Featured Articles

The Trouble with "Free Riding"

October 24, 2008 17:12

This week, one of my favorite podcasts, EconTalk, features one of my favorite Internet visionaries, Clay Shirky. I interviewed Shirky when his book came out back in April. The host, Russ Roberts, covered some of the same ground, but also explored some different topics, so it was an enjoyable...

Piracy Statistics and the Importance of Journalistic Skepticism

October 09, 2008 13:45

If you've paid attention to copyright debates in recent years, you've probably seen advocates for more restrictive copyright laws claim that "counterfeiting and piracy" cost the US economy as much as $250 billion. When pressed, those who make these kinds of claims are inevitably vague about exactly...

Transit Card Maker Sues Dutch University to Block Paper

Edward W. Felten
July 15, 2008 12:11

NXP, which makes the Mifare transit cards used in several countries, has sued Radboud University Nijmegen (in the Netherlands), to block publication of a research paper, “A Practical Attack on the MIFARE Classic,” that is scheduled for publication at the ESORICS security conference in...

Comcast Gets Slapped, But the FCC Wisely Leaves its Options Open

August 07, 2008 05:26

The FCC’s recent Comcast action—whose full text is unavailable as yet, though it was described in a press release and statements from each comissioner—is a lesson in the importance of technological literacy for policymaking. The five commissioners’ views, as reflected in...

Recent Articles

Federal Circuit Reins in Business Method Patents

October 31, 2008 20:00

This has been a big year for patent law in the technology industry. A few weeks ago I wrote about the Supreme Court's Quanta v. LG decision. Now the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has jurisdiction over all patent appeals, has handed down a landmark ruling in the case...

DMCA Week: Predictions Are Hard, Especially about the Future

October 31, 2008 02:07

My previous post on DVD jukeboxes has prompted an interesting discussion among our commenters. There seems to be a lively difference of opinion about how useful a DVD jukebox would be, what it would look like, and who would use it. Personally, I had envisioned a high-end video device that DVD...

Wikipedia as a Public Good

October 30, 2008 18:45

My post about Wikipedia and public goods prompted an interesting response from Judd Antin at Berkeley's School of Information. He makes a number of sharp points, but let me focus on this response to the idea that free-riders don't hurt Wikipedia: This completely depends on what your goal is. On the...

DMCA Week: A second orphan works problem?

October 30, 2008 01:58

The orphan works problem in copyright is real and serious. Several congressional hearings and a Copyright Office inquiry that drew hundreds of thoughtful comments---not to mention countless articles and blog posts---attest to that fact. This attention is heartening, and while orphan works...

DMCA Week: Where's My DVD Jukebox?

October 28, 2008 23:29

A difficult challenge in thinking about public policy is understanding which innovations have not happened as a result of bad government policies. For example, it's generally believed that the Bell phone monopoly stifled innovation in the telecommunications sector during the 1950s and 1960s. But if...

DMCA Week, Part I: How the DMCA Was Born

October 27, 2008 21:05

Ten years ago tomorrow, on October 28, 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was signed into law. The DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, which became 17 USC Section 1201, made it a crime under most circumstances to "circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to" a...