Monthly Archives: October 2009

Reader Feedback Wanted

A friend recently emailed me to suggest that this blog may feature longer-than-optimal posts: that when people see an 800-word post they tend to get intimidated and skip on to the next blog. This seems like a reasonable criticism, and … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

The Problem with Top-Down “App Stores”

Until recently, if you bought an iPhone (which I did) or a Pre, your only officially-permitted mechanism for getting applications onto your phones was the iTunes App Store or the Palm App Catalog, respectively. This is strange: most modern software … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Dreaming of Equality

My post last week about immigration as a civil rights issue generated a fair amount of discussion. There were a number of critical comments here and at Will Wilkinson’s blog. One objection was to my use of the term “civil … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The Problem with ISPs Wielding “Editorial Discretion”

In my Cato paper on network neutrality, I criticized Penn law professor Chris Yoo’s claim that network providers need to “exercise editorial control” over their networks. I see that Yoo has now expanded this claim into a whole paper, and … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Brito on Wu on GBS

Last week I critiqued Tim Wu’s Slate piece on the GBS deal. One of Wu’s key arguments was that other companies are unlikely to scan orphan works because there just isn’t that much money in them. Jerry Brito points out … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Michael Heller vs. Richard Epstein on the Gridlock Economy

On Friday Jerry Brito’s new tech policy program at Mercatus sponsored a debate between Michael Heller, author of The Gridlock Economy, and Richard Epstein. The argument of Heller’s book, which he presented in his talk, is that poorly-designed property regimes … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Privacy Norms Should Come Before Privacy Laws

My colleagues Jim Harper and Julian Sanchez have been having a friendly debate over privacy regulations, which Julian summarizes over at TLF. Jim eschews his customary blogging parsimony in favor of a lengthy treatise on online privacy. The heart of … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Class Action Loophole

Tim Wu is one of my favorite technology thinkers, and he’s a talented writer, so his take on the Google deal is a good read. But I also think it’s a good example of what’s wrong with a lot of … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Free the DC Metro Data

I started this blog because I like writing about how bottom-up thinking can make the world a better plice. But one thing I like better than writing about it is when someone else does it for me. I hope David … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment