets forth types of reforms that she believes would improve government transparency. According to Shkabatur, context and details on agency processes are necessary along with details about how an agency performs various tasks.

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Related Links

• Transparency With(out) Accountability, by Shkabatur
• “Transparency Through Technology: Evaluating Federal Open Government Efforts”, Mercatus.org
• “The Power of Open Government”, Brookings Institute

Naomi Cahn, John Theodore Fey Research Professor of Law at George Washington University, discusses her new paper entitled, “Postmortem Life Online.” Cahn first discusses what could happen to online accounts like Facebook once a person dies. According to Cahn, technology is outpacing the law in this area and it isn’t very clear what can happen to an online presence once the account holder passes away. She discusses the various problems family members face when trying to access a deceased loved one’s account, and also the problems online companies face in trying to balance the deceased’s privacy rights with the need to settle an estate. Cahn claims that terms of service often dictate what will happen to an online account after death, but these terms may not be in line with account holder wishes. She then suggests some steps to take in making sure online accounts are taken care of after death, including taking inventory of all online accounts and determining who should have access to those accounts after death.

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Related Links

• “Postmortem Life On-Line”, by Cahn
• “What happens to your Facebook account when you die?”, The Digital Beyond
• “Deathless data: What happens to our digital property after we die?”, The Economist

Spencer Weber Waller, Professor and Director at the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, discusses his new paper entitled, Antitrust and Social Networking. The discussion centers on the likelihood of Facebook being charged by the government as having a monopoly over the social networking market. Waller first explains antitrust law, which, among other things, prohibits monopolization to protect competition. Waller then discusses the difficulty of defining the market for social networks. He claims that Facebook is dominant in the market, but he also says there are multiple markets for Facebook’s participation, like consumer use and advertising. Waller goes on to explain how a court would analyze an antitrust violation. According to Waller, there is a two-step process involved where courts ask whether there is market power, and whether a company is doing anything with that power to interfere with competition. Waller ends the discussion by analyzing the likelihood of Facebook ever being charged with antitrust violations. Waller also briefly gives his thoughts on the recent antitrust suit filed by the DOJ against Apple.

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Related Links

• Antitrust and Social Networking, By Waller
• “Will Facebook’s Instagram Deal Face Antitrust Scrutiny?”, CNBC
• “The procompetitive story that could undermine the DOJ’s e-books antitrust case against Apple”, Technology Liberation Front

Adam Lashinsky, author and editor-at-large for Fortune, discusses his new book, Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works. Lashinsky begins by discussing Apple’s obsession with secrecy to the point that employees do not discuss what they are working on with other employees. According to Lashinsky, secrecy is tied to focus and achievement, so Apple employees obtain a depth and expertise on one area, rather than being exposed to different areas of the company. He then discusses how secrecy impacts employee morale and how employees view accomplishment and achievement as a tradeoff for happiness and morale. Lashinsky then explains how other corporations can emulate Apple’s secretive style and reap the benefits.

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Related Links

• “Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works”, by Lashinsky
• “The Consequences of Apple’s Walled Garden”, Time Techland
• “Adam Lashinsky on peeling back Apple’s skin”, Washington Post

Christina Mulligan, Visiting Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, discusses Her new paper, co-authored with Tim Lee, entitled, Scaling the Patent System. Mulligan begins by describing the policy behind patents: to give temporary exclusive rights to inventors so they can benefit monetarily for their inventions. She then explains the thesis of the paper, which argues that the patent system is failing because it is too large to scale. Mulligan claims that some industries are ignoring patents when they develop new products because it is nearly impossible to discover whether a new product will infringe on an existing patent. She then highlights industries where patents are effective, like the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. According to Mulligan, these industries rarely infringe on patents because existing patents are “indexable,” meaning they are easy to look up. The discussion concludes with Mulligan offering solutions for the current problem, which includes restricting the subject matter of patents to indexable matters.

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Related Links

• Scaling the Patent System, by Mulligan & Lee
• “Questions About ‘Scaling the Patent System’ Answered”, Forbes.com
• When Patents Attack, NPR.org

Bruce Schneier, internationally renowned security expert and author, discusses his new book entitled, “Liars & Outliers: Enabling the Trust That Society Needs To Thrive.” Schneier starts the discussion by looking at society and trust and explains why he thinks the two are necessary for civilization. According to Schneier, two concepts contribute to a trustful society: first, humans are mostly moral; second, informal reputation systems incentivize trustworthy behavior. The discussion turns to technology and trust, and Schneier talks about how the information society yields greater consequences when trust is breached. He then describes how society deals with technology and trust and why he thinks the system is not perfect but working well overall.

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Related Links

• “Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive”, by Schneier
• “Why Doesn’t Society Just Fall Apart?”, Forbes.com
• Bruce Schneier-CFP 2011-Keynote on Cyberwar Rhetoric, JerryBrito.org

Jason Mazzone, professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, discusses his new book, Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law. Copyfruad, according to Mazzone, occurs when intellectual property law is used in an abusive or overreaching manner. Mazzone believes the problem arises when content owners make false or fraudulent claims of intellectual property rights that are not recognized by the law. The discussion turns to the scope of harm that results from Copyfraud, and Mazzone proposes that the solution lies in legislative measures as well as education on the scope of intellectual property law.

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Related Links

• Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law, by Mazzone
• Copyright Criminals, pbs.org
• “IP Feudalism and the Shrinking of the Public Domain”, Marginal Revolution

Gabriella Coleman, anthropologist and the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy in the Department of Art History & Communication Studies at McGill University, discusses hacktivist group Anonymous. Coleman begins with an overview of Anonymous originating with online pranks that eventually evolved into political activism. The group, according to Coleman, began seeking “lulz” on the message board 4chan. The pranks consisted of Internet memes and practical Internet jokes called trolling. She then discusses how the group moved into activism using denial of services attacks to shut down websites and how it issued a series of videos against the Church of Scientology. The discussion then turns to the recent arrest of several LulzSec members, including Sabu, the hacker turned FBI informant.

