In this week’s podcast, we take up a debate that’s generated some heat here on the blog: open networks. Cord and I had a friendly disagreement about the relative efficacy of open versus closed networks earlier this week. Jim Harper chimed in with a TechKnowledge accusing Google of using “open access” rhetoric to get spectrum on the cheap.
Cord, Jim, Jerry Brito and I hash these issues out under the watchful eye of host Adam Thierer. Along the way, we discuss spectrum commons, propertization, and the dangers of regulatory capture. I hope you’ll check it out.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
TLF contributors Adam Thierer and Braden Cox traveled to North Carolina this week to testify in opposition to age verification and parental consent regulations for social networking sites. The North Carolina legislation would require parents to provide proof that they were adults in order to approve their children’s use of social networking sites.
In this week’s podcast, we discuss the many flaws in such proposals. Age verification technologies are far from reliable, and the definition of a “social networking site” is far from clear. More fundamentally, it’s not clear how this proposal would protect children at all. There’s no way to prevent a child molester from registering as an adult and then creating accounts for their fictitious children. Braden and Adam make the case that parental involvement, not more government regulation, is the best way to protect children.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
Yesterday, AT&T backed away from its strong opposition to any sort of open access regulations in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, backing a proposal by FCC chairman Kevin Martin to apply open access rules to one block of spectrum while leaving the other blocks unregulated.
In this week’s podcast, Hance, James, Adam, Jerry, and I discuss the politics and economics of the 700 MHz auction. We discuss what the rules will look like, whether there’s enough competition in the wireless market, whether Google will bid for the spectrum, and how recent developments affect Frontline’s proposal.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
Over the last couple of months, we’ve noticed that our best shows have been when we had a really smart guest like Randy Picker, Tim Wu, or Fred Von Lohmann and got into an issue in some depth. These episodes tended to run long, because there was too much to discuss in the 7 minutes or so we gave to each issue. So starting this week, we’re trying something a little bit different with the podcast. Instead of trying to cover three issues each week, we’re going to starting having a single guest and cover a single topic, in depth, for 15 to 20 minutes.
Our first episode in the new format is Scott Wallsten of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. You’ve probably heard the factoid that the United States ranks near the bottom among developed countries when it comes to broadband speeds and penetration. In this week’s podcast, Scott helps us dig into these numbers and explain why the United States isn’t doing as badly as is commonly supposed. And he argues that it’s silly to base complex policy decisions on a one-dimensional ranking.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
The podcast is taking the week off. In the meantime, check out the smart comments on last week’s episode. This one from john b. was particularly interesting:
Your discussion of discovery was a bit off. (1) Coca Cola actually *was* once required to divulge a formula in discovery. It refused to comply. Famous case in lots of CivPro casebooks. (2) The usual result of not divulging information requested in discovery is that all inferences are drawn against you that could be reasonably drawn from the evidence. In this case, the inference would have to be that the code was flawed and threw off the election results. Or, they could simply do what happens routinely in such matters and work with the judge and opposing counsel to keep the discovered material private and so on. Their choice.
We’ll be back next week with fresh content for your listening pleasure.
Tech Policy Weekly from the Technology Liberation Front is a weekly podcast about technology policy from TLF’s learned band of contributors. The shows’s panelists this week are Jerry Brito of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Tim Lee of the Cato Institute, Hance Haney of the Discovery Institute, Radley Balko of Reason magazine, and Ryan Paul of Ars Technica. Topics include,
- Congress considers repealing the Internet gambling ban,
- Frontline proposes open access rules for the 700 MHz band, and
- a judge rules that trade secrets prevent source code disclosure.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Tech Policy Weekly from the Technology Liberation Front is a weekly podcast about technology policy from TLF’s learned band of contributors. The shows’s panelists this week are Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, Tim Lee of the Cato Institute, Jim Harper of the Cato Institute, Hance Haney of the Discovery Institute, and Cord Blomquist of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Topics include,
- Adam Thierer releases a new book on parental controls,
- Congress debates an immigration proposal that would require a beefed up national ID system, and
- Google beefs up its presence in Washington, DC.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
Tech Policy Weekly from the Technology Liberation Front is a weekly podcast about technology policy from TLF’s learned band of contributors. The shows’s panelists this week are Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, Tim Lee of the Cato Institute, Braden Cox of the Association for Competitive Technology, and Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Topics include,
- Fred von Lohmann makes the case for collective licensing on campus in the Washington Post,
- Tim Lee makes the case against software patents in the New York Times, and
- Google brings an antitrust complaint against Microsoft’s desktop search software.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
Tech Policy Weekly from the Technology Liberation Front is a weekly podcast about technology policy from TLF’s learned band of contributors. The shows’s panelists this week are Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, Tim Lee of the Cato Institute, Prof. Tim Wu of the Columbia University Law School, and Gwen Hinze of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Topics include,
- Tim Wu explains his wireless Carterfone proposal,
- The United States signs a trade agreement with South Korea that includes some controversial copyright provisions, and
- The FCC loses on appeal in an important broadcast decency case.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
Tech Policy Weekly from the Technology Liberation Front is a weekly podcast about technology policy from TLF’s learned band of contributors. The shows’s panelists this week are Tim Lee of the Cato Institute, Braden Cox of the Association for Competitive Technology, Prof. Randy Picker of the University of Chicago Law School, and Eric Bangeman of Ars Technica. Topics include,
- Technological progress drives change in copyright law,
- Major League Baseball criticizes Slingbox over its place-shifting technology, and
- states consider new regulations of social networking sites.
There are several ways to listen to the TLF Podcast. You can press play on the player below to listen right now, or download the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the podcast by clicking on the button for your preferred service. And do us a favor, Digg this podcast!
Continue reading →
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.