Author Archives: Timothy B Lee

Richard Epstein is a giant of libertarian political philosophy, but I frequently find his writings on technology issues frustrating. As I’ve written before, his limited knowledge of the IT industry tends to show when he’s writing about tech policy issues. … Continue reading →

I’m reading some of the amicus briefs in the Bilski case, and I’m struck by how vacuous they are. Consider this passage of Yahoo’s brief, purporting to give an example of the kind of technology patents ought to cover: A … Continue reading →

Paul Graham has a great new essay out looking at the decline of the content industries: A copy of Time costs $5 for 58 pages, or 8.6 cents a page. The Economist costs $7 for 86 pages, or 8.1 cents … Continue reading →

Under criticism from all directions, Google and its adversaries have filed for permission to abandon the settlement agreement they announced last October and go back to the drawing board. They’re asking for a conference with the judge that will be … Continue reading →

My lefty alter ego Tom Lee weighs in on the network neutrality debate. After an excessively generous hat tip toward my Cato paper, he focuses his criticism on Julian’s post. Tom is unimpressed by Julian’s concerns about the risks of … Continue reading →

I liked FCC chairman Julius Genachowski’s Monday speech at the Brookings Institution. I’ve argued before that network neutrality regulations are a bad idea, and the speech didn’t change my mind. I share the concerns of my colleagues Julian Sanchez and … Continue reading →

A year ago, I would have assumed that it was unnecessary to even address the possibility, but in the wake of the bank and auto bailouts, and the continued, precipitous decline of the newspaper industry, we’re starting to see semi-serious … Continue reading →

The chorus of voices against the Google Book Search deal keeps getting louder. Earlier this month, most of Google’s competitors and a raft of public interest organizations filed formal comments opposing the deal. Then a couple of weeks ago, the … Continue reading →

One of the most famous essays in economics is Ronald Coase’s “The Problem of Social Cost.” Its key argument, which was later dubbed the Coase Theorem by George Stigler, says that in a world with zero transaction costs, the initial … Continue reading →

Over at the Cato blog, I point out that the Washington Legal Foundation opposes the Google Book Search deal.