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Related Links

• “Our Weirdness Is Free”, by Coleman
• “Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action”, by Coleman
• “Arrests Sow Mistrust Inside a Clan of Hackers”, New York Times
• “Why Anonymous will never be able to take down the power grid”, JerryBrito.com
• “‘We Do It for the Lulz’: What Makes LulzSec Tick?”, Time Techland

Rebecca MacKinnon, a former CNN correspondent and now Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, discusses her new book, “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom.” MacKinnon begins by discussing “Net Freedom,” which she describes as a structure that respects rights, freedoms, and accountability. She discusses how some governments, like China, use coercion to make private companies act a as subcontractors for censorship and manipulation. She goes on to discuss a project she launched called Global Network Initiative, where she urges companies like Google and Facebook to be more socially responsible. MacKinnon believes technology needs to be compatible with political freedoms, and she issues a call to action for Internet users to demand policies that are compatible with Internet freedoms.

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Related Links

• “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom”, by MacKinnon
• Global Network Initiative
• “Handmaidens to Censorship”, The Wall Street Journal
• The Case Against Letting the U.N. Govern the Internet, Time Techland

Clay Johnson, co-founder of Blue State Digital and former director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, discusses his new book, The Information Diet. According to Johnson, America’s diet of mass-produced unhealthy food has resulted in an obesity epidemic and we may be seeing the same thing when it comes to our media diet. He believes the problem is not too much information, rather it is the quality of information that people choose to consume. Johnson encourages more responsibility in choosing information intake, similar to what is required to make healthy food choices. He ends by outlining a plan of action and offers tips on consuming “healthy” information.

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Related Links

• “The Information Diet”, by Johnson
• “How to Start Your Information Diet”, lifehacker.com
• ‘Plug In Better’: A Manifesto, The Atlantic

David Weinberger, senior researcher at Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for the Internet & Society and Co-Director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab at Harvard Law School, discusses his new book entitled, “Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room.” According to Weinberger, knowledge in the Western world is taking on properties of its new medium, the Internet. He discusses how he believes the transformation from paper medium to Internet medium changes the shape of knowledge. Weinberger goes on to discuss how gathering knowledge is different and more effective, using hyperlinks as an example of a speedy way to obtain more information on a topic. Weinberger then talks about how the web serves as the “room,” where knowledge seekers are plugged into a network of experts who disagree and critique one another. He also addresses how he believes the web has a way of filtering itself, steering one toward information that is valuable.

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Related Links

• “Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room”, by Weinberger
• “Research Ethics: Coercive Citation in Academic Publishing”, Science Daily
• “Knowledge Has Always Been Networked: On Weinberger’s ‘Too Big to Know’”, The Atlantic

Jonathan Coulton, a musician, singer-songwriter, and geek icon, who releases his music under a Non-Commercial Creative Commons License, discusses his thoughts on piracy from an artist’s point of view. Coulton talks about quitting his day job so he could focus on his music. He bypassed the traditional route of becoming a musician, which usually means signing to a record label, and began releasing one song per week on his website. This lead to eventual success, according to Coulton, who now makes his living as a full-time musician by touring and selling his music on his website. The discussion then turns to piracy. Coulton explains why he thinks piracy cannot be stopped and describes what he considers “victimless piracy.” He goes on to discuss the difficulties of addressing piracy issues, especially when taking fairness and practicality into account.

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Related Links

• “MegaUpload”, on Coulton’s blog
• “Internet to Artists: Drop Dead”, Wall Street Journal
• Thing a Week, on jonathancoulton.com

Catherine Tucker, Douglas Drane Career Development Professor in IT and Management, and Assistant Professor of Marketing at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, discusses her paper with Avi Goldfarb in the Journal of Competition Law and Economics entitled, Substitution Between Offline and Online Advertising Markets. According to Tucker, the FTC treats online advertising as a distinct market from offline advertising for antitrust purposes. She describes the study she and Goldfarb conducted, where they sought to determine whether online advertising could serve as a substitute for offline advertising. Tucker also discusses Google’s role in online advertising, how its auction mechanism affects pricing, and the difference between search advertising and display advertising. The conversation ends with a discussion on policy implications on how dominant players in online advertising should be viewed.

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Related Links

• Substitution between Offline and Online Advertising Markets, by Tucker & Goldfarb
• “Google faces antitrust glare on Capitol Hill”, Washington Post
• “Google Now Owns 44% of Global Advertising Market”, Search Engine Watch

Reuben Grinberg, a recent Yale Law School graduate now in private practice in New York City, discusses his paper, published in the Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal entitled, Bitcoin: An Innovative Alternative Digital Currency. Grinberg first gives a brief overview of Bitcoin, the decentralized, digital currency. According to Grinberg, Bitcoin can maintain sustainability, even though it is not backed by an institution or commodity, but it must overcome several hurdles. Grinberg then discusses the potential security problems and legal issues Bitcoin faces. He also describes some of the unique qualities of Bitcoin, including the ability to conduct transactions anonymously. Grinberg ends the discussion with his thoughts on what Bitcoin could potentially become.

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Related Links

• Bitcoin: An Innovative Alternative Digital Currency, by Grinberg
• Bitcoin: Today Techies, Tomorrow the World?, by Grinberg
• “Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks”, Time Techland
• bitcoin.org
• The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin, Wired

This is the 100th episode of Surprisingly Free! One hundred episodes is quite a milestone, and we thought we’d celebrate it with a selection of some of the best clips from our last 99 shows, featuring some incredible thinkers and doers at the intersection of technology, policy and economics. You’ll hear clips on Wikileaks, criminal hacking, censorship, online porn, and robotics, just to name a few topics. We hope you enjoy this episode and continue to listen for the next 100 episodes!

To listen, visit the 100th episode page!

Michael Weinberg, staff attorney with Public Knowledge, discusses his white paper entitled, It Will Be Awesome If They Don’t Screw This Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology. The discussion begins with Weinberg describing 3D printing: the process of printing three dimensional objects layer-by-layer from a digital file on a computer. According to Weinberg the design method used for printing includes programs like AutoCad and 3D scanners that can scan existing objects, making it possible to print a 3D replica. He goes on to explain why he thinks 3D printing, coupled with the Internet, is a disruptive technology. Finally, Weinberg discusses the thesis of his paper, where he anticipates industries affected by potential disruption will not compete with or adapt to this technology, but rather, will seek legal protection through IP law to preemptively regulate 3D printing.

