Copyright Law

Homes with very messy tails

Posted on May 17, 2009
In Bucharest, neighborhoods formed their own networks in order to bypass incumbents and meet their own needs. Later, these networks transformed into small businesses. My understanding is that the state of affairs is a bit different now, but these networks were quite normal 5 years ago.

Homes with incredibly short tails

Posted on May 17, 2009
Not quite the same as what Tim Wu and I proposed. But this is  a neat demonstration of why ownership is attractive to consumers, and could be attractive to carriers. “In addition to entering an area with tremendous support already lined up, Lyse also does something innovative: it allows prospective customers to dig their own fiber [...

Freedom to Connect 2009: The Emerging Internet Economy

Posted on February 24, 2009
I’ll be speaking on Homes with Tails, or Measurement Lab, or something else. In any case, I’ll be there, and you should too. F2C: Who, What, When, Where, Why http://www.freedom-to-connect.net WHO: F2C is a meeting of people engaged with Internet connectivity and all that it enables, including     * vendors,     * customers,     * regulators,     * legislators,     * analysts,     * [...

Introducing Measurement Lab

Posted on January 28, 2009
(Cross-posted from Official Google Blog) Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, and Stephen Stuart, Principal Engineer When an Internet application doesn’t work as expected or your connection seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your broadband ISP, the application, your PC, or something else? It can be difficult for experts, [...

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Homes With Tails, the paper

Posted on November 20, 2008
Download the full paper here. Homes With Tails: What if You Could Own Your Internet Connection? by Derek Slater and Tim Wu America?s communications infrastructure is stuck at a copper wall. For the vast majority of homes, copper wires remain the principal means of getting broadband services...

?Homes With Tails,? the presentation, next Friday

Posted on November 12, 2008
Tim Wu and I are going to be presenting our forthcoming paper about customer-owned last-mile broadband connections —  ”Homes With Tails” — next Friday at the New America Foundation. For more on the concept, see my previous post...

Blogging Again

Posted on July 23, 2008
Just not here so much. More here. Here’s the latest: What if you could own your internet connection? It may sound strange, and it’s certainly not what we’re used to. Today we have a “carrier-centered” model; phone and cable companies spend billions to build, operate, and own the “last-mile” connection [...

Warner Music Hires Jim Griffin

Posted on March 27, 2008
This is a huge turning point. Jim Griffin has been telling everyone to “monetize the anarchy” for essentially the entire decade. This solution was on the table dating back to Napster. The idea has long percolated within the entertainment & tech community (read: the pholist)...

The Copyfight.ca

Posted on February 14, 2008
December 2007: Copyright for Canadians Feb. 13, 2008, Google Public Policy blog: “Here in Canada, where there is an ongoing debate about how to best implement the WIPO Copyright Treaty, Google has joined with a number of other Canadian and international companies who have a shared vision of balanced copyright...

Rep. Markey?s new net neutrality legislation

Posted on February 13, 2008
Today, Rep. Ed Markey and Chip Pickering introduced bipartisan legislation to help preserve Internet freedom and explicitly make “net neutrality” a guiding principle of U.S. broadband policy. The bill would affirm that the Internet should remain an open platform for innovation, competition, and social discourse, free from unreasonable discriminatory practices by network operators...

Towards a bigger, better broadband future

Posted on January 30, 2008
(Extended cross-post from Google Public Policy Blog) Broadband deployment in the U.S. is at best disappointing and at worst a crisis. The United States lags behind other countries in broadband uptake per capita, ranked 15th in the latest Organisation for Economic Co?operation and Development (OECD) data...

Google Policy Fellowships: A Dream Come True For Aspiring Tech Policy Wonks

Posted on November 13, 2007
If code is law and architecture is policy, then a Summer of Policy is a natural complement to Google’s Summer of Code. That’s exactly what Google announced yesterday — a new Policy Fellowship program offering $7,000 stipends for undergraduate and graduate students to dive deep into the tech policy world with top-flight organizations like [...

Katyal?s ?Semiotic Disobedience?

