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Thursday, April 29, 2010

While We're Talking About Propping Up Failed Business Models...

I recently helped my colleagues Adam Thierer and Berin Szoka on a short essay rebutting the misguided notion that the government should grant postal subsidies to "old media" enterprises to help them survive. One of the arguments, of course, is that the state should perhaps not be propping up an old way of doing things (i.e., printing news on dead trees and spending physical and environmental resources shipping it around the country), when new and better ways are emerging. In the course of working on that paper, it occurred to me that maybe the time has come to scrap the entire U.S. Postal Service, but the thought was too far removed from the focus of the essay, and I let the idea go.

Recently, however, I've been forced to return to it. Although I am admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and D.C., I am not admitted in my new home state of California. As I have become more involved in my small mountain community, I have been approached on more than one occasion to help a friend or associate in some way that could conceivably be regarded as the "practice of law." My wife, who is a California lawyer, has also recently opened a solo practice in town, and it would be nice if I could assist her from time to time, as the need arises. The only thing to do, it seemed to me, was to take the California Bar exam and become a member here as well.

Continue reading While We're Talking About Propping Up Failed Business Models... . . .

posted by W. Kenneth Ferree @ 10:18 PM | Generic Rant, Philosophy / Cyber-Libertarianism

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Friday, April 16, 2010

Longing for Tax Day Simplicity

With another income tax day behind us, this year's penance may be the last "simple," "unfettered" return we file in a while.

The CBO projects that with current policies in place, addled by a wave of retiring Americans, our tax burden as a nation (in terms of revenues received through income, payroll and excise taxes) will rise 1.5%, to nearly 20% in 2020. That growth aside, revenues will still fall nearly 5% less than Uncle Sam will be spending at that time.

Thus, according to a growing coterie of pundits and officials, more taxes are on the way (spending cuts would be nice, but I digress).

Continue reading Longing for Tax Day Simplicity . . .

posted by Mike Wendy @ 4:51 PM | Capitol Hill, E-commerce, Generic Rant, Privacy, State Policy, Taxes

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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Step Away from the IT

Working in the IT industry, it's heretical to suggest, "Step away from the IT." But, sometimes, maybe we should.

I am not alone. Recently, the American Thinker ran a nice piece by Matt Patterson, entitled, Step Away from the Computer. In it he suggests:

...I do not advocate entirely forsaking the conveniences and necessities of the Digital Age. We need them for work and play, and I love my iPhone as much as the next person. But we need to learn how to turn it all off if we are to reclaim the noble soul that humanity has heretofore held but which is now rapidly slipping away. This technology, any technology, must be our servant, not our master. Prometheus brought fire to Man to assist us in life, not as a replacement for it.

Not as a replacement. Good advice.

Continue reading Step Away from the IT . . .

posted by Mike Wendy @ 3:03 PM | Capitol Hill, Communications, Copyright, Generic Rant, Human Capital, IP

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Monday, March 29, 2010

Business Insider Attacks James Cameron for "Whining" That Piracy Undermines the Risky Studio Investments That Enabled Cameron's Films To Enrich Millions of Lives

When you read a "business magazine" edited by persons with at least a GRE-level grasp of modern economics, you will not encounter headlines like "Walmart Whines That It Would Be Richer If Poor People Didn't Shoplift," or "DirectTV Whines That Signal Theft Keeps 'The NFL Sunday Ticket' from Raking In More Cash," or even "Capitalist Stooge Steve Jobs Whines That iPod Counterfeiting Keeps Him from Becoming Even Richer."

Predictably, real business magazines and journalists don't publish such quasi-Marxist drool because it is so vacuous. As economist Joseph Schumpeter famously argued, profits enrich particularly thoughtful, creative capitalists because market economies drive producers to innovate. Instead of engaging in a Punch-and-Judy battle to "perfect" competition against non-innovative producers of fungible goods, smart producers can make risky investments in order to innovate and differentiate their products so they can--if consumers really love their work--earn significant profits, (some of which must be re-invested in the next round of risky innovation).

Consequently, real business journalists know that stealing from today's "rich" innovators merely punishes and deters the risky, costly innovation that drives the American economy and creates American jobs. Competent "business magazines" thus reject the economics of dictator Robert Mugabe: they do not smirk and sneer that whenever capitalists innovate successfully and get "rich," then they should not "whine" if others steal from the investors who made the risky investments that let them get rich by innovating.

