Stanford Center for Internet and Society

Last year, I complained about the Cablevision case (see ”IP Law vs Moore’s Law”), a decision I’m pleased to see was recently reversed on appeal. Cablevision was trying to replace set-top DVRs with a centrally-managed system, a common trend in computing these days as hardware and communications improvements make hosted applications (the new term is “cloud” computing) more attractive from a cost, management, and environmental standpoint. The move ran afoul of copyright, however, and the Second Circuit struggled mightily to find a way to make the law fit common sense.

CIS Faculty co-directors Larry Lessig and Barbara van Schewick (with Yale's Jack Balkin) separately sent letters to the FCC to commend the Commissioners on the Comcast ruling released today.

Both praised the order as furthering the FCC's policy that the Internet should function as an open platform for innovation.

I imagine the subset of individuals that read the Center's blogs but not, for instance, Boing Boing to be in the (low) single digits. I still could not resist posting this news story about bearded, community-gardening, anti-surveillance activists in Philly whose house was raided, initially without a warrant. In fairness, the facts are disputed: for instance, local police are calling a structure on the top floor of the raided house a possible "bunker," whereas resident Daniel Moffat (pictured) is calling it a definite "greenhouse."

Daniel Begun of Hot Hardware News reports that "Google will take an even more active role in the debate [over net neutrality] by arming consumers with the tools to determine first-hand if their broadband connections are being monkeyed with by their ISPs."

I write in this month’s CIO Insight about the 9th Circuit’s en banc decision in the Roommates.com case. This important decision tested the limits of immunity for information service providers (in this case, the operator of a website that allows users to post roommate-matching ads) under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Act.

Israel is a buzzing hive of small start-up technology companies that produce great ideas and original solutions. One of them is WIX, which offers a (free - as far as I could judge) web-based tool for creating personal and business websites within minutes. The tool is designed for people having no technical background whatsoever. There is also a clip demonstrating how it works. It's a lot of fun, but what they don’t tell you is how to create great content…

Highlights of Thursday’s FCC hearing at Stanford in no particular order:

1. Finding myself nodding in vigorous agreement with the testimony of the Christian Coalition of America.

I had the pleasure of participating in the excellent Legal Futures Conference sponsored by CIS and Google last month, where I was on a panel of “lightning talkers” tasked with answering the following question in under five minutes: “What single fact or data point about the current world of content and technology tells us most about where the Information Revolution will stand in ten years?”

I received some inquiries about what have I been up to lately. First of all I am teaching an introduction to Science and Technology Studies at UT Austin and just got some amazing mid-term video assignments handed in by my students. I will post examples soon - need to clear the copyrights first;)