If you’re in D.C. and a lawyer or legally-minded, that’s two strikes against you you might be interested in attending the Third Annual Homeland Security Law Institute, January 17-18, 2008 at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC.
This program provides a comprehensive look at some of the most critical issues and initiatives being undertaken as part of the Nation’s Homeland Security agenda. We have an impressive group of former DHS employees, as well as key figures from the private sector. Keynote speakers include The Honorable John Ashcroft, Former Attorney General of the United States, and The Honorable Congressman Bennie Thompson, Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
I’ll be speaking on a panel Friday the 18th entitled:
Immigration Policy and Legal Issues: Do All Roads Lead to a National Identity System and if so What are the Implications?
I’ve been invited to participate in a panel at Princeton’s “Computing in the Cloud” conference on January 14-15. The topic of my panel will be:
In cloud computing, a provider’s data center holds information that would more traditionally have been stored on the end user’s computer. How does this impact user privacy? To what extent do users “own” this data, and what obligations do the service providers have? What obligations should they have? Does moving the data to the provider’s data center improve security or endanger it?
This is an interesting and open-ended question, and one about which I don’t have a lot of settled opinions. I’ll be speaking alongside two law professors, so I’ll probably leave any legal analysis up to them and focus more on policy or technology issues. I’ve written about this in the context of Facebook over at Techdirt; those posts may make a good starting point for my contribution to the panel.
But I’m curious what TLF readers think about these questions. And in particular, what are the must-read articles or papers on the subject?
It looks like it’ll be a fascinating couple of days, so if you’re in the area, be sure to sign up so you get some free lunch.
Some commentators have defended copyrights as natural rights under Locke’s labor-desert theory of property. On that view, copyright qualifies as a natural right for the same reason that tangible property does: Because an author mixes herself, through her creative effort, in her expressions. Ayn Rand, Herbert Spencer, and Lysander Spooner represent prominent proponents of that justification of copyright.
That facially plausible extension of Locke’s theory does not, however, withstand close scrutiny. His labor-desert justification of property gives an author clear title only to the particular tangible copy in which she fixes her expression–not to some intangible plat in the noumenal realm of ideas. Locke himself did not try to justify intangible property. He appears, in fact, to have viewed copyright as merely a policy tool for promoting the public good. Modern commentators who would venture so far beyond the boundaries of Locke’s thought and into the abstractions of intellectual property thus ought to leave his name behind.
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As part of a 20 minute slide show produced by the New York Dept. of Criminal Justice, Elliot’s Spitzer’s administration has cited a well-known Internet hoax as a helpful resource for parents.
The site cited, Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence (mavav.org) claims to be:
organization is dedicated to educating parents of the world’s fastest growing addiction and the most reckless endangerment of children today: Video Game Addiction and Violence in Underground Video Game Cultures
My Razr’s screen just stopped working, putting me unexpectedly in the market for a new cell phone. I’m firmly on the Apple bandwagon, so the natural choice is an iPhone, But on the other hand, I’ve been less than impressed with the way Apple has treated people trying to extend the functionality of its phones, and I haven’t been paying close enough attention to the cell phone market to know if there are other phones of comparable quality that haven’t had the benefit of Apple’s Reality Distortion Field.
So: Is the iPhone worth the money? What other phones should I be considering? And if I do go with an iPhone should I wait for MacWorld to see what Uncle Steve might have up his sleeve?
Here’s your assignment: you’re a state governor who’s up for re-election, and your state is still reeling in the wake of a high-publicity suicide by a teenage girl brought upon by inflammatory statements communicated through a popular social networking website.
What do you do? Panic and quickly push through a reactive new law, (maybe even sock it to the social networking industry), or do you study the issue to come up with a sound approach? If you’re the Governor of Missouri, you create a multi-disciplinary task force to review current law and enforcement related to Internet harassment and recommend changes to better protect the citizens of your state.
Yesterday I was in Jefferson City to participate in this task force, which included representatives from the law enforcement, nonprofit, academic, mental health, and business communities. The task force met to specifically create the new crime of cyber-harassment in response to Megan Meier’s suicide almost a year ago, but still newsworthy and on the minds of many people as this New York Times article from last week shows.
Cyber-harassment can be devastating and dangerous to victims. Due to the ease of sending electronic communications, harassment that occurs online can be instant, frequent, anonymous, and permanently public. Cyber-harassers can easily impersonate their victims and even encourage third parties to unwittingly “flame” and harass a victim.
Tina Meier, Megan’s mom, opened up our task force meeting by recounting the tragic story of her daughter’s death. Megan was a 13 year old girl that had befriended what she thought was a boy on MySpace but turned out to be an adult neighbor that lived next-door.
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The Wall Street Journal today nailed FCC Chairman Kevin Martin today for yesterday’s two-step on ownership, easing ownership rules on newspapers, but imposing new ones on cable. The WSJ’s conclusion:
“Mr. Martin’s animus toward the cable business is by now a matter of public record, and yesterday’s action can only be understood as part of his personal campaign to make the industry’s life as hard as possible. The D.C. Circuit is almost certain to strike down this rule, as it did the last time. But by then there may be a fresh face as FCC Chairman, and the only winners will be the lawyers who billed the hours”.
Worth reading.
Amid Op-Eds and news stories today decrying REAL ID and illustrating its defects, DHS assistant secretary for policy development Richard Barth steps up to defend the national ID law.
Real ID is not a national identification card. Under Real ID, the federal government will not be issuing licenses or IDs, nor will it collect information about license or ID-card holders.
To which the commenters reply:
“Oh….a Bush Toadie… What a load of (inappropriate term)!”
“If someone from the Department of Fatherland Security says it…I believe it!!”
“I think that using your public office to lie should be a punishable offense. I would also say, the comment ‘The Real ID is not a National ID’ should get this man about 3 Years, maybe 2 with good behavior.”
Pity poor Richard Barth.
In a December 13th speech to The Free State Foundation, Senator Jim DeMint quotes Randy May in asking if the FCC should be renamed the “Federal Unbundling Commission.”
DeMint expands on the unbundling theme covering Open Access, A la Carte and Multicast Must Carry, and Net Neutrality.
My favorite quote:
Market regulation is no less than market manipulation, and we need to take that
power away from the government and put it where it belongs, in the hands of
consumers in the free market.
Check out this excellent presentation on the absurdity of the FCC’s telecom and cable agenda at the The Free State Foundation.
If only more members of Congress took this position on telecom issues!
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.