Defining Network Neutrality

The net neutrality fight is on, as FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal for new rules moved on to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Now, the two sides are digging in: AT&T, telcos, and unions on one side; Google and content providers on the other.
I tend to favor protecting end-to-end in the Internet context, but I’m [...]

The Fight to Free Subway Data

Chris Schoenfeld of StationStops has a post up about his battle to get the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority to let him use its schedule data in his iPhone app. Brooklyn’s Law Incubator and Policy Clinic (BLIP) played a big role in Chris’s successful battle, and I’m very proud of the work that the BLIP [...]

“Shrinking the Commons”: Today, Linux is open-source. Tomorrow, …?

I spent the summer finishing up a paper that I have been working on (off-again, on-again) for the better part of a year. The result is Shrinking the Commons: Termination of Copyright Licenses and Transfers for the Benefit of the Public, and it’s now available on SSRN. Readers of this blog with an interest in [...]

Passwords and Post-Its

Bruce Schneier links to a paper from HotSec that argues strong passwords accomplish little; instead, stronger user IDs and limits on log-in attempts are better solutions. (Implicit in this argument is that dictionary or guessing attacks are lower-priority threats than phishing or keyloggers.) And John Kelly of the Washington Post bemoans the standard yet brain-dead [...]

Will Section 230 Protect Bloggers From the FTC?

The Federal Trade Commission has proposed to mandate disclosure of connections between bloggers and advertisers (those selling stuff) under its Section 5 authority, which enables the Commission to prohibit “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” in commerce. In short, the FTC seeks to hold advertisers and endorsers (those would be the bloggers) liable for 1) [...]

Australia to Filter Online Games

One beneficial side effect of Internet filtering is that it points up quirks in how countries make content decisions: what’s blacklisted, and why? The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australia’s proposed Internet censorship system (currently in its second phase of testing) will block access to on-line and downloadable games that aren’t MA-15 or milder. This [...]

Iran and the New Net

Iranian demonstrators protesting the recent election results (which look dicey) – and their opponents – are using networked technologies to communicate and organize, including Twitter, blogs, SMS, and the like. John Palfrey, Rob Faris, and Bruce Etling point out, though, that these capabilities, while empowering, won’t carry the day. Whether the demonstrations succeed depends on [...]

Open Source and Cloud Computing

My friend and former Berkman co-worker Aaron Williamson, who is a lawyer at the Software Freedom Law Center, was kind enough to talk with my Internet Law class about how open source works in a cloud computing environment. Aaron was good enough to let me post my notes on his talk – with fervent apologies [...]

Ping: The Inside Story

Ping (along with traceroute and nslookup) is one of the most basic, useful, and frequently-employed network tools I’m familiar with. In poking around for a coherent explanation of what Ping is, I found this terrific history from Ping’s creator, Michael Muuss. I love it for the same reason that I love The Cathedral and The [...]

Oh My God, They Killed Copyright!

OK, it’s a weak title, but I needed the South Park allusion. When I was at Lotus, one of the plums was being selected to go to Lotusphere, the annual confab at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin resorts in Florida. I went twice (once as podium slave, once as presenter), and loved it for [...]

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