Articles by Jerry Brito

Jerry is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and director of its Technology Policy Program. He also serves as adjunct professor of law at GMU. His web site is jerrybrito.com.


What is the state of wireless competition?

by on May 3, 2011 · 1 comment

With news today that the Department of Justice is [extending its probe](http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/158909-justice-department-extends-atat-probe) of the AT&T – T-Mobile merger, and that the FCC [has received](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/consumers_give_fcc_an_earful_on_atandt_bid_to_buy_t_mobile/2011/05/02/AFX0VScF_blog.html) thousands of comments on the issue, the FCC’s hopefully soon to be release Wireless Competition Report is taking on even greater importance.

Last year’s report was [the first in 15 years not to find the market “effectively competitive.”](http://techliberation.com/2010/05/21/the-underlying-desperation-at-the-fcc/) As a result, expectations are high for the new annual report. How it determines the state of competition in the wireless market could affect regulatory policy and how the Commission looks at mergers.

Join the Mercatus Center at George Mason University’s [Technology Policy Program](http://mercatus.org/technology-policy-program) for a discussion of these issues, including:

– What does a proper analysis of wireless competition look like?
– What should we expect from the FCC’s report this year?
– How should the FCC address competition in the future?

Our panel will feature [**Thomas W. Hazlett**](http://mason.gmu.edu/~thazlett/), Professor of Law & Economics, George Mason University School of Law; [**Joshua D. Wright**](http://mason.gmu.edu/~jwrightg/), Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law; [**Robert M. Frieden**](http://comm.psu.edu/people/rmf5), Professor of Telecommunications & Law, Penn State University; and [**Harold Feld**](http://www.publicknowledge.org/user/1540), Legal Director, Public Knowledge

**When:** Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 4 – 5:30 p.m. (with a reception to follow)

**Where:** George Mason University’s Arlington Campus, just ten minutes from downtown Washington. (Founders Hall, Room 111, 3351 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA)

To RSVP for yourself and your guests, please contact Megan Gandee at 703-993-4967 or [mmahan@gmu.edu](mailto:mmahan@gmu.edu) no later than May 16, 2011. If you can’t make it to the Mercatus Center, you can watch this discussion live online at mercatus.org.

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Jessica Litman on reclaiming copyright for readers

by on May 3, 2011

On this week’s podcast, Jessica Litman, professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School and one of the country’s foremost experts on copyright, discusses her new essay, Reader’s Copyright. Litman talks about the origins of copyright protection and explains why the importance of readers’, viewers’, and listeners’ interests have diminished over time. She points out that copyright would be pointless without readers and claims that the system is not designed to serve creators or potential creators exclusively. Litman also discusses differences in public and private protections and talks about rights that should be made more explicit regarding copyright.

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To keep the conversation around this episode in one place, we’d like to ask you to comment at the web page for this episode on Surprisingly Free. Also, why not subscribe to the podcast on iTunes?

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Langevin: Panetta is cyberdoom certified

by on May 2, 2011 · 2 comments

Here’s a doozy for the cyber-hype files. After it was announced that CIA Director Leon Panetta would take over at the Department of Defense, Rep. Jim Langevin, co-chair of the CSIS cybersecurity commission and author of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, put out [a statement that read in part](http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/158383-house-dem-says-panetta-understands-cybersecurity):

>“I am particularly pleased to know that Director Panetta will have a full appreciation for the increasing sense of urgency with which we must approach cybersecurity issues. Earlier this year, Panetta warned that ‘the next Pearl Harbor could very well be a cyberattack.”

That’s from a [statement made](http://abcnews.go.com/News/cia-director-leon-panetta-warns-cyber-pearl-harbor/story?id=12888905) by Panetta to a house intelligence panel in February, and it’s an example of unfortunate rhetoric that Tate Watkins and I cite in [our new paper](http://mercatus.org/publication/loving-cyber-bomb-dangers-threat-inflation-cybersecurity-policy). Pearl Harbor left over two thousand persons dead and pushed the United States into a world war. There is no evidence that a cyber-attack of comparable effect is possible.

What’s especially unfortunate about that kind of alarmist rhetoric, apart from the fact that unduly scares citizens, is that it is often made in support of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, like that introduced by Rep. Langevin. That bill [gives DHS the authority](http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-1136&version=ih&nid=t0%3Aih%3A386) to issue standards for, and audit for compliance, private owners of critical infrastructure.

What qualifies as critical infrastructure? The bill has an expansive definition, so let’s hope that the “computer experts” cited in [this National Journal story](http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110429_3808.php) on the Sony PlayStation breach are not the ones doing the interpreting:

>While gaming and music networks may not be considered “critical infrastructure,” the data that perpetrators accessed could be used to infiltrate other systems that are critical to people’s financial security, according to some computer experts. Stolen passwords or profile information, especially codes that customers have used to register on other websites, can provide hackers with the tools needed to crack into corporate servers or open bank accounts.

It’s not hard to imagine a logic that leads everything to be considered “critical infrastructure” because, you know, everything’s connected on the network. We need to be very careful about legislating great power stemming from vague definitions and doing so on little evidence and lots of fear.

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Overclassification stifles the cybersecurity conversation

by on April 27, 2011 · 5 comments

Thanks to all of you who have sent your comments about Tate Watkins and my new cybersecurity paper. It’s been getting a good reception.

James Fallows of *The Atlantic*, for example, [noted yesterday](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/two-fascinating-exhibits-on-data-security/237891/) that the paper “represents a significant libertarian-right voice of concern about this latest expansion of the permanent national-security surveillance state,” and that while we can’t underestimate cyber risks, “the emphasis on proportionate response, and the need to guard other values, comes at the right time. We should debate these threats rather than continuing to cower.”

Today I wanted to bend your ears (or eyes, I guess) with another excerpt. The subject today is the “if you only knew what we know,” rationale for government action. I’m happy to see that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has [a new bill](http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/04/cyber_secrecy.html) getting right at the problem of over-classification that allows leaders to get away with “just trust us” rhetoric. Check out the excerpt is after the jump.
Continue reading →

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Threat Inflation in Cybersecurity Policy

by on April 26, 2011 · 1 comment

Today my colleague [Tate Watkins](http://shortsentences.org/) and I are releasing [a new working paper on cybersecurity policy](http://mercatus.org/publication/loving-cyber-bomb-dangers-threat-inflation-cybersecurity-policy). Please excuse my patently sleep-deprived mug while I describe it here:



Over the past few years there has been a steady drumbeat of alarmist rhetoric coming out of Washington about potential catastrophic cybersecurity threats. For example, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last year, Chairman Carl Levin said that “cyberweapons and cyberattacks potentially can be devastating, approaching weapons of mass destruction in their effects.” Proposed responses include increased federal spending on cybersecurity and the regulation of private network security practices.

The rhetoric of “[cyber doom](http://mercatus.org/publication/beyond-cyber-doom)” employed by proponents of increased federal intervention, however, lacks clear evidence of a serious threat that can be verified by the public. As a result, the United States may be witnessing a bout of threat inflation.

Threat inflation, [according to Thrall and Cramer](http://books.google.com/books?id=EzUtuTOIfTEC&lpg=PP1&ots=3AQmVD2Slb&dq=AMERICAN%20FOREIGN%20POLICY%20AND%20THE%20POLITICS%20OF%20FEAR&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false), is a concept in political science that refers to “the attempt by elites to create concern for a threat that goes beyond the scope and urgency that a disinterested analysis would justify.” Different actors—including members of Congress, defense contractors, journalists, policy experts, academics, and civilian, military, and intelligence officials—will each have their own motives for contributing to threat inflation. When a threat is inflated, the marketplace of ideas on which a democracy relies to make sound judgments—in particular, the media and popular debate—can become overwhelmed by fallacious information. The result can be unwarranted public support for misguided policies.

The run-up to the Iraq War illustrates the dynamic of threat inflation. After 9/11, the Bush Administration decided to invade Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. Lacking any clear casus belli, the administration sought popular and congressional support for war by promoting several rationales that ultimately proved baseless.
Continue reading →

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Jane Yakowitz on tragedy of the data commons

by on April 26, 2011

On the podcast this week, Jane Yakowitz, a visiting assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, discusses her new paper about data anonymization and privacy regulation, Tragedy of the Data Commons. Citing privacy concerns, legal scholars and privacy advocates have recently called for tighter restrictions on the collection and dissemination of public research data. Yakowitz first explains why these concerns are overblown, arguing that scholars have misinterpreted the risks of anonymized data sets. She then discusses the social value of the data commons, noting the many useful studies that likely wouldn’t have been possible without a data commons. She finally suggests why the data commons is undervalued, citing disparate reactions to similar statistical releases by OkCupid and Facebook, and offers a few policy recommendations for the data commons.

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To keep the conversation around this episode in one place, we’d like to ask you to comment at the web page for this episode on Surprisingly Free. Also, why not subscribe to the podcast on iTunes?

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Revisiting the Bitcoin bubble

by on April 25, 2011 · 12 comments

Here is [a chart](http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg180ztgCzm1g10zm2g25) of the Bitcoin-dollar exchange rate for the past six months. The arrow notes the date [my column on the virtual currency](http://techland.time.com/2011/04/16/online-cash-bitcoin-could-challenge-governments/) was published in TIME.com. The day after that piece was published, the Bitcoin exchange rate [reached an all time high at $1.19](http://www.bitcoinnews.com/post/4703632837/daily-2011-04-17). Yesterday, just over a week later, [it was pushing $2](http://www.bitcoinnews.com/post/4897524633/daily2011-04-24).