But Business Insider is not a real business magazine. It has seemingly embraced "Mugabenomics." It appears that Business Insider would thus condemn Steve Jobs if he "whines" about the counterfeiting or shoplifting of iPods. Surely Jobs is now rich enough that stealing from Apple is OK with Business Insider--even though, from the perspective of Apple's investors, the vast sums paid to Jobs are a cost of doing business that reduces their potential profits and their ability to re-invest in more new innovations.

Continue reading Business Insider Attacks James Cameron for "Whining" That Piracy Undermines the Risky Studio Investments That Enabled Cameron's Films To Enrich Millions of Lives . . .

posted by Thomas Sydnor @ 12:19 PM | Capitalism, Copyright, E-commerce, Economics, Generic Rant, IP, Innovation, Internet, Mass Media

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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Free Press & Public Knowledge Try to Invent Regulatory Crisis over Sprint Short Codes


John Schwartz of The New York Times called me two weeks ago and asked for comment about a potential controversy involving mobile phone provider Sprint and the charitable organization Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The facts were pretty sketchy at the time, but Schwartz told me that CRS was accusing Sprint of blocking Mobile Commons, the company that connects CRS and 100 other nonprofit organizations with text messaging networks, from getting a short code to create a charitable mobile donation program in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. Here's the basic background that appeared in Schwartz's March 24th article, "Catholic Charity and Sprint Tangle Over Texting":

[CRS] wanted to try a twist on the technology: when people sent a text message to donate, they got a reply offering to connect them via phone to the charity's call center. The group hoped that the calls could build a stronger bond with donors, and garner larger contributions as well. But just three days into the effort after the Jan. 12 earthquake, the charity got word that Sprint Nextel was demanding that the "text-to-call" effort be shut down. The charity had 40 days to abandon the feature or lose access to millions of Sprint customers. Sprint's original motivations are murky; it said that an intermediary company had failed to properly fill out a form to verify that it was dealing with a legitimate charity.

It didn't take long for the regulatory activists at Free Press and Public Knowledge to pounce and claim the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had to intervene to save our souls from the nefarious scum at Sprint. After all, you do know that Sprint hates Haitians, right? The company obviously wanted to see Haitians starve and not receive any support from charitable organizations.

No, seriously, come on! How asinine is this storyline?!

Continue reading Free Press & Public Knowledge Try to Invent Regulatory Crisis over Sprint Short Codes . . .

posted by Adam Thierer @ 12:37 PM | Communications, Generic Rant, Wireless

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Friday, March 19, 2010

States - Leave No Taxable Opportunity Behind

The recession has been many things to many people. For most of us, these are trying times, to say the least. But like a newscaster or mortician who profits from some of life's worst experiences, the states see the recession somewhat more optimistically than the rest of us.

Sure, in the next fiscal year states face nearly $180 billion in budget deficits, with many in dire straits (as this somewhat hyperbolic article touches upon). Yet, letting no crisis go to waste, this has honed where many of those cash-strapped states are looking for their next meal.

The Wall Street Journal recently noted that the slump has brought back to life an idea that many of us thought had died - requiring e-retailers to collect sales tax from out-of-state customers. The state's new tool of choice? The so-called "Amazon.com tax."

It works like this.

Remote / online merchants that have "local marketing affiliates" (i.e., entities essentially operating website pointers to remote merchants) in a given state, must collect state sales taxes for customer purchases of their products - all because the "local affiliate" in that given state pointed any sale (not even the specific sale) to the out-of-state retailer. This controversial tool (now being contemplated by 6 states, and in effect in 3 others) allows states to get around constitutional requirements of physical presence in a state to collect sales taxes. It also gets around the inconvenient fact that in most states with sales taxes, customers largely ignore their obligations to pay that tax (e.g., use tax) if it isn't collected by the Internet / remote merchant.

Continue reading States - Leave No Taxable Opportunity Behind . . .

posted by Mike Wendy @ 4:24 PM | Broadband, E-commerce, Generic Rant, Internet, State Policy, Supreme Court, Taxes, The FCC

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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Don't Believe Web Traffic Numbers

I've always viewed web traffic numbers with great suspicion, if for no other reason than they are all over the board. But the amazing Carl Bialik, the Wall Street Journal's "numbers guy," does us another great service today in his latest column, "The Trouble With Web-Traffic Numbers," by walking us through exactly how big of a mess these numbers really are. Carl is the closest thing we have to a statistical ombudsman for the Internet as he repeatedly illustrates in his column how numbers can deceive and distort.

