Disclosures
I’m posting this disclosure to set forth the things that I think readers of this site ought to know about some of my biases and about things that I will and won’t do on this site with respect to these biases.
No one pays me to write this blog, nor will I agree to blog anything here for payment.
Most of my time and focus is geared toward being Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and as Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. My biases that can be traced from this work map pretty well to the elements of our Center’s mission. I strive to be a relatively objective researcher and teacher, but of course I adopt certain normative viewpoints on the issues that I write about here. My Harvard-related obligations come first.
I also have “outside activities” beyond my Harvard obligations. For instance, I consult on issues that I am not directly studying in my day job, in a manner that is consistent with Harvard University’s conflict of interest and conflict of commitments rules. I am a Venture Executive at Highland Capital Partners. I am paid an honorarium for some of the speeches that I give (though I mostly present at academic events for which I am not compensated). From time to time, something (like a book, such as Born Digital, which I am writing with Urs Gasser and published by Basic Books) that I write will involve payment of a bit of money (again, never this blog, though). I also participate in various companies as a board member, for which I sometimes receive equity compensation. I am involved, as Chairman of the Board of Directors, of a new media company, Top Ten Media (which functions as a holding company for assets in various web 2.0 companies, including StyleFeeder, Rights Agent, and MeeVee). I have been involved in a fund that has invested capital in early-stage companies, called RSS Investors. I am on boards of a few other entities, such as My Virtual Model and Newsilike Media Group, as well as non-profits such as the Mass2020 Foundation. I also have a modest number of not-very-valuable stock holdings in other private and public technology companies — sadly, nowhere near the “5% beneficial owners of a publicly traded security” threshold that the SEC sets forth.
A special note on patents, a/k/a my Personal Patent Profits Pledge: this disclosure doesn’t have to do with this blog exactly, but about the activities of some of the companies in which I have an equity interest which may end up holding patents related to information and communications technologies. I support the reform of the patent system. To the extent that I personally profit from the straight exploitation of patent claims that issue to any of these companies in a manner not consonant with my own beliefs (I get to be the judge of that!), I intend to contribute those profits to the Berkman Center or a similarly suitable institution to support the study of patent reform. I also intend to advocate, to the extent appropriate and as consistent with fiduciary duties, for the use of creative, low- or no-cost licensing regimes, especially to support use in the .edu and .org domains.
I promise not (knowingly) to promote any given product or service on this site, whether or not I have any interest in such products or services. If ever I think that I ought to disclose a specific conflict, I will do so inline within a given blog entry. As David W puts it in his fine disclosure, (which is admittedly a model for this one): “All I can promise is that I will be honest with you and never write something I don’t believe in because someone is paying me as part of a relationship you don’t know about. Put differently: All I’ll hide are the irrelevancies.”
If you have any questions about my disclosures, which I will update from time to time, please feel free to write to me at jpalfrey AT law.harvard.edu. (Up-to-date as of December, 2007.)
