On June 19 2012 James Grimmelmann, Professor of Law, New York Law School, gave testimony before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary – Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet – at a hearing on New Technologies and Innovations in the Mobile and Online Space and the Implications for Public Policy.
Written testimony: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/Hearings%202012/Grimmelmann%2006192012.pdf
Video (Edited):
Video is now available of last week’s Wagner Policy Alliance event “State of the Digital City: Government 2.0 and its Impact on Policymaking”
Panelists:
* Gale Brewer, NYC Council Member, Founding Chair of the Committee on Technology in Government
* John Kaehny, Executive Director and Founding Board Member, Reinvent Albany
* Anthony Townsend, Research Director, Institute for the Future, and NYU Adjunct Assistant Professor
Moderator:
* Shankar Prasad, NYU Adjunct Associate Professor and Yourlist.org Founder
On Weds. March 21 2012 the NYU Wagner Policy Alliance will present a panel discussion State of the Digital City: Government 2.0 and its Impact on Policymaking – a “how are we doing?” type follow-up to Mayor Bloomberg’s Road Map for the Digital City, rolled out in May 2011.
What: State of the Digital City: Government 2.0 and its Impact on Policymaking
When: Weds. March 21 2012. 7:15pm-9:00pm
Where: The Puck Building, 2nd Fl. 295 Lafayette Street, NYC
Register: http://wagner.nyu.edu/events/wpa-03-21-2012 (free)
Webcast: unknown
Twitter: @nyuwagner | #NYUWevents | #nycgov
Speakers:
Moderator: Shankar Prasad, yourlist.org
Cory Doctorow has described Bill Patry’s book ‘How to Fix Copyright’ as “incandescent”. He also suggests that Bill is angry, something Bill himself denies. In this Social Music Summit ‘fireside chat’, in which Jim Griffin digs into Patry’s background, one can discern just how laid back – considering the cultural bomb he has just dropped – he really is.
Policies mandating DNS filtering undermine the open architecture of the Internet and raise human rights and freedom of expression concerns
[Washington, D.C. and Geneva, Switzerland – 12 December 2011] – The Internet Society Board of Trustees has expressed concern with a number of U.S. legislative proposals that would mandate DNS blocking and filtering by ISPs to protect the interests of copyright holders. While the Internet Society agrees that combating illicit online activity is an important public policy objective, these critical issues must be addressed in ways that do not undermine the viability of the Internet as a platform for innovation across all industries by compromising its global architecture. The Internet Society Board of Trustees does not believe that the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are consistent with these basic principles.
Specifically, the Internet Society is concerned with provisions in both bills regarding Domain Name System (DNS) filtering. DNS filtering is often proposed as a way to block illegal content consumption by end users. Yet policies to mandate DNS filtering will be ineffective for that purpose and will interfere with cross-border data flows and services undermining innovation and social development across the globe.
An October 25 New York Times editorial How to Fix the Wireless Market rails against the pricing practices of major wireless providers.
Arguing that it is the non-competitive nature of the market that permits such activity, the Times concludes:
It is hugely profitable for companies to segregate voice, data and text into different plans and to force customers to buy a different plan for each device, like a phone or a tablet. But, on today’s networks, segregating services makes little sense technologically. This expensive segregation would be more difficult to maintain if the market were truly competitive and consumers could easily switch from one company to another that offers a better deal.
The regulatory outlook is not promising. The F.C.C. has shied away from asserting that voice and data moving on wireless networks are the same thing, which would allow it to apply its greater authority over phones to broadband access services. But it could curtail high early-termination fees on phone contracts, which are subject to more intense regulation. This would increase competition by making it easier for customers to change carriers.
If Congress allows the F.C.C. to reallocate television broadcasters’ unused spectrum and auction it for wireless broadband, the F.C.C. could set rules to ensure that the spectrum is available to more competitors. Perhaps the most effective path would be for the F.C.C. to declare broadband access to be a telecommunication service over which it has more control. Without action, consumers are stuck with a deregulated, less-than-competitive market.
The Internet Society, as a member of the Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC), participated in the OECD High Level Meeting on “The Internet Economy: Generating Innovation and Growth” held on 28-29 June 2011 in Paris.
In a February 2010 Washington Post Op-Ed Google CEO Eric Schmidt called on US Government to recognize bottom-up solutions to the “innovation deficit“.
Now this week, warming to his theme, he criticized the policy making process. “”The average American doesn’t realize how much of the laws are written by lobbyists” to protect incumbent interests, he said at the Washington Ideas Forum. “It’s shocking how the system actually works.”
In her new book Internet Architecture and Innovation, Barbara van Schewick explores the economic consequences of Internet architecture, offering a detailed analysis of how it affects the economic environment for innovation.
Van Schewick describes the design principles on which the Internet’s original architecture was based—modularity, layering, and the end-to-end arguments—and shows how they shaped the original architecture. She analyzes in detail how the original architecture affected innovation—in particular, the development of new applications—and how changing the architecture would affect this kind of innovation.
Van Schewick concludes that the original architecture of the Internet fostered application innovation. Current changes that deviate from the Internet’s original design principles reduce the amount and quality of application innovation, limit users’ ability to use the Internet as they see fit, and threaten the Internet’s ability to realize its economic, social, cultural, and political potential. If left to themselves, network providers will continue to change the internal structure of the Internet in ways that are good for them but not necessarily for the rest of us. Government intervention may be needed to save the social benefits associated with the Internet’s original design principles.
This year has already seen a host of policy developments that will affect the entire music ecosystem – from the FCC’s authority to regulate the internet to international copyright concerns to the impact of health care reform on the music community.
D.C. Policy Day 2010 will bring these issues into focus through informed presentations and panel discussions. A live webcast will bring the conversation to a global audience of artists, academics, industry professionals, journalists, music fans and more.
This year has already seen a host of policy developments that will affect the entire music ecosystem – from the FCC’s authority to regulate the internet to international copyright concerns to the impact of health care reform on the music community.
Topics to be covered include the hotly debated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), efforts to preserve an open internet, and the health insurance landscape for musicians following the passage of historic health care legislation. Policy Day 2010 will also examine how the creative industries are faring under current Washington leadership as we head into a new election cycle.
Webcast available at DC Policy Day 2010