In terms of bogus web traffic numbers, there's plenty of distortion going on. He quotes Erin Pettigrew, marketing director for Gawker Media, as saying that "For an industry that relies so heavily on accurate data and numerical accountability, relying on an estimate is embarrassing, antiquated." Too true. Of course, with so many people frequently deleting their cookies and now accessing websites from different machines, it's not surprising that the numbers are such a jumble.

One of the reasons it's so important to try to improve web traffic metrics is because it is essential to the advertising business, which powers the web and all the great content and services we consume online. More accurate web traffic metrics can help better direct and target ads across the web. But it won't be easy.

Anyway, read Carl's piece for all the details. And thank you Carl for always reminding us that there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics."

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:27 AM | Advertising & Marketing, Generic Rant

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Some Amazing Numbers Re: Growth of Net & Social Media

Most of you have probably already seen this but Pingdom recently aggregated and posted some amazing stats about "Internet 2009 In Numbers." Worth checking them all out, but here are some highlights:


  • 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide as of Sept 2009; 18% increase in Internet users since previous year.

  • 81.8 million .COM domain names at the end of 2009; 12.3 million .NET & 7.8 million .ORG

  • 234 million websites as of Dec 2009; 47 million were added in 2009.

  • 90 trillion emails sent on the Internet in 2009; 1.4 billion email users worldwide.

  • 26 million blogs on the Internet.

  • 27.3 million tweets on Twitter per day as of Nov 2009.

  • 350 million people on Facebook; 50% of them log in every day; + 500,000 active Facebook applications.

  • 4 billion photos hosted by Flickr as of Oct 2009; 2.5 billion photos uploaded each month to Facebook.

  • 1 billion videos served by YouTube each day; 12.2 billion videos viewed per month; 924 million videos viewed per month on Hulu in the US as of Nov 2009; + the average Internet user in the US watches 182 online videos each month.


And yet some people claim that digital generativity and online innovation are dead! Things have never been better.

posted by Adam Thierer @ 1:29 PM | Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet

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Friday, December 11, 2009

Cheer Up, Canada: Thomas the Tank Engine Is Not a Conservative

A philosopher of my misspent youth, one Mr. William Idol, opined that it is best to be British because you can get away with more than the citizens of other English-speaking nations. While I cannot disclose the best proofs of Mr. Idol's theorem, (naming names is rude), its second-best proof is surely the always-interesting and often-funny British technology-news website The Register. An example: Only by actually writing with a British accent can you get away with calling those who brainlessly but militantly oppose the enforcement of copyrights "freetards."

I thus note that today, The Register bravely reported on the shocking results of some media research conducted by some Canadian sociologists:

Research by the University of Alberta has chillingly revealed that kids' TV show Thomas and Friends may be engendering a "conservative political ideology" in future generations--a repressive mindset which "punishes individual initiative, opposes critique and change, and relegates females to supportive roles."

Shauna Wilton and friends from the uni's Department of Social Sciences analyzed 23 episodes of the programme, and noted that while it "conveys a number of positive political values...", there is a dark side to Thomas the Tank Engine.

Were Professor Wilton's work A Very Useful Engine: The Politics of Thomas and Friends correct, then it would represent a frightening discovery. After all, we parents all know that children's television is already awash in "conservative political ideology." The Barry-Goldwater-like messages of Sesame Street and Barney the Dinosaur are inescapable. Sociologists also warn that it is no coincidence that the baby-faced sun that shines upon the Teletubbies looks a lot like Rush Limbaugh.

Fortunately, in this case, the learned sociologists from the University of Alberta are dead wrong. If leftist ideologies fail, it will not be because Thomas the Tank Engine brainwashed Canadian tots into adopting a "conservative political ideology."

