Measuring the impact of technology on the law

It’s difficult to come up with more quantitative measurements to look at how technology has impacted law. One could look at the development of new technologies (via patent applications, perhaps?) and then look to see how soon afterwards the invention began to show up in legal cases. Another interesting idea would be to see if changes in technology–the development of new citation systems, more rapid dissemination of decisions and publications, and later the creation of electronic repositories such as Lexis and Westlaw–had any impact on the way lawyers and judges developed law.

Implications of the AP licensing scheme

So, the AP has in the past made a big deal about holding on to the rights to every tiny little bit of what they right (essentially denying that fair use even exists). Who better than those snarky peeps at Woot to call them on the implications of such a scheme?

The new world of self-publishing: it's not just for vanity anymore!

It’s finally possible–although still hardly likely–to skip the traditional publishers altogether, publishing yourself (via Amazon, for example), and get discovered by fans directly.

Modern Islam and science: an article by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

In “Islam and Science,” an article written for the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science, Nasr attempts to give a broad overview of the relationship of Islam to modern science and technology. He makes some key points regarding to criticism of Western science from an Islamic point a view.

Copyright and the public domain

Randy Picker has a fascinating post on the Faculty Blog of the University of Chicago’s law school of the copyright status of scans (by Google, for example) of public domain works. Does the effort of digitizing the work qualify as enough original effort to create a new copyright?

The FCC re-classifies in response to Comcast

Last month, Comcast won its appeal in a federal appeals court in D.C. against the FCC’s attempt to require network neutrality. As predicted by some, the FCC is proceeding with plans to reclassify broadband providers, and thus escape the ruling entirely.

Some commonalities of pro- and anti-vaccination rhetoric

Within the context of the contemporary vaccination debate, neither side has a monopoly on a particular kind of argument.

The Stored Communications Act and you

It’s always good to remember that storing your email on someone else’s server is a potential problem.

The splintering of the Internet is not a new phenomenon

There has been increasing discussion around the concept of the “splinternet”: that proprietary devices like the iPad or proprietary sites like Facebook are acting to splinter the old, connected Web into discrete, fragmented, and self-contained units. But the “golden age” was hardly golden, and today’s Web is, if anything, better than it used to be in terms of interconnectivity. Certainly it’s important to recognize fragmentation issues today, but let’s not pretend it’s a new problem.

Net neutrality and deference to the FCC

A few days ago the D.C. Circuit, in a 3-0 decision, held that the FCC could not require Comcast, or other broadband providers, to follow principles of network neutrality under their current justification.

yelp-screen

Yelp was recently sued in federal district court in Los Angeles for “extortion.” The plaintiffs say Yelp salespeople demanded monthly payments in exchange for removing or toning down negative reviews. The plaintiffs say Yelp has violated California’s unfair competition law.

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