Law and Information

Professor Lawrence Lessig has just launched a partly peer-produced version 2 of his seminal book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, available online and as paperback, released under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike license. From the preface to the second edition:

“… The confidence of the Internet exceptionalists has waned. The idea–and even the desire–that the Internet would remain unregulated is gone. And thus, in accepting the invitation to update this book, I faced a difficult choice: whether to write a new book, or to update the old, to make it relevant and readable in a radically different time. I’ve done the latter. …”

Code v2.0 also includes an interesting section on the Z-theory, calling it “the missing piece in code v1.” No doubt, code v2.0 is an instant classic.

German chancellor Angela Merkel started to release a weekely video-blog/podcast in which she explains her actions, plans, and policies to the public.

How cool is that: Lufthansa provides on its long-haul flights WiFi access. My friends told me about it, but today – heading back from Reno via Frisco and Munich to Zurich – it’s the first time that I experience it. It’s not cheap, but also not terribly expensive. I pay a USD 26.95 flat fee for the entire 11+ hours flight. Right now, we’re overflying Anaconda (USA), altitude 36000 feet. So, we’re getting yet another step closer to “always online”… (and Skype, too, works up here! I’m loving it.)

On my reading list for this weekend (half way through by now):

* CALPIRG Report: Limited Knowledge: How The High Cost Of Academic Journals Limits Public Access To Research
* John Tehranian, Whither Copyright? Transformative Use, Free Speech and an Intermediate Liability Proposal
* Lior Strahilevitz, Information Asymmetries and the Rights to Exclude

Besides, I’ve reviewed a draft paper on derivative works and the GPL by my colleague James Thurman. In this paper, James explores as to what extent the GPL seeks to control the distribution of even non-infringing uses of code via contract law. Puzzling questions, especially under the European Autor’s Rights system.

And, of course, I also took a look into (Swiss) Sunday newspapers, although it’s each week more of the same. Exception: Interesting interview with Honorable Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin in NZZ am Sonntag. In any event, nice to spend a weekend at home and have brunch with friends and family – after too many Sunday mornings in hotel rooms…

Wonderful news from Switzerland: Nadia Ana is born! Congratulations to Amaia and Kaspar and best wishes to the families!

Berkman Center’s Executive Director John Palfrey has a nice op-ed on political campaigns in cyberspace in the Boston Globe.

Such wonderful news! Congratulations to Catherine, John, Jack, and the Carter/Palfrey families. Welcome, Emeline Alice Palfrey! We can’t wait to see you. Best wishes to all of you.

John Palfrey on his blog and David Weinberger on Joho – the latter with sharp comments – draw my attention to this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on blogs and the academic job market. Interesting, interesting. (See, it has at least some advantages to be back in town… many profs here don’t even know what a blog is:)

Cool story in today’s NYT with great comments from John Palfrey (via Phil.)

Does anyone know how to stretch a day beyond 24 hours? If so, please let me know ASAP. (BTW, it seems to me that we should add a fifth constraint to Lessig’s four modalities of regulation: time!)