Articles by Adam Thierer 
Senior Fellow in Technology & Innovation at the R Street Institute in Washington, DC. Formerly a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, President of the Progress & Freedom Foundation, Director of Telecommunications Studies at the Cato Institute, and a Fellow in Economic Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
CNet News is reporting that the another chapter has been added to the ongoing saga between Yahoo and French regulators over what can be viewed or sold over online networks. You may remember that several years ago the French got angry because some knuckleheads were selling Nazi memorabilia over the Net via Yahoo’s site.
Consequently, a French court ordered Yahoo to find a way to prevent French citizens from accessing auctions of Nazi memorabilia. Yahoo asked a U.S. federal judge to block the French court’s ruling – – citing not only its free speech rights both also the impossible hassle associated with trying to quarantine French citizens from the rest of the world – – and the company eventually prevailed.
But, on procedural grounds, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision yesterday. Basically the court said that the California judge who issued the previous ruling didn’t have the right to hear the case.
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That’s the question one online casino (Casino City, Inc.) is asking a federal district court to answer. Page C3 of today’s New York Times features an interesting story about the case, which Casino City filed in response to Department of Justice threats against publishers and broadcasters warning them to not print or display ads for online casinos. Casino City is seeking a declaratory judgment that Internet gambling advertising is constitutionally protected commercial free speech under the First Amendment.
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Hard to believe that there are still so many regimes on this planet trying to clamp down on freedom of speech, especially in an age of ubiquitous electronic communications. But this editorial by Nir Boms and Erick Stakelbeck reminds us that some countries will stop at nothing to restrict the flow of information.
In particular, they note just how repressive some Middle Eastern regimes have been in recent years, including our “allies” in Saudi Arabia (who have banned 400,000 Web sites since 1999). And the authors also report of Iran’s jailing of a popular journalist for posting stories and cartoons on his blog that the regime didn’t like.
By the way, I edited a collection of essays on these issues two years ago entitled, “Who Rules the Net: Internet Jurisdiction and Governance.”
Over the years, a number of people have asked me which technology policy books have had the greatest impact on my thinking, or what I would recommend to others just getting started in the field. Toward that end, here’s my list of the 5 books on tech policy that changed my life:
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Today, my wife and I were blessed to witness the birth of our second child, a beautiful and very healthy boy we’ve named Tobias Vaughn Thierer. Toby weighed in at just 7.2 pounds and took an immediate liking to his big sister, who suddenly realized she’s no longer the baby in the family. (I could already see the look in her eyes as she began plotting years of revenge in the form of random beatings of her kid brother).
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Producers of the new NBC boxing reality show “The Contender” are currently in court trying to get a restraining order to prevent the Fox television network from airing its own boxing reality show “The Next Great Champ.” In this case, NBC most certainly does not believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In fact, at least in this case, they think imitation constitutes the theft of their intellectual property.
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A lot of policymakers at both the federal and state level are still running around regulating telecom markets as if nothing has changed in the past decade. Well, when they can find time to put down their cell phones and Blackberrys for a minute, they might want to take a look at what the Atlanta-based Fonix Corporation announced yesterday.
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Associated Press is reporting that the South Dakota Animal Industry Board is developing a new animal identification system to track cattle. The mandatory national ID system is being put in place to protect the nation’s livestock industry from serious disease outbreaks. They plan on clipping RFID tags to the cows ears to track their movements. (Cows always have been a bit shady in my opinion; it’s about time we start tracking them).
And hey, wouldn’t you know it, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced last week that more than $11 million in grants will go to South Dakota and 28 other state and tribal projects to facilitate such tracking. Damn, I will clip a RFID tag to my ear and let the government track me for $11 million bucks. Hell, I’ll do it for just $50 bucks a week. In the meantime, who will stand up for these cows’ privacy rights! (Does EPIC have a white paper out on this yet?)
Seriously, though, my colleague Jim Harper has a nice paper out on “RFID Tags and Privacy: How Bar-Codes-on-Steroids Are Really a 98-Lb. Weakling.” Check it out. This is going to be a hot debate in coming years since the privacy fanatics are going to scream bloody murder as more corporations start rolling out RFID-enabled services and technologies. Again, it’s important we understand the difference between private sector vs. public sector uses of such technologies. See this other recent piece by Harper to see what I mean.
Somebody tell me this is just an early April Fool’s joke. Associated Press reports that somebody at Michigan State University has created a video game for food stamp recipients to teach them about nutrition:
“In an effort to educate the nation’s neediest children on nutrition, a new project uses the familiar medium of video games to broadcast its message. The Fantastic Food Challenge, a package of four computer games, is designed to teach people who get nutrition aid such as federal food stamps how to make better use of their food. Because so many young adults played such games as kids, they ought to be able to learn more easily from them, too, said the project’s director.”
… But wait, it gets better…
“The player feels like a contestant in a marathon of futuristic television game shows that also happen to give instruction about how to buy food at the lowest cost, store it properly and prepare healthy meals… One game is called Store It Safe. It involves placing baked beans, tortillas, frozen chicken and other virtual groceries into a cartoon-drawn freezer, cupboard or refrigerator. In another game, a version of Concentration, players turn over blank cards that flash a food and a menu item made with that ingredient, then try to remember which card had the milk that matches the macaroni and cheese. The on-screen opponent is a sore-loser robot that blows steam out of its ears when it guesses wrong, but which gets better as the game becomes more difficult.”
Are you kidding me? I want to believe that this is just a joke, but it looks like it’s legit.
Unreal. What’s next, a video game to teach us how to dress ourselves?
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.