Continue reading Cheer Up, Canada: Thomas the Tank Engine Is Not a Conservative . . .

posted by Thomas Sydnor @ 12:11 AM | Capitalism, Generic Rant, Media Regulation, Security

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Saturday, November 28, 2009

The "Problem of Proportionality" in Debates about Online Privacy and Child Safety

The Internet is massive. That's the 'no-duh' statement of the year, right? But seriously, the sheer volume of transactions (both economic and non-economic) is simply staggering. Consider a few factoids to give you a flavor of just how much is going on out there:


  • In 2006, Internet users in the United States viewed an average of 120.5 Web pages each day.

  • There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.

  • Social networking giant Facebook reports that each month, its over 300 million users upload more than 2 billion photos, 14 million videos, and create over 3 million events. More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week. There are also roughly 45 million active user groups on the site.

  • YouTube reports that 20 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute.

  • Amazon reported that on December 15, 2008, 6.3 million items were ordered worldwide, a rate of 72.9 items per second.

  • Every six weeks, there are 10 million edits made to Wikipedia.


Now, let's think about how some of our lawmakers and media personalities talk about the Internet. If we were to judge the Internet based upon the daily headlines in various media outlets or from the titles of various Congressional or regulatory agency hearings, then we'd be led to believe that the Internet is a scary, dangerous place. That 's especially the case when it comes to concerns about online privacy and child safety. Everywhere you turn there's a bogeyman story about the supposed dangers of cyberspace.

But let's go back to the numbers. While I certainly understand the concerns many folks have about their personal privacy or their child's safety online, the fact is the vast majority of online transactions that take place online each and every second of the day are of an entirely harmless, even socially beneficial nature. I refer to this disconnect as the "problem of proportionality" in debates about online safety and privacy. People are not just making mountains out of molehills, in many cases they are just making the molehills up or blowing them massively out of proportion.

Continue reading The "Problem of Proportionality" in Debates about Online Privacy and Child Safety . . .

posted by Adam Thierer @ 1:45 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant, Online Safety & Parental Controls, Privacy

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Intel "Holiday Mobile Etiquette" Poll

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:46 PM | Generic Rant, Wireless

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Thank You Dennis McCauley of Game Politics.com

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:46 AM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Why We Don't Need "Five 9s" Network Reliability Anymore

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:47 PM | Economics, Generic Rant

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Monday, August 3, 2009

Should You Really Need a License to Run a Video Arcade?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:32 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments Turns 250

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:50 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Capitalism, Economics, General, Generic Rant, Philosophy / Cyber-Libertarianism

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Monday, June 1, 2009

Thomas Sowell on the Model that Drives Elitist Ideological Crusades

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:15 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Free Speech, Generic Rant, Online Safety & Parental Controls, Privacy

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

On Measuring Technology Diffusion Rates

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:47 PM | General, Generic Rant, Innovation, Mass Media

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Cato Unbound Debate: Lessig's Code at Ten (Part 4: Lessig's response)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 12:15 AM | Books & Book Reviews, Capitalism, Commons, Economics, Free Speech, Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet

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Monday, May 11, 2009

Nerd Law vs. Real Law

posted by Adam Thierer @ 1:48 PM | Advertising & Marketing, Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet

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Friday, May 8, 2009

Cato Unbound Debate: Lessig's Code at Ten (Part 3: Thierer response)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:12 AM | Books & Book Reviews, Commons, Economics, Free Speech, Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet, Regulation

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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Cato Unbound Debate: Lessig's Code at Ten (Part 2: Zittrain response)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 3:16 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet

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Monday, May 4, 2009

Cato Unbound Debate: Lessig's Code at Ten (Part 1: Declan's Lead Essay)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:57 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Capitalism, Commons, Generic Rant, Internet

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Our Dynamic Internet Marketplace

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:00 AM | Generic Rant, Innovation

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Just How Far the Internet Has Come Since 1996

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:07 PM | Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet

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Sunday, February 1, 2009

10 Years Ago Today... (Thinking About Technological Progress)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:07 PM | Capitalism, E-commerce, Generic Rant, Innovation

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Cato's Kuznicki on Zittrain's Overblown Fears

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:48 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Innovation

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Fiber is Nice

posted by Adam Thierer @ 6:22 PM | Broadband, Generic Rant

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Thursday, January 8, 2009

What Impact Will Cass Sunstein Have on Obama's Internet Policy?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:49 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Lessig on Building a Better Bureaucrat

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:53 PM | Communications, Generic Rant, The FCC

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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Of Holiday Gift Guides and New Media Business Models

posted by