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Safe Harbors and Online Creativity

Nicholas Bramble — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:28:25 +0000

It’s great to be part of the worldwide exchange of ideas that the Information Society Project makes possible. For instance, I am just now sitting at the front of an auditorium at Tsinghua University School of Law in Beijing, China, having finished my presentation on the centrality of safe harbors (for online service providers) to the development of the user-generated Internet. My slides are available here, but in short, the idea is that Internet-regulating legislators need to pay attention to the kinds of online creativity and knowledge-sharing enabled by the safe harbors from intermediary liability created in CDA § 230 and DMCA § 512. I argued that these safe harbors promote the “spontaneous urge to action” that is at the heart of user-generated communities like Wikipedia, YouTube, and even social networks like Facebook and Twitter. They provide an alternative to the typical model of the creative actor spurred to action only by a rational calculation of the costs and benefits of exclusion.

These ideas are still taking shape, but it was great to be able to work them over with conference participants from civil society groups, law firms, and governments — participants who came from China, Thailand, India, Israel, Canada, and a host of other countries that have all dealt with online safe harbors in different ways. Many thanks to the organizers of the conference, to the Yale ISP and the Kauffman Foundation, and to the fine restaurants and street vendors in Beijing’s Haidian District.

Tech Policy Reading Group

Anjali Dalal — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:41:55 +0000

Week 3 / Sept 29: Wireless & Spectrum Readings:

FCC Notice of Inquiry, Fostering Innovation and Investment in the Wireless Communications Market: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-66A1.pdf (pages 1-10, 16-23, 28-30)
Victor Pickard & Sascha D. Meinrath, Revitalizing the Public Airwaves: http://www.newamerica.net/files/Pickard_Meinrath_WorkingPaper24_RevitalizingPublicAirwaves.pdf (addressing various models of spectrum reform) (pages 7-11)

Philadelphia Story: http://www.newamerica.net/files/NAF_PhilWireless_report.pdf
Larry Page & former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on white spaces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D7dueHdWW8

Optional:
New America Foundation papers:
Citizens’ Guide to the Airwaves (for those less spectrum savvy): http://www.newamerica.net/files/airwaves.pdf.

Questions to think about:
1. Is wireless the solution to broadband’s problems?
2. What should the Obama administration’s priorities be on wireless issues?

ISP reading group: Technology Policy in the Obama Administration

Nicholas Bramble — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:36:14 +0000

Each semester, the ISP organizes a student-led reading group for law students with an interest in technology, copyright, patents, innovation, access to knowledge, and other related fields. This fall, Anjali Dalal, a 3L student fellow, and Nicholas Bramble, a Kauffman fellow, have put together a set of readings relating to technology policy in the Obama administration. You can examine the (evolving) syllabus and take a look at the following memorial to the first week’s meeting:

a rough model of networked innovation

The impetus behind this reading group was a realization that some of Barack Obama’s key policy priorities as a candidate closely related to areas of ISP interest, including ensuring an open Internet, creating a more transparent and connected democracy, modernizing the country’s communications infrastructure, and increasing research and development in science and technology.

These areas of technology and innovation policy have emerged as crucial and contested fields of political activity, and are closely tied to other administration initiatives such as economic development and health care modernization, in addition to values such as privacy, security, competition, and participation. Among other questions, the reading group is analyzing which agencies are involved in developing and implementing technology regulations, the degree to which private actors shape technology policy, the role of the new Chief Technology Officer in crafting policy and allocating institutional responsibilities, and the impact of government interventions on the future of the Internet.