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Related Links

• It Will Be Awesome If They Don’t Screw This Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology, By Weinberg
• “Difference Engine: Making it”, The Economist
• Thingverse.com
• Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney, TED

Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business, discusses his new book, co-authored with Erik Brynjolfsson, entitled, “Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy.” The book looks at the interplay between unemployment and fast-paced technological innovation. In the book, McAfee and Brynjolfsson propose that technology is outpacing humans, and they discuss whether humans can keep up. According to McAfee, technology is encroaching on skills that once belonged exclusively to humans. He believes that entrepreneurial thinking, different institutions, and new organizational structures can prevent humans from being left behind by the machines.

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Related Links

• “Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy”, by McAfee & Brynjolfsson
• “More Jobs Predicted for Machines, Not People”, New York Times
• “Race Against the Machine* and TGS, a comparison”, Marginal Revolution
• “Are You An Internet Optimist or Pessimist? The Great Debate over Technology’s Impact on Society”, Technology Liberation Front

Michael Froomkin, the Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Miami, discusses his new paper prepared for the Oxford Internet Institute entitled, Lessons Learned Too Well: The Evolution of Internet Regulation. Froomkin begins by talking about anonymity, why it is important, and the different political and social components involved. The discussion then turns to Froomkin’s categorization of Internet regulation, how it can be seen in three different waves, and how it relates to anonymity. He ends the discussion by talking about the third wave of Internet regulation, and he predicts that online anonymity will become practically impossible. Froomkin also discusses the constitutional implications of a complete ban on online anonymity, as well as what he would deem an ideal balance between the right to anonymous speech and protection from online crimes like fraud and security breeches.

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Related Links

• Lessons Learned Too Well, by Froomkin
• “With passwords ‘broken,’ US rolls out Internet identity plan”, ARS Technica
• “What’s in a Pseudo-name? Privacy, Free Expression & Real Names on Google+ & Facebook”, Technology Liberation Front

danah boyd, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, and Assistant Professor in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, discusses her recent article in First Monday with Ester Hargitai, Jason Schultz, and John Palfrey. It’s entitled, “Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.” boyd discusses COPPA as it applies to Facebook, namely that children under 13 are not allowed to use the site. She then talks about her research, which looks at whether this restriction is helping parents protect their children’s privacy, and whether it is meeting COPPA’s ultimate goals. boyd discusses her findings, which indicate parents are allowing their children to lie about their age to obtain a Facebook account. According to boyd, parents want guidelines when it comes to data protection, but they do not necessarily want strict requirements. boyd feels that COPPA is not achieving its goal of privacy protection and should be evaluated with more transparency so parents and the public in general know how to protect their privacy.

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Related Links

• “Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.”, by boyd et al.
• “apophenia”, boyd’s blog
• “The Unintended Consequences of Well-Intentioned Privacy Regulation”, Forbes.com

Joseph Flatley, Features Editor with The Verge, discusses his recent article entitled, “Condo at the End of the World.” Flatley first gives an overview of The Verge, a new website dedicated to in-depth reporting usually seen in traditional media such as newspapers and magazines. He describes The Verge as a website dedicated not only to what technology means, but also to how it affects our lives. The discussion then turns to Flately’s article on survival condos, which have attracted the attention of wealthy citizens concerned about end of the world calamity and economic collapse. According to Flatley, the interest in survival condos has increased after 9/11, and after the recent economic downturn. The “condos” are abandoned missile silos that date back to the cold war. Flatley describes his interviews with different people who are carving out a market for high-end survival real estate, turning these abandoned missile silos into luxury living. He describes how survivalists might live in an end of the world scenario, including what they will eat and how they will stay properly hydrated.

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Related Links

• “Condo at the End of the World”, by Flatley
• 20th Century Castles, LLC, missilebases.com
• survivalcondo.com

Laura Heymann, Professor of Law at William & Mary Law School, discusses her recent article in the Boston College Law Review entitled, The Law of Reputation and the Interest of the Audience. Heymann proposes viewing the concept of reputation as something formed by a community rather than something owned by an individual. Reputation, according to Heymann, is valuable because of the way a community uses it. She then discusses how thinking of reputation differently leads to thinking about different remedies for reputation-based harms. Heymann thinks current remedies for damage to one’s reputation do not focus enough on the affect it has on the community and proposes remedies for emotional injuries be separate from remedies for damages to the reputation. She then discusses how the Internet affects reputation, including how it enlarges communities, and how it intersects with privacy.

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Related Links

• The Law of Reputation and the Interest of the Audience, by Heymann
• “Herman Cain seeks to salvage reputation as scandal continues”, CBS News
• “When It Comes to Information Control, Everybody Has a Pet Issue & Everyone Will Be Disappointed”, Technology Liberation Front

Johnny Ryan, Senior Researcher at the Institute of International and European Affairs, discusses his recent book, “A History of the Internet and the Digital Future.” The book is a comprehensive overview of the Internet and where it came from. Ryan discusses some of the core concepts, including what made the Internet revolutionary, and how many of these ideas came from RAND Corporation researcher Paul Baran. He explains that the initial concept for packet switching did come from the need to build a communications system to withstand nuclear attack. The discussion then turns to the advent of communication between computers, which sprang from a group of graduate students who used a collaborative process to create the network. Finally, Ryan discusses Web 2.0, and how technologies like cloud computing and 3-D printing will disrupt industries in the future.

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Related Links

• A History of the Internet and the Digital Future, by Ryan
• “Paul Baran and the Origins of the Internet”, Rand Corporation
• “Is collaboration the future of invention?”, CNN.com

Alisdair Gillespie, Professor of Criminal Law and Justice at De Montfort University in Leicester UK, discusses his new paper in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology, Restricting Access to the Internet by Sex Offenders. Gillespie discusses whether access to the Internet is a human right, and if so, when that right can be curtailed. He establishes that access to the Internet could be a negative right, then turns to how Internet access can be restricted in the case of sex offenders. Gillespie talks about different ways to prevent these offenders from using the Internet for ill, including complete restriction as well as technological tools similar to parental control software, and the difficulties that arise when trying to implement any one of these schemes.

