Stanford Center for Internet and Society

For those of you who are interested . . . My talk here at Stanford on my recent article has been postponed to Monday, October 16. More to follow.

Also, on October 6-7, I'll be at the Works in Progress Intellectual Property Colloquium at University of Pittsburgh School of Law to get feedback on the above article and to discuss the research and writing interests of professors in the intellectual property field.

So that's where I'll be, and those who'd like a signed version of the draft can email me . . . I'm also happy to do dedications, like "To Jimmy, Best . . . " or "For My Number One Fan . . ."

A summer of considering and inputting revisions to my forthcoming article in the Florida Law Review is complete, and the updated version can now be downloaded here (the updated version should be available on SSRN soon).

My thanks (in advance) to the good people at Florida who will be cite-checking and editing in the coming weeks. Also, thanks again to all who took the time and effort to offer thoughtful comments and suggestions on previous drafts.

Five years after September 11, 2001, it is difficult to not weigh how one's life has changed since that day (for those of us fortunate enough to have survived it).

Five years ago, I was living in Manhattan on the Upper East Side. I will spare the reader intimate details of my experience, because it is similar to that of so many others who lived in New York at the time, but were not physically present at the scene.

Rather, two specific experiences are worth noting. I woke up to NY1, the local television news channel, showing a fire in one of the buildings. Having intimately followed Israel's experience with terrorism, I sensed that this was more than a mere horrific fire. I immediately called one of my friends, who had experience dealing with mass emergency situations. After brief confirmation of what I was seeing, I asked him how he thought we'd react as a country. One thing he said in reply stands out: he noted that this would be a very different country a year from that day. Aside from the enormous human loss evident from witnessing a massive building burning, the gravity of what I was seeing began to hit home.

So it's a little dated (mid-August), but I was morbidly amused at this article and headline from Federaltimes.com: "Transparency bill subjected to secrecy." Yes, the Congressional tribute to unaccountability, the legislative "hold," a legislative method whereby a member of Congress can anonymously and secretly delay and/or kill the consideration of a bill, has been deployed again to the detriment of all who are curious about what Congress is doing. This time, it was used to delay the consideration of legislation designed to "create a public, searchable Web site of all federal grants and contracts."

After several weeks doing the work/vacation thing in Idaho, I'm back at Stanford and hence, back on the air with "Hearsay Culture." Yes, the show is running at the same time: Wednesdays from 5-6 PM PST on KZSU-FM, and by iTunes podcast.

I'm pleased to report an excellent list of upcoming guests. Next Wednesday, August 16, I'm thrilled to air an interview with Prof. Larry Lessig. Additionally, through mid-September, I'll be interviewing (among others) CIS Associate Director Lauren Gelman, CIS Non-Resident Fellow and Boalt Hall Samuelson Clinic Fellow Chris Hoofnagle, and Columbia Law Prof. Tim Wu. I'm excited about interviewing these dynamic people, and hope that you'll listen in!

I'm pleased to report that my show on KZSU-FM, "Hearsay Culture," will continue to run on Wednesdays from 5-6 PM PST through the summer -- with the exception of three weeks in late July and early August, when I'll be away from campus. Thanks to the good leaders of KZSU-FM!

Additionally, several listeners have requested that I set up a website that contains the podcast (aside from iTunes, where it will continue to be found), as well as links to items mentioned on the show. Good idea! Thus, a website is in the works -- more information once the site is close to completion and going live.

In the world of commons advocacy, a powerful argument in its favor goes like this: by sharing as much information as possible, especially in the research arena, you increase the possibility of researchers stumbling across discoveries not originally sought.

As but one fascinating example, Reuters reports that Israeli researchers may have found a "promising new way to stop the growth and spread of cancer cells" -- while researching ways to increase the size of peaches and nectarines.

If you are planning a summer trip to the Southern Hemisphere and are looking for poker machines that should be in place for a while, may I suggest Hobsons Bay, Victoria, Australia?

According to a report in the Williamstown, Altona, Laverton Star, that fine city is currently deciding how to handle its poker machines, due to a recent move in Australia to "hand more licensing power to local government." Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that the following facts will weigh heavily towards a decision to keep those machines right where they are, despite their "social ramifications":

I love baseball, so it was no personal problem for me that "Hearsay Culture", my tech talk show on KZSU-FM (Stanford) was preempted a few times in May for Stanford baseball. Alas, the baseball season is over, so starting yesterday, I should have an uninterrupted run for several weeks.

Up on iTunes in the next few days will be yesterday's show, where I interviewed CIS Fellow Colette Vogele about the world of podcasting and the Podcasting law guide that she co-authored. A great discussion that I hope you enjoy.

I went to see Al Gore's documentary/speech film, "An Inconvenient Truth," today. I recommend it highly, not only because it clearly and concisely demonstrates the massive ongoing crisis in the global deterioration of our environment, but also because (perhaps less importantly) it demonstrates the possibility and value of presenting facts in a digestible format with the use of technology (which is more than a bit ironic, given the blame that we can legitimately place on what Gore calls "old habits + new technology" creating the environmental mess that we're clearly experiencing).