Posted on November 11, 2007
If you haven’t already read Sonia Katyal’s “Privacy v. Piracy” and “The New Surveillance,” you should. The articles have proven quite prescient — with the Sony DRM rootkit and AT&T’s announcement about forthcoming ISP-level filtering, the notion of “piracy surveillance” has become increasingly relevant...

A Programming Note

Posted on September 22, 2007
For those still tuning in, writing is likely to stay sporadic for a bit as I’m changing jobs. I’m starting a new gig as a Policy Analyst on Google’s public policy team, which means you may see me here from time to time. Google is at the center of the storm when it comes to [...

iTunes Ringtones: Making You Pay Again For Music You Already Own

Posted on September 10, 2007
Tired of paying several dollars to buy ringtone versions of music you already own? When it comes to songs ripped from your CD collection or downloaded MP3s, widely-available software tools allow you to roll your own ringtones instead and put them on a variety of phones...

Mark Lemley?s One Safe Harbor to Rule Them All

Posted on August 16, 2007
Prof. Lemley works through how we might standardize and unify Internet intermediary safe harbors across the board, from defamation to copyright and beyond. Read his paper here. (Via Eric Goldman)

Pam Samuelson?s Copyright Reform Project

Posted on August 01, 2007
Read about her ambitious plan for a model copyright law here. (via Patry)

Copycrime Bill Raises its Ugly Head, Again

Posted on August 01, 2007
Two months ago, the Justice Department floated draft legislation to expand the scope of, and stiffen the penalties for, criminal copyright infringement, and now a related bill has been introduced in the House. This isn’t the first time that Congress has taken up the DoJ’s copycrime wishlist, and, for all the reasons we listed in [...

Legislative Shot Across Colleges? Bow Over P2P

Posted on August 01, 2007
Last week, Sen. Harry Reid proposed and then withdrew dangerous legislation that threatened to make universities do the entertainment industry’s dirty work and use ineffective, burdensome copyright filtering tools on their networks. The Higher Education Reauthorization Act has now passed the Senate without that language...

FCC Should Make ISPs Play Copyright Cop, Says NBC

Posted on June 18, 2007
Not even a week after AT&T announced plans to adopt undefined technical measures to stop “piracy,” NBC-Universal has asked [PDF] the FCC to declare that “broadband service providers have an obligation to use readily available means” (emphasis added) to stop copyright infringement...

AT&T to Play Copyright Cop, Sell Out Customers

Posted on June 14, 2007
AT&T has announced plans to sell out its customers. No, this time we’re not talking about spying on telephone and Internet communications on the government’s behalf. AT&T is now kowtowing to the entertainment industry and jointly developing undisclosed technical measures in yet another desperate attempt to stop “piracy...

Windows Media Center DRM - Now With More Bugs!

Posted on May 23, 2007
There was some Slashdot buzz earlier this week about Microsoft Windows Media Center users suddenly facing restrictions forbidding playback of recorded analog cable TV content. Was DRM smuggled along with an “update” into unsuspecting users’ machines? In fact, Windows Media Center has always obeyed CGMS-A, a DRM system that TV stations can use...

Tim Wu: On Copyright?s Authorship Policy

Posted on May 19, 2007
As with everything Wu, a must-read.

Ohio University Blocks All P2P File Sharing Software

Posted on April 26, 2007
Citing the burdens of responding to the RIAA’s flood of pre-litigation letters, Ohio University has decided to monitor its network in order to block all use of P2P file sharing software. Students caught using the software will have their network access disabled...

Taking Away Your Personal Use Rights, One Anti-Innovation Lawsuit at a Time

Posted on April 04, 2007
Last week, a California Superior Court judge ruled that Kaleidescape did not violate its contract with the DVD DRM licensing authority by distributing a home media server that rips and plays DVDs. This is an important victory for consumers, but it’s also a sad reminder of how your ability to make personal use of digital [...

Former EMI Exec Ted Cohen?s P2P Proposal

Posted on March 29, 2007
Will try to link up if/when the article becomes publicly available. Coolfer has the scoop — here’s an excerpt: “What I propose is an aggressive six-month trial by a major P2P service (any takers?) that could finally give us clear insight into the behavior of P2P users...