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Related Links

• Restricting access to the internet by sex offenders, by Gillespie
• “The U.N. Declares Internet Access a Human Right”, The Atlantic Wire
• “If Banning The Internet For Sex Offenders Is Unfair, Is Banning The Internet For Copyright Infringers Fair?”, Tech Dirt

Adam Thierer, a Senior Research Fellow with the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center, discusses his new paper, co-authored with Veronique de Rugy, The Internet, Sales Tax, and Tax Competition. With several states in the midst of budget crunches, states and localities struggle to find a way to generate revenue, which, according to Thierer, leads to an aggressive attempt to collect online sales tax. He discusses some of these attempts, like the multi-state compact, that seeks taxation of remote online vendors. Thierer believes this creates incentives for large online companies like Amazon to cut deals with certain states, where jobs will be created in exchange for tax relief. This, according to Thierer, creates unfairness for smaller online companies as well as for brick and mortar shops who have to pay taxes to the state where they have a physical presence. He proposes an origin-based tax, which imposes the tax where the purchase is made instead of tracing the transaction to its consumption destination. This proposal, he submits, will level the playing field between brick and mortar companies and online companies, and promote tax competition.

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Related Links

• The Internet, Sales Taxes, and Tax Competition, by Thierer & de Rugy
• The Main Street Fairness Act
• The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement
• “Working up a tax storm in Illinois”, George F. Will

Simon Chesterman, Vice Dean and Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore, and Global Professor and Director of the NYU School of Law Singapore Programme, discusses his new book, One Nation Under Surveillance: A New Social Contract to Defend Freedom Without Sacrificing Liberty. The discussion begins with a brief overview of the NSA and how it garnered the attention of Americans after 9/11. Chesterman discusses the agency’s powers and the problems the NSA encounters, including how to sort through large amounts of data. The discussion then turns to how these powers can become exceptions to constitutional protections, and how such exceptional circumstances can be accommodated. Finally, Chesterman suggests that there has been a cultural shift in western society, where expectations of privacy have dimished with technological and cultural trends, so that information collection by the government is generally accepted. However, he says, society is concerned with how that information is used. According to Chesterman, there should be limits and accountability mechanisms in place for government agencies like the NSA.

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Related Links

• One Nation Under Surveillance: A New Social Contract to Defend Freedom Without Sacrificing Liberty, by Chesterman
• “Warrantless Wiretaps: A Guide to the Debate”, NPR
• Stronger Online Privacy Regulation Comes with Tradeoffs, TIME.com Techland

David Robinson, a fellow at the Information and Society Project at Yale Law School, discusses his new paper, Following the Money: A Better Way Forward on the PROTECT IP Act. The bill, now being considered by Congress, targets “rouge” websites. Robinson discusses the different ways these websites host infringing content and sell counterfeit goods, as well as the remedies proposed in the bill. The measures involve two main consequences: cutting off information through the seizure of domain names by law enforcement, and cutting off financial gain by prohibiting payment processors like Visa and Mastercard from delivering profits to infringing website owners. Robinson discusses why he thinks the Act will better serve IP law if the flow of money is restricted, and not the flow of information. He goes on to discuss what he considers to be troubling about information control, including several constitutional implications.

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Related Links

• Following the Money: A Better Way Forward on the PROTECT IP Act, by Robinson
• Text of the proposed Act, opencongress.org
• “Dozens of law professors: PROTECT IP Act is unconstitutional”, ARS Technica

Derek Bambauer, associate professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, discusses his forthcoming University of Chicago Law Review article entitled Orwell’s Armchair. In the paper, Bambuer writes that America has begun to censor the Internet, and he distinguishes two forms of censorship: hard and soft. He defines hard censorship as open and transparent, and where the government directly controls what information can and cannot be transmitted. Soft censorship, says Bambauer, is indirect, where government tells third parties to prevent users from accessing information, and it’s not clear what is being censored. He submits that if America is going to censor the Internet, it should do so through hard censorship. Indirect censorship strategies, he writes, are less legitimate than direct regulation.

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Related Links

• Orwell’s Armchair, by Bambauer
• “Filtering On The March”, Info/Law
• “Revised ‘Net censorship bill requires search engines to block sites, too”, Ars Technica
• Open Net Initiative

Sonia Arrison, writer, futurist, and senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, discusses her new book entitled 100+: How the Coming of Age of Longevity Will Change Everything from Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith. The process of aging, according to Arrison, is not set in stone, and the way humans experience age can be changed as technology evolves. She discusses the different types of technology, including tissue engineering and gene therapy, which are poised to change numerous aspects of human life by improving health and increasing lifespan to 150 years and beyond. She also talks about how increased lifespans will affect institutions in society and addresses concerns, such as overpopulation and depletion of resources, raised by critics of this technology.

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Related Links

• 100+, Sonia Arrison’s webpage
• “Living And Working To 100″, fastcompany.com
• “Living to 100 and Beyond”, Wall Street Journal
• “The World Will Be More Crowded — With Old People”, foreignpolicy.com

Annemarie Bridy, professor of law at the University of Idaho, and visiting associate professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh, discusses her new paper, “Is Online Copyright Enforcement Scalable?” In it she looks at the advent of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and the copyright enforcement problem it has created through the lens of scalability. In solving difficult problems of scale in their effort to revolutionize the distribution of information goods, the designers of P2P networks created a problem of scale in the form of “massive infringement.” Bridy discusses how to to approach solving that new problem of scale–massive infringement. Bridy argues that the DMCA has proven to be remarkably scalable for enforcing copyrights in hosted content but has altogether failed to scale in the context of P2P file sharing, leading to the dysfunctional workaround of mass John Doe litigation. She discusses alternatives to mass litigation, including dispute resolution systems and “three strikes” proposals.

