Blog
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Remember That Time We Saved the Internet?
My Twitter feed tells me that today is the fifth anniversary of the day the Internet “went dark” in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect…
Recent posts
Blog
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Using Transparency to Fight Takedown Trolls – A Model from the DMCA
The Internet is full of trolls. So it’s no surprise that notice and takedown systems for online speech attract their fair share of them – people insisting that…
Press
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How FamilyTreeNow Makes Stalking Easy
"Companies rarely get in trouble if someone the uses personal information they sell in an unauthorized way, creating a “Wild West” where data brokers and p…
Blog
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DMCA Counter-Notice: Does It Work to Correct Erroneous Takedowns?
This blog post is excerpted from our filing in response to the U.S. Copyright Office's 2016 Notice and Request for Public Comment on notice and takedown pra…
Digital Impact; Policy and Practice for the Non-profit Sector in 2017
In this digital day and age we’re grappling with questions like: * What are the key digital policy issues that matter to nonprofits in 2017? * What are the m…
Blog
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Tool Without a Handle: "Trustworthy Tools"
“Tool Without a Handle: Trustworthy Tools” “’What is truth?’ said jesting Pilate, who did not stay for an answer.” – Francis Bacon, Of Truth (Essays, Civil an…
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South Korean celebrity files class-action lawsuit against Tesla Motors
"“Cases like this require evidence rather than speculation, and I look forward to seeing that evidence presented and analyzed,” Smith told The Northern Cal…
Facebook and Falsehood
After the election, many people blamed Facebook for spreading partisan — and largely pro-Trump — "fake news," like Pope Francis’s endorsement of Trump…
On Trevor Paglen’s Sight Machine
At the FOG Design + Art fair on Saturday, January 14, 2017 I was on a panel discussing Trevor Paglen’s new performance piece in collaboration with the Kronos Qu…
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Devices sprout ears: What do Alexa and Siri mean for privacy?
"For the Echo, however, it’s more complicated. “The cost of the device is not the ultimate revenue for these companies – advertising and personal informati…
Press
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EPA Charges Against Fiat Chrysler Put Software In The Legal Spotlight
"“Evidence and context comes into play,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a former transportation engineer who teaches technology and mobility law at the Universi…
New Symposium Scholarship on Human Shields
We have covered on these pages the legal and moral issues surrounding the use of human shields in contemporary armed conflict situations. The American Society o…