Month: April 2013
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Dear Craig: Voluntarily Dismiss with Prejudice
[Cross-posted on my blog, Managing Miracles] Last summer, Craigslist filed a federal lawsuit against the company Padmapper (and some related entities). Padmapper.com is a site that, among other things, allows users to view Craigslist postings on a geographical map. It is a business premised on providing value added services to Craigslist postings — with some…
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Copyrights, Fundamental Rights, and the Constitution
There was a lot to take issue with in Scott Turow’s recent op-ed in The New York Times. Turow, who is currently President of the Authors Guild, took to The Times to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, which brought physical books manufactured and sold abroad within the protective…
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Are There Countries Whose Situations Worsened with the Arrival of the Internet?
Are there countries whose situations worsened with the arrival of the internet? I’ve been arguing that there are lots of examples of countries where technology diffusion has helped democratic institutions deepen. And there are several examples of countries where technology diffusion has been part of the story of rapid democratic transition. But there are no…
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Let's stop Nigerian scams once and for good
A personal friend of mine’s Yahoo account was recently hacked by a Nigerian scammer. I know this because the email I got (“I’m stuck in the Philippines and need you to wire money”) had an IP address in a “Received” header that pointed squarely at Lagos, Nigeria. The modus operandi of these scammers is well…
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Principles #4 and #5 for Fostering Civic Engagement Through Digital Technologies: Engage On-line and Off-line, and Prepare for the Future
As part of my continuing series, today I’ll discuss two more principles for fostering civic engagement and digital technologies. My earlier posts are: #1 Know Your Community #2 Keep it Simple #3 Leverage Entrepreneurial Intermediaries Principle #4: Utilize Creative Combinations of On-line and Off-line Communications Whether it’s a grass roots organization, national political campaign or…
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Drones over Princeton: A Goofy Video About a Serious Issue
Last week, privacy attorney Grayson Barber brought her “drone” to CITP in order to do a demo at her talk, “Drones Are Like Flying Computers.” Grayson discussed the many serious legal issues raised by drones (you can watch the video of her presentation here). But her drone takes great video, so I couldn’t resist making…
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Internet Voting Security: Wishful Thinking Doesn’t Make It True
[The following is a post written at my invitation by Professor Duncan Buell from the University of South Carolina. Curiously, the poll Professor Buell mentions below is no longer listed in the list of past & present polls on the Courier-Journal site, but is available if you kept the link.] On Thursday, March 21, in…
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Two Major updates to RECAP: Developers from Around the World Write Code in Memory of Aaron Swartz
A little over two months ago, we joined with the Think Computer Foundation to offer a set of grants in memory of our friend Aaron Swartz. Aaron worked on many issues in his too-short life, but one of those was liberating American court records from behind a pay-wall. He helped to inspire our RECAP project,…
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The District of Columbia Claims Copyright on the Law
Update: They released the unofficial version of the DC Code under a CC-0 License. Josh Tauberer has the backstory. Copyright exists to incentivize people to create new works. The federal government is not allowed to copyright things, because they don’t need the added incentive, and it would be bad if they started charging for access…