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Related Links

• Is Online Copyright Enforcement Scalable?, by Bridy
• “A massive collection scheme: Yet another judge slams file-sharing lawsuits,”, Ars Technica
• “Citing ‘Wrong Door’ Cases, Judge Denies Use of IP Addresses to Identify Individuals”, Technology Liberation Front

Timothy B. Lee, adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, a contributor to Ars Technica, and blogger at Forbes.com, discusses the recent patent wars and the prospects for reform. Over the last two decades, large software companies like Microsoft and Apple began acquiring a significant number of patents, gaining the power to shut down or demand payment from any software company that might inadvertently infringe those patents. Lee talks about Google’s entry into the patent game, particularly with the acquisition of Motorola. He also discusses the theory behind these patent wars and how the use of patents have been altered from incentives for innovation to a litigation shield. Finally, Lee talks about different proposals for patent reform, including a first to file scheme that is part of the America Invents Act.

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Related Links

• “Mostly pointless patent reform bill goes to Obama for signature”, Ars Technica
• “Specialist Patent Courts Are Part Of The Problem”, Forbes.com
• “Google, Motorola and the Patent Wars”, The Wall Street Journal

Michael Nelson, Associate Professor at Old Dominion University, developed, along with colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, “Memento,” a technical framework aimed at better integrating the current and the past web. In the past, archiving history involved collecting tangible things such as letters and newspapers. Now, Nelson points out, the web has become a primary medium with no serious preservation system in place. He discusses how the web is stuck in the perpetual now, making it difficult to view past information. The goal behind Memento, according to Nelson, is to create an all-inclusive Internet archive system, which will allow users to engage in a form of Internet time travel, surpassing the current archive systems such as the Wayback Machine.

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Related Links

• Memento site
• “Old Dominion U. professor is trying to save Internet history”, Washington Post
• “Memento Project wins Digital Preservation Award 2010″, Digital Preservation Coalition

Gerald Faulhaber, Professor Emeritus at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Law School, discusses his new paper in Communications & Convergence Review entitled Economics of Net Neutrality: A Review. Faulhaber delves into the network neutrality debate noting that consumers do not want complete neutrality since they approve of ISPs blocking content such as child pornography or malware. He explains that there is little evidence that violations of net neutrality have actually occurred, so that consumers today are getting as much neutrality as they want. Faulhaber submits that implementing prophylactic regulations will only stifle innovation and encourage rent seeking.

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Related Links

• Economics of Net Neutrality: A Review, by Faulhaber
• “FCC makes Net neutrality rules official”, cnet.com
• “Getting a Fix on Network Neutrality”, knowledge@wharton

Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in the Technology Policy Program, discusses his new paper, Kids, Privacy, Free Speech & the Internet: Finding the Right Balance. For kids, using the Internet has become second nature, but sites that track a child’s online activity can raise privacy concerns. A number of well-intentioned lawmakers are introducing regulatory measures that aim to expand the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Thierer discusses the unintended consequences that could result from regulations, like mandatory age verification and an Internet “eraser button.” He proposes an alternative to regulation, which includes education and empowerment, placing importance on personal and parental responsibility.

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Related Links

• Kids, Privacy, Free Speech & the Internet, by Thierer
• “Erasing Our Past On The Internet”, Forbes.com
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, ftc.gov

Ryan Calo, a scholar at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, discusses his new article in the Maryland Law Review entitled “Open Robotics.” Robots are frequently used in war, manufacturing, warehouse management, and even in surgery. Now, personal robots are poised to be the new explosive technology, and Calo anticipates their social effect to be on par with that of the personal computer. He discusses why he believes personal robots are more likely to thrive if they are built on an open model–rather than closed or proprietary framework–even though robots open to third-party tinkering may be subject to greater legal liability than closed, discrete-function robots. To protect open-model innovation, Calo recommends immunity for manufacturers of open robotic platforms for what end users do with these platforms, akin to the immunity enjoyed under federal law by firearms manufacturers and websites.

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Related Links

• Open Robotics, by Calo
• willowgarage.com
• Robotics and the Law, Stanford Law School’s Blog

David Brin, a physicist and Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction writer, wrote the prescient 1997 nonfiction book, The Transparent Society, which won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. He’s written a new essay revisiting the themes of that book and discusses how the ideas presented in The Transparent Society relate to his new essay and to the world today. The government continues to increase its ability to look in on citizens, creating an Orwellian-like society that people may find alarming. According to Brin, reciprocal accountability, which is the ability for people to look back at the government and hold it accountable, is key to minimizing undesirable effects and behaviors. Brin goes on to discuss the benefits of a more pragmatic approach to transparency as opposed to immediate and radical transparency like WikiLeaks.

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• davidbrin.com
• “Brin, Transaction costs and Do Not Track”, Jerry Brito
• The Transparent Society

Kembrew McLeod, independent filmmaker and Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa, discusses his new documentary with Benjamin Franzen called Copyright Criminals. Digital music sampling is used throughout several genres of music but it is probably most prominent in hip-hop music. Hip-hop artists like Run-DMC began using snippets of other artists’ songs to create sounds of their own. This process, according to McLeod, helped facilitate creativity, but it also brought a flurry of lawsuits within the music industry. Now, as McLeod demonstrates in his documentary, artists are hesitant to use samples of music in their songs because they fear potential legal consequences, and as a result, a lot of musical creations that use sampling may never reach our ears.

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Related Links

• Copyright Criminals, hulu.com
• kembrew.com
• “Lessig’s call for a ‘simple blanket license’ in Remix“, Adam Thierer

Woodrow Hartzog, Assistant Professor at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, and a Scholar at the Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, discusses his new paper in Communications Law and Policy entitled, The New Price To Play: Are Passive Online Media Users Bound By Terms of Use? By simply browsing the internet, one can be obligated by a “terms of use” agreement displayed on a website. These agreements, according to Hartzog, aren’t always displayed where a user can immediately read them, and they often contain complicated legalese. Web browsers can be affected unfavorably by these agreements, particularly when it comes to copyright and privacy issues. Hartzog evaluates what the courts are doing about this, and discusses the different factors that could determine the enforceability of these agreements, including the type of notice a web browser receives.