A wiser fella than myself once said, correlation is not causation, and no doubt my article was just a contributing factor in Bitcoin’s recent run-up. It’s simply getting increasingly mainstream attention, and with that more speculators and speculation about mainstream adoption. The chart above lends a lot of credence to Tim Lee’s [bubble critique](http://timothyblee.com/2011/04/18/the-bitcoin-bubble/), so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t giving that argument short shrift.

There may well be a Bitcoin bubble, and it may even be likely. But again, I think that misses the greater point about what Bitcoin represents. Bitcoin may be tulips and the bubble may burst, but the innovation—distributed, anonymous payments—is here to stay. Napster went bust, but its innovation presaged BitTorrent, which is here to stay. Could the Bitcoin project itself go bust? Certainly, but the innovation solving the double-spending problem I’ve been talking about, will be taken up and improved by others, just as other picked up and ran with Napster’s innovation.

I want to start thinking through the practical and legal implications of that innovation. If you don’t think the innovation could ever allow for a useful store of value, then mine is a fool’s errand. I guess I’m betting on the success of a censorship resistant currency.

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Event: The FCC’s Wireless Competition Report: A Preview

by on April 25, 2011 · 0 comments

Every year since 1995, the Federal Communications Commission has released a report on the state of competition in the wireless market, and it will soon release the fifteenth. Last year’s report was [the first not to find the market “effectively competitive.”](http://techliberation.com/2010/05/21/the-underlying-desperation-at-the-fcc/) As a result, expectations are high for the new annual report. How it determines the state of competition in the wireless market could affect regulatory policy and how the Commission looks at proposed mergers

Join the Mercatus Center at George Mason University’s [Technology Policy Program](http://mercatus.org/technology-policy-program) for a discussion of these issues, including:

– What does a proper analysis of wireless competition look like?
– What should we expect from the FCC’s report this year?
– How should the FCC address competition in the future?

Our panel will feature [**Thomas W. Hazlett**](http://mason.gmu.edu/~thazlett/), Professor of Law & Economics, George Mason University School of Law; [**Joshua D. Wright**](http://mason.gmu.edu/~jwrightg/), Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law; [**Robert M. Frieden**](http://comm.psu.edu/people/rmf5), Professor of Telecommunications & Law, Penn State University; and [**Harold Feld**](http://www.publicknowledge.org/user/1540), Legal Director, Public Knowledge

**When:** Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 4 – 5:30 p.m. (with a reception to follow)

**Where:** George Mason University’s Arlington Campus, just ten minutes from downtown Washington. (Founders Hall, Room 111, 3351 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA)

To RSVP for yourself and your guests, please contact Megan Gandee at 703-993-4967 or [mmahan@gmu.edu](mailto:mmahan@gmu.edu) no later than May 16, 2011. If you can’t make it to the Mercatus Center, you can watch this discussion live online at mercatus.org.

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Bitcoin, intermediaries, and information control

by on April 20, 2011 · 36 comments

I’m gratified that my recent writing on the Bitcoin virtual currency project has stirred much conversation and I thought I’d take a moment to continue that conversation.

Tim Lee has written two posts critiquing the viability of Bitcoin from the supply and demand side. Dan Rothschild has responded in part. Tyler Cower also weighed in.

To address Tim I’ll simply say this: Do I think Bitcoin will replace the dollar? No. Might Bitcoin have certain systemic design flaws that might impede its success? Quite possibly. Will Bitcoin become the de facto, manipulation-proof currency of the internet? Who knows. Tim’s posts are a somewhat technical critique of Bitcoin’s long-term feasibility. It’s a great contribution, but since I’m neither a gold bug nor a Bitcoin booster per se, I don’t find it especially interesting.

That all said, what I do think is revolutionary about Bitcoin is that its developers have solved, without the use of a middleman, the double-spending problem faced by virtual currencies. That gives us license to realistically imagine a world without regulable financial intermediaries online.

While Tim overlooks what makes Bitcoin radical, Tom Sydnor groks it viscerally. Writing in a lengthy comment on my post, Tom expresses dismay at what Bitcoin represents and offers what I would, with apologies, characterize as the cyber-conservative response. Continue reading →

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Gavin Andresen on Bitcoin

by on April 19, 2011 · 2 comments

On the podcast this week, Gavin Andresen, project lead of the open source, decentralized, and anonymous virtual currency project Bitcoin, talks about the project. Andresen explains how the peer-to-peer currency functions and talks about what allows Bitcoin to operate without a central bank, why it doesn’t have to rely on intermediaries, and how it overcomes the double-spending problem. He also discusses the project’s implications for government regulation, what attracted him to the project, and Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakomoto’s motivation for creating the currency.

Related Links

To keep the conversation around this episode in one place, we’d like to ask you to comment at the web page for this episode on Surprisingly Free. Also, why not subscribe to the podcast on iTunes?

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