Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
THE MASTER SWITCH was written to be readable and hopefully entertaining. But its real goal is to urge readers to examine our relationship with all forms of centralized power. There are deep contradictions between a fully centralized society and a free one; indeed I am not sure the two can co-exist. Its message to libertarians [...]
Duncan Hollis, professor of law and associate dean at Temple University Beasely School of Law, discusses cyber security and his recommendation to counter cyber exploits — an electronic SOS. Hollis gives a brief history of online threats, notes the difference between cyber attack and cyber espionage, discusses the difficulty of deterring online exploits due to the anonymity of the internet, and talks about how governments and individuals have responded to cyber threats. He then outlines his proposal — a duty to assist others when they are under duress online — which was inspired by laws of the sea and an episode in which a U.S. Navy warship aided a North Korean vessel that was under attack by Somali pirates.
Adam Thierer’s claim that I am redefining monopoly in my Wall Street Journal piece is sowing confusion and misleading the public. Hence this corrective. A monopoly is any firm that has a dominant share in the market for a given good or service (legal definitions range between 40% – 70%) resulting in power over that [...]
Rob Pegoraro’s article in yesterday’s Washington Post is a worthy read, if only because it puts into context what is and isn’t a privacy breach. Recently, there’s been a lot of noise–started by a Wall St Journal article–about a supposed privacy breach by Facebook surrounding the misuse of user data by applications installed on the [...]
I’m very pleased to announce that I am today joining the Mercatus Center at George Mason University as a Senior Research Fellow. I will be working in the Mercatus Center’s Technology Policy Program and covering many of the same issues I have been active on for many years now, including: free speech and child safety [...]
Tim Wu appears hell-bent of redefining the English language. After reading his new book, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires [See my 6-part review: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] and his new editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal, “In the Grip of the New Monopolists,” it’s clear to me that [...]
This week, we’ve seen reports in both The New York Times (“Stage Set for Showdown on Online Privacy“) and The Wall Street Journal (“Watchdog Planned for Online Privacy“) that the Obama Administration is inching closer toward adopting a new Internet regulatory regime in the name of protecting privacy online. In this essay, I want to [...]
I’ve had quite enough of service providers of one kind or another making me part of their new social network. (I’m looking at you, Google Buzz.) So here’s an article about how to control iTunes’ new Ping social network, which comes with iTunes 10. Apple did a couple things right: They made it very clear [...]
Adam and I spent a lot of time on our joint amicus brief with EFF—which Larry has artfully summarized. But Jon Stewart has outdone us both with this witty satire on the case: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c You’re Welcome – Violent Video Games www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full [...]
January 27, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
