Tag: Technology and Freedom

The American Conservative Union, an influential right-wing group, has announced its opposition to the Induce Act, and is running ads criticizing those Republicans who support the Act. This should not be surprising, for opposition to the Act is a natural position for true conservatives, who oppose government regulation of technology products and support a competitive…

Over at Engadget, JD Lasica interviews outgoing MPAA head Jack Valenti. In the interview, Valenti repeats several of his classic arguments. For example, here’s Valenti, in this week’s interview, on fair use: Now, fair use is not in the law. We heard this before, in Derek Slater’s 2003 interview with Valenti: What is fair use?…

Yesterday, following Tim Wu, I wrote about the use of “innovation” as a slogan by advocates of the freedom to tinker. Today I want to probe further the rhetoric of “innovation” as used in public policy debates. True innovation occurs in both high-tech and low-tech settings, and it is practiced by everyone: large companies, small…

Tim Wu, near the end of his stint as guest-blogger at Larry Lessig’s site, offered a typically thoughful entry, entitled “Who Cares About Innovation?”. The gist was that although “innovation” is the mantra of anti-regulation technologists, it may not be clear to the average person what good innovation does. Here’s a sample: Consider a question…

Jon Johansen, known widely as “DVD Jon” for his work on DVD decryption utilities, has released a tool that lets anyone stream music to the Apple Airport Express. The Airport Express is a slick little gizmo that plugs into any electrical outlet, and can receive content wirelessly and output it on standard connectors to a…

Susan Crawford recently proposed a list of “online principles” to guide development of the online world. Seth Finkelstein comments, “Been there, done that, doesn’t work”; but John Palfrey counters that Susan’s effort is worthwhile. Surely it’s worthwhile for almost any group to spend at least a tiny fraction of its time talking about its overall…

If you missed yesterday’s Senate hearing on the proposed Induce Act, you can check out the video, thanks to Thomas Barger. (As a bonus, he also offers a video of the May 12 hearings on Rep. Boucher’s DMCRA.) The written testimony of all witnesses, and the statements of Sens. Hatch and Leahy, are available too.

Today’s Senate hearing on the Induce Act will be webcast (link) at 2:00 PM Eastern time. Anybody who is listening to the webcast is invited to discuss the hearing while it happens, in the comments section of this post. I’ll be listening, and watching the comments.

An op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, by recently retired Intel VP Les Vadasz, urges the Senate to reject the INDUCE Act. News junkies may remember Vadasz’s testimony against the now-infamous Hollings CBDTPA at a Senate hearing, during which Vadasz was treated quite harshly. They may also remember that Vadasz’s view ultimately prevailed, because it…