Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
My final contribution to the June edition of Cato Unbound is up. I criticize Doug Lichtman call for “more complicated [copyright policy] interventions that, by design, influence the development of technology tools and services”: Back in the late 1990s, companies started to develop MP3 players that are essentially miniature musical jukeboxes. The recording industry sued [...]
I’ve just finished reading this amazing paper by Gerard N. Magliocca about the 19th-century phenomenon of “patent sharks.” In the 1860s, the Patent Office inaugurated an experiment with eased standards on design patents for farm tools. The result was a flood of low-quality patents, and the emergence of a new character in the patent system: [...]
Tim Lee has published a Cato TechKnowledge piece discussing the growing problem of “orphan works” – copyrighted material the owner of which can’t be found. He highlights the work of our own Jerry Brito.
Oakland Wireless appears to be in trouble. Add it to the list. [Actually, is anyone out there keeping a running tally of the muni failures? If so, let me know so I can just start linking to it instead of all the random blog links. ]
With California’s law against talking on a cell phone while driving taking effect next week, Mike Masnick is asking what else should be banned while driving. I think the TLF audience of public policy sophisticates could add to the tenor and quality of the list. I’ve done my part (comment #42), and I obviously need [...]
Via tenacious-Google-needler Scott Cleland, Vint Cerf apparently mused at a Personal Democracy Forum panel this week about whether the Internet should be nationalized. Erick Schoenfeld of TechCrunch who heard and reported the comment first-hand is not shy with his criticisms: [N]ationalizing the Internet is bad idea. (I can’t believe I even have to say this). [...]
[Note: This is the third in a series of essays about the legacy of the Supreme Court's FCC v. Pacifica Foundation decision, which celebrates its 30th anniversary on July 3rd. Part 1, presented a general overview of the issue. Part 2 sketched a short history of FCC indecency regulation. This installment will examine the misguided [...]
Personalized medicine is touted as the wave of the future, but recent government action points to problems for Americans looking to join the health revolution. Last week, California’s Department of Public Health issued cease-and-desist letters to 13 genetic testing startups, threatening to deny service to consumers curious about their DNA. “Any laboratory offering genetic tests [...]
Some surprising news from the folks at Broadcasting and Cable magazine: Barack Obama is now against restoring the Fairness Doctrine. In an email Wednesday to B&C, press secretary Michael Ortiz wrote: “Sen. Obama does not support re-imposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters.” With John McCain already firmly in the anti-fairness regulation camp, that means [...]
Beyond what Harper already said about it, I was searching for the right words to express how silly I find the far-fetched rhetorical B.S. being flung about to describe this quixotic new “Broadband for Everyone” crusade. And then I found this great little comment by Steve Boriss over at The Future of News blog. He [...]
February 13, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
