WASHINGTON, October 30 – At the National Press Club, Larry Irving and Grover Norquist are debating technology and the presidential candidates. Check out the side of the page on DrewClark.com, or at http://twitter.com/drewclark, for my live Twitters!
October 2008
Alex’s excellent post on the enforceability of shrink-wrap contracts produced a lively debate that’s worth checking out. In particular, my friend Wilson mounts a spirited defense of the proposition that if a customer has a reasonable expectation that a Gateway computer will arrive with a contract attached, and if Gateway offers to pay for return [...]
GamePolitics.com reports that there are strong signs the protracted legal battle over video game regulation in California might soon be headed to the Supreme Court. The ongoing battle deals with a California law passed in October 2005 (A.B.1179), which would have blocked the sale of “violent” video games to those under 18 and required labels [...]
Yesterday, after my Criminal Law class, I went to a lunch talk sponsored by the Stanford Biolaw and Health Policy Society about “abandoned” DNA – that is, DNA traces that people leave all over the place. It was given by Prof. Elizabeth Joh, visiting Stanford Law this year from UC Davis Law. She focused on [...]
At first glance, it seems to me that this big settlement announced today between Google and the book publishers regarding Google Book Search sounds a lot like an ASCAP model for online book transactions. Specifically, of the key provisions of the agreement, it’s this last one about the Book Rights Registry that makes me think [...]
Should U.S. businesses involved in Internet commerce do business in nations governed by oppressive regimes? This is a question that many libertarians—including some of us on TLF—have grappled with for some time. Now Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have signed on to a set of principles for conducting business in countries that disregard human rights. Today’s [...]
Presumably, everyone reading this post has purchased software at some point in the past 15 years. If you have, you may have agreed to a contract unwittingly. Breaking the seal of the shrinkwrap around the box might bind you to the terms and conditions contained inside. This is but one of many new ways you [...]
If you’re here in D.C. next Thursday, you might want to drop by the New America Foundation to watch Jonathan Zittrain and me go at it about his important new book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. Our debate will take place on Thursday, November 6th from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. [...]
Jesse Walker has a terrific feature story looking “Beyond the Fairness Doctrine” in this month’s issue of Reason magazine. I highly recommend it. It’s an in-depth exploration of what an Obama Administration means for the future of tech and media policy. Walker rightly opens the piece by noting that “The fairness doctrine is still dead, [...]
Read Matt Lasar’s article on Ars today (“Satellite Radio Minority Channel Decision Looms for FCC“) about how somebody has suggested that Irish-Americans “deserve a channel on satellite radio which informs, educates and entertains them with all things Irish.” Folks, you just can’t make up stuff this good.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.