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Related Links

• The New Price to Play: Are Passive Online Media Users Bound by Terms of Use?, by Hartzog
• Woodrow Hartzog’s blog
• “Browsewrap Agreements: The Contract You Never See”, Austin Technology Law Blog

Hal Singer, managing director at Navigant Economics and adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, discusses his new paper on wireless competition, co-authored by Gerald Faulhaber of the University of Pennsylvania, and Bob Hahn of Oxford. The FCC produces a yearly report on the competitive landscape of the wireless market, which serves as an overview to policy makers and analysts. The report has found the wireless market competitive in years past; however, in the last two years, the FCC is less willing to interpret the market as competitive. According to Singer, the FCC is using indirect evidence, which looks at how concentrated the market is, rather than direct evidence, which looks at falling prices, to make its assessment. In failing to look at the direct evidence, Singer argues that the report comes to an erroneous conclusion about the real state of competition in wireless markets.

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Related Links

• Assessing Competition in U.S. Wireless Markets: Review of the FCC’s Competition Reports, by Singer et al
• “FCC report dodges answers on wireless industry competition”, Washington Post
• “FCC Mobile Competition Report Is One Green Light for AT&T/T-Mobile Deal”, Technology Liberation Front

Tim Harford, economist and senior columnist for the Financial Times, discusses his new book, Adapt: Why Success Starts With Failure. He argues that people and organizations have a poor record of getting things right the first time; therefore, the evolutionary process of trial and error is a difficult yet necessary process needed to solve problems in our complex world. Harford emphasizes the importance of embracing failure in a society focused on perfection. According to Harford, one can implement this process by trying different things in small doses and developing the ability to distinguish success and failures while experimenting. A design with failure in mind, according to Harford, is a design capable of adaptation.


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• Adapt: Why Success Starts With Failure
• “Tim Harford on failure”, Washington Post
• “No, statistics are not silly, but their users . . .”, By Harford
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/07/12/tim-harford/feed/ 0 noTim Harford, economist and senior columnist for the Financial Times, discusses his new book, Adapt: Why Success Starts With Failure. He argues that people and organizations have a poor record of getting things right the first time; therefore, the evolutioJerry BritoTim Harford, economist and senior columnist for the Financial Times, discusses his new book, Adapt: Why Success Starts With Failure. He argues that people and organizations have a poor record of getting things right the first time; therefore, the evolutionary process of trial and error is a difficult yet necessary process needed to solve problems in our complex world. Harford emphasizes the importance of embracing failure in a society focused on perfection. According to Harford, one can implement this process by trying different things in small doses and developing the ability to distinguish success and failures while experimenting. A design with failure in mind, according to Harford, is a design capable of adaptation. technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/07/12/tim-harford/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SF-076-110707.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/hpbeWXwNxHM/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/07/05/daniel-solove/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:00:02 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3625

Daniel Solove, professor at the George Washington University Law School, discusses his new book Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security. He suggests that developments in technology do not create a mutually exclusive relationship between privacy and national security. Solove acknowledges the interest government has in maintaining security within our technological world; however, Solove also emphasizes the value of personal privacy rights and suggests that certain procedures, such as judicial oversight on governmental actions, can be implemented to preserve privacy. This oversight may make national security enforcement slightly less effective, but according to Solove, this is a worthwhile tradeoff to ensure privacy protections.


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• Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security
• I‘ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy, by Solove
• “No rights left to lose: Destroying privacy in name of security in the age of terror”, The Daily
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/07/05/daniel-solove/feed/ 0 noDaniel Solove, professor at the George Washington University Law School, discusses his new book Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security. He suggests that developments in technology do not create a mutually exclusive relationship bJerry BritoDaniel Solove, professor at the George Washington University Law School, discusses his new book Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security. He suggests that developments in technology do not create a mutually exclusive relationship between privacy and national security. Solove acknowledges the interest government has in maintaining security within our technological world; however, Solove also emphasizes the value of personal privacy rights and suggests that certain procedures, such as judicial oversight on governmental actions, can be implemented to preserve privacy. This oversight may make national security enforcement slightly less effective, but according to Solove, this is a worthwhile tradeoff to ensure privacy protections. technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/07/05/daniel-solove/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-075-110701.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/4EaW94hEtZo/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/28/pamela-samuelson/#comments Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:00:28 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3604

  Pamela Samuelson, the Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law at Berkeley Law School, discusses her new article in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts entitled, Legislative Alternatives to the Google Book Settlement.  Samuelson discusses the settlement, which was ultimately rejected, and highlights what she deems to be positive aspects. One aspect includes making out-of-print works available to a broad audience while keeping transaction costs low. Samuelson suggests encompassing these aspects into legislative reform. The goal of such reform would strike a balance that benefits rights holders, as well as the general public, while generating competition through implementation of a licensing scheme.
  
  
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  • Legislative Alternatives to the Google Book Settlement, by Samuelson
  • “Judge Rejects Google Books Settlement,” Wall Street Journal
  • “Explaining the Google Books Case Saga,” Time Techland
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/28/pamela-samuelson/feed/ 0 noPamela Samuelson, the Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law at Berkeley Law School, discusses her new article in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts entitled, Legislative Alternatives to the Google Book Settlement. Samuelson discusses Jerry BritoPamela Samuelson, the Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law at Berkeley Law School, discusses her new article in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts entitled, Legislative Alternatives to the Google Book Settlement. Samuelson discusses the settlement, which was ultimately rejected, and highlights what she deems to be positive aspects. One aspect includes making out-of-print works available to a broad audience while keeping transaction costs low. Samuelson suggests encompassing these aspects into legislative reform. The goal of such reform would strike a balance that benefits rights holders, as well as the general public, while generating competition through implementation of a licensing scheme.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/28/pamela-samuelson/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-074-110627.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/qMZtBHY1au4/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/21/ronald-rychlak/#comments Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:00:58 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3581

  Ronald Rychlak, Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the University of Mississippi School of Law, discusses his new article in the Mississipi Law Journal entitled, The Legal Answer to Cyber-Gambling. Rychlak briefly comments on the history of gambling in the United States and the reasons usually given to prohibit or regulate gambling activity. He then talks about why it’s so difficult to regulate internet gambling and gives examples of how regulators have tried to enforce online gambling laws, which often involves deputizing middlemen — financial institutions. Rychlak also discusses his legal proposal: create an official framework to endorse, regulate, and tax online gambling entities.
  
  
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  • The Legal Answer to Cyber-Gambling, by Rychlak
  • “Outgoing Miss. gaming chief warns of challenges,” Bloomberg
  • “Barton to Offer Online Poker Bill,” National Journal
  • “Accused strikes plea deal in poker case,” by Joseph Menn
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/21/ronald-rychlak/feed/ 0 noRonald Rychlak, Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the University of Mississippi School of Law, discusses his new article in the Mississipi Law Journal entitled, The Legal Answer to Cyber-Gambling. Rychlak briefJerry BritoRonald Rychlak, Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the University of Mississippi School of Law, discusses his new article in the Mississipi Law Journal entitled, The Legal Answer to Cyber-Gambling. Rychlak briefly comments on the history of gambling in the United States and the reasons usually given to prohibit or regulate gambling activity. He then talks about why it’s so difficult to regulate internet gambling and gives examples of how regulators have tried to enforce online gambling laws, which often involves deputizing middlemen — financial institutions. Rychlak also discusses his legal proposal: create an official framework to endorse, regulate, and tax online gambling entities.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/21/ronald-rychlak/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-073-110616.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/OIawD1enL4w/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/14/steven-levy/#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:00:58 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3555

  Steven Levy, a columnist for Wired and author of the tech classic Hackers, among many other books, discusses his latest book, In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Levy talks about Googliness, the attribute of silliness and dedication embodied by Google employees, and whether it’s diminishing. He discusses Google’s privacy council, which discusses and manages the company’s privacy issues, and the evolution of how the company has dealt with issues like scanning Gmail users’ emails, scanning books for the Google Books project, and deciding whether to incorporate facial recognition technology in Google Goggles. Levy also talks about prospects for a Google antitrust suit and the future of Google’s relationship with China.
  
  
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  • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
  • “The Problem With Success: With a market capitalization of $184 billion, can Google maintain its reputation as a brash iconoclast?” Wall Street Journal
  • “Life ‘In The Plex’: The Future Of Google,” NPR
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/14/steven-levy/feed/ 0 noSteven Levy, a columnist for Wired and author of the tech classic Hackers, among many other books, discusses his latest book, In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Levy talks about Googliness, the attribute of silliness and dedicatiJerry BritoSteven Levy, a columnist for Wired and author of the tech classic Hackers, among many other books, discusses his latest book, In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Levy talks about Googliness, the attribute of silliness and dedication embodied by Google employees, and whether it’s diminishing. He discusses Google’s privacy council, which discusses and manages the company’s privacy issues, and the evolution of how the company has dealt with issues like scanning Gmail users’ emails, scanning books for the Google Books project, and deciding whether to incorporate facial recognition technology in Google Goggles. Levy also talks about prospects for a Google antitrust suit and the future of Google’s relationship with China.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/14/steven-levy/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-072-110613.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/CzX2VZjYtLw/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/07/larry-downes/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:00:27 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3539 The Laws of Disruption, discusses enforcement of intellectual property rights online. Downes talks about the Protect IP Act, a bill recently introduced into Congress that aims to curtail infringement of intellectual property rights online by so-called rogue websites. Downes argues that forcing intermediaries to blacklist domain names has the potential to "break the internet." He discusses how the rogue website problem could better be addressed and how the proposed bill could be improved.]]>

  Larry Downes, who writes for CNet, blogs at Forbes.com and the Technology Liberation Front, and is the author of several books, including most recently, The Laws of Disruption, discusses enforcement of intellectual property rights online. Downes talks about the Protect IP Act, a bill recently introduced into Congress that aims to curtail infringement of intellectual property rights online by so-called rogue websites. Downes argues that forcing intermediaries to blacklist domain names has the potential to “break the internet.” He discusses how the rogue website problem could better be addressed and how the proposed bill could be improved.
  
  
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  • “Leahy’s Protect IP bill even worse than COICA,” by Downes
  • “Leahy’s Protect IP Act: Why Internet content wars will never end,” by Downes
  • “Internet Researchers Decry DNS-Filtering Legislation,” Wired
  • “Son of COICA: New Copyright Bill Introduced,” Center for Democracy & Technology
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/07/larry-downes/feed/ 0 noLarry Downes, who writes for CNet, blogs at Forbes.com and the Technology Liberation Front, and is the author of several books, including most recently, The Laws of Disruption, discusses enforcement of intellectual property rights online. Downes talks aboJerry BritoLarry Downes, who writes for CNet, blogs at Forbes.com and the Technology Liberation Front, and is the author of several books, including most recently, The Laws of Disruption, discusses enforcement of intellectual property rights online. Downes talks about the Protect IP Act, a bill recently introduced into Congress that aims to curtail infringement of intellectual property rights online by so-called rogue websites. Downes argues that forcing intermediaries to blacklist domain names has the potential to "break the internet." He discusses how the rogue website problem could better be addressed and how the proposed bill could be improved.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/07/larry-downes/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-071-110603.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/OAoVxtjb51I/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/31/konstantinos-stylianou/#comments Tue, 31 May 2011 12:00:35 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3520

  Konstantinos Stylianou, a former Fulbright Scholar now working on a PhD in law at Penn Law School, and author of the provocative new essay, “Hasta La Vista Privacy, or How Technology Terminated Privacy,” discusses technological determinism and privacy. Stylianou’s thesis is that the evolution of technology is eliminating privacy; therefore, lawmakers should switch emphasis from regulating the collection of information, which he claims is inevitable, to regulating the use of that information. Stylianou discusses why digital networks specifically make it difficult to keep information private, differences between hard and soft technological determinism, and when he thinks people will realize about their private information what the recording industry has finally realized about digital music.
  
