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Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and SOPA

By Stuart Soffer • January 19, 2012 at 11:18 am

The Public Policy Council of the ACM publishes its position on the SOPA and PIPA acts... taking a neutral stance explaining the issues from their technological underpinnings.

http://usacm.acm.org/images/documents/DNSDNSSEC.pdf

This reminds me of the joke about the mechanical engineer facing the guillotine. As he's looking up at the blade, the blade is dropped, jamming on the way down. The engineer examines the situation and declares, "I see your problem."

Nonetheless they offers these suggestions: Read more » about Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and SOPA

CIS Is Going Dark To Stop SOPA

By Anthony Falzone • January 17, 2012 at 10:45 am

A wave of opposition has crashed over the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect I.P. Act (PIPA) based on the tremendous threat they pose to free speech and innovation online. It appears the House may be poised to abandon SOPA after the White House issued a statement making clear it would not support the bill. But the Senate is still pressing ahead with PIPA's most dangerous provisions intact, including those that would force internet service providers to block access to entire sites through DNS blocking and other means that threaten both the universality and the security of the internet itself.

If this legislation passes -- in this version or another -- legitimate websites will be threatened. Some will disappear. Tomorrow, the CIS website will disappear (along with many others) to protest the misguided approaches SOPA and PIPA employ, and to demonstrate the threat they pose. We'll be back on Thursday. In the meantime, read up on the dangers these bills pose, and what you can do to make a difference.

If you want take your site down, here are some tools from CloudFlare and Webmonkey that make it easy. Read more » about CIS Is Going Dark To Stop SOPA

New Year, New Job

By Jennifer Granick • January 9, 2012 at 10:47 pm

Happy new year, Friends. It is starting out to be a great 2012 for me. I've taken a position as General Counsel for Worldstar LLC and its flagship website worldstarhiphop.com (WSHH), voted top hip hop and urban culture website two years running by BET. In addition to the website, Worldstar operates a talent agency, video production company, dating site and is growing rapidly. They were a client of mine at ZwillGen PLLC, so I'm honored and thrilled to come on board full time.

Additionally, my new position allows me to continue work on the internet freedom and privacy issues so important to me: electronic surveillance, government privacy, computer security, coder's rights and free speech . Read more » about New Year, New Job

More State Developments on Autonomous Vehicles

By Bryant Walker Smith • January 9, 2012 at 11:01 am

Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles has continued its rulemaking process for autonomous vehicles by announcing a public hearing on its draft regulations. [Update: The final regulation is available in the Nevada Register. I have offline copies of the drafts.]

Meanwhile, a member of Florida's House has introduced a bill (HB 1207) that would (1) explicitly permit the operation, under certain circumstances, of "[v]ehicles equipped with autonomous technology ... for the purpose of testing the technology" and (2) direct that state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to "prepare a report relating to the safe operation of vehicles equipped with autonomous technology on public roads," including "recommended legislative action and proposed department rules." A state Senator has introduced a parallel bill (SB 1768) that would require only "a report relating to the safe operation of vehicles equipped with autonomous technology on public roads." Read more » about More State Developments on Autonomous Vehicles

Hearsay Culture shows with David Perlmutter, Ethan Leib, Saul Levmore, Martha Nussbaum and Helen Nissenbaum posted

By David Levine • January 6, 2012 at 8:36 pm

Happy new year! A hectic December has led me to the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting, where I'll be discussing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement tomorrow. Meanwhile, posted are the last four shows of the Fall 2011 quarter. Read more » about Hearsay Culture shows with David Perlmutter, Ethan Leib, Saul Levmore, Martha Nussbaum and Helen Nissenbaum posted

Vinton Cerf on Internet Access as a Human Right (Not)

By Stuart Soffer • January 6, 2012 at 12:28 pm

The January 4, 2012 edition of the New York Times has an editorial by Vinton Cerf entitled "Internet Access Is Not a Human Right." He presents a very lucid discussion in the context of the Internet role in events of the past year. His point is "technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself", sort of obvious, but he articulates a good discussion of human rights and civil rights. Read more » about Vinton Cerf on Internet Access as a Human Right (Not)

SOPA/PIPA Copyright Bills Also Target American Sites

By Marvin Ammori • December 30, 2011 at 9:00 pm

Crossposted from Ammori.org. Read more » about SOPA/PIPA Copyright Bills Also Target American Sites

Is Verizon Wireless illegally blocking Google Wallet? It’s time for the FCC to investigate

By Barbara van Schewick • December 19, 2011 at 12:00 am

The original post can be found on the netarchitecture.org website.

Two weeks ago, various news outlets reported that Verizon Wireless’s new Galaxy Nexus phone, an Android device that went on sale last Thursday, will not support Google Wallet, Google’s mobile payment application. Based on what we know from press reports, it seems that Verizon Wireless is violating the open-devices and open-applications conditions in its legal licenses for part of the 700 MHz spectrum (the so-called “C-Block”) over which the company’s LTE network operates. There is, however, great uncertainty about what exactly is going on. Read more » about Is Verizon Wireless illegally blocking Google Wallet? It’s time for the FCC to investigate