  
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  • “Hasta La Vista Privacy, or How Technology Terminated Privacy,” by Stylianou
  • “Why Your Personal Information Wants to Be Free,” by Jerry Brito
  • “Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook users eventually get over privacy anxiety,” ZDNet
  • “(your) information wants to be free,” Ben Adida
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/31/konstantinos-stylianou/feed/ 2 noKonstantinos Stylianou, a former Fulbright Scholar now working on a PhD in law at Penn Law School, and author of the provocative new essay, “Hasta La Vista Privacy, or How Technology Terminated Privacy,” discusses technological determinism and privacy. StJerry BritoKonstantinos Stylianou, a former Fulbright Scholar now working on a PhD in law at Penn Law School, and author of the provocative new essay, “Hasta La Vista Privacy, or How Technology Terminated Privacy,” discusses technological determinism and privacy. Stylianou’s thesis is that the evolution of technology is eliminating privacy; therefore, lawmakers should switch emphasis from regulating the collection of information, which he claims is inevitable, to regulating the use of that information. Stylianou discusses why digital networks specifically make it difficult to keep information private, differences between hard and soft technological determinism, and when he thinks people will realize about their private information what the recording industry has finally realized about digital music.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/31/konstantinos-stylianou/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-070-110531.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/Mve5r2qH-MU/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/24/micah-sifry/#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 12:00:26 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3506

  Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, editor of techPresident.com, and author of the new book, Wikileaks and the Age of Transparency, discusses government transparency. Sifry talks about the various purposes of government transparency, technology’s effect on it, and bi-partisan competition that can promote it. He also discusses Bradley Manning’s case, the evolution of WikiLeaks, and the transparency, or lack thereof, within the WikiLeaks organization.
  
  
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  • “WikiLeaks, Assange, and Why There’s No Turning Back,” by Sifry at the Huffington Post
  • “WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency: Micah Sifry explores the history, successes and failures of online transparency,” BoingBoing
  • “April Book of the Month: ‘WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency,’” Yale Books
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/24/micah-sifry/feed/ 0 noMicah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, editor of techPresident.com, and author of the new book, Wikileaks and the Age of Transparency, discusses government transparency. Sifry talks about the various purposes of government transparency, Jerry BritoMicah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, editor of techPresident.com, and author of the new book, Wikileaks and the Age of Transparency, discusses government transparency. Sifry talks about the various purposes of government transparency, technology’s effect on it, and bi-partisan competition that can promote it. He also discusses Bradley Manning’s case, the evolution of WikiLeaks, and the transparency, or lack thereof, within the WikiLeaks organization.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/24/micah-sifry/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-069-110523.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/hTNgmMU7-xI/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/17/joseph-menn/#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 12:00:16 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3297

  Joseph Menn, a Financial Times technology reporter and the author of Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down The Internet, discusses cyber crime. Menn says that one of the main challenges of cybersecurity is that the internet was never intended for many of the things it’s used for today, like e-commerce or critical infrastructure management. He talks about the implications of the internet still being in beta form and comments on the recent Sony data breach and other similar cyber attacks. Menn also discusses his book, telling a few anecdotes about the people who go beyond computer screens in pursuit of internet crime lords.
  
  
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  • Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet
  • “‘Fatal System Error’ has insight on cybercrime,” San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Sony Hack Caps Recent String of Security Horror Shows,” PC World
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/17/joseph-menn/feed/ 0 noJoseph Menn, a Financial Times technology reporter and the author of Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down The Internet, discusses cyber crime. Menn says that one of the main challenges of cybersecurity is that the intJerry BritoJoseph Menn, a Financial Times technology reporter and the author of Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down The Internet, discusses cyber crime. Menn says that one of the main challenges of cybersecurity is that the internet was never intended for many of the things it’s used for today, like e-commerce or critical infrastructure management. He talks about the implications of the internet still being in beta form and comments on the recent Sony data breach and other similar cyber attacks. Menn also discusses his book, telling a few anecdotes about the people who go beyond computer screens in pursuit of internet crime lords.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/17/joseph-menn/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-068-110516.mp3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SurprisinglyFreeConversations/~3/sk9i7E1nDRc/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/10/julian-sanchez/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 12:00:59 +0000 info@surprisinglyfree.com (Jerry Brito) http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3220

  Julian Sanchez, a research fellow at the Cato Institue who focuses on issues related to technology, privacy, and civil liberties, discusses electronic communications. Sanchez talks about changes in surveillance of electronic communications since 9/11, highlighting the large number of cases in which the FBI has gathered phone, internet, and banking information without judicial oversight. He then discusses the legal framework around electronic communications, which he says was built for a very different set of assumptions than we have today. Sanchez also gives a few recommendations for how to disentangle the convoluted legal standards related to electronic communications.
  
  
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  • “Record Number of Americans Targeted by National Security Letters,” by Sanchez
  • “The Strange Case Against ECPA Reform,” by Sanchez
  • “Apple, The iPhone And A Locational Privacy Techno-Panic,” by Adam Thierer
  ]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/10/julian-sanchez/feed/ 5 noJulian Sanchez, a research fellow at the Cato Institue who focuses on issues related to technology, privacy, and civil liberties, discusses electronic communications. Sanchez talks about changes in surveillance of electronic communications since 9/11, higJerry BritoJulian Sanchez, a research fellow at the Cato Institue who focuses on issues related to technology, privacy, and civil liberties, discusses electronic communications. Sanchez talks about changes in surveillance of electronic communications since 9/11, highlighting the large number of cases in which the FBI has gathered phone, internet, and banking information without judicial oversight. He then discusses the legal framework around electronic communications, which he says was built for a very different set of assumptions than we have today. Sanchez also gives a few recommendations for how to disentangle the convoluted legal standards related to electronic communications.technology,economics,policy,politics,net,neutrality,copyright,patents,telecom,wireless,broadband,commons,intellectual,propertyhttp://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/05/10/julian-sanchez/http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/SFC-067-110506.mp3 © Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Some rights reserved.Jerry BritononadultConversations at the intersection of technology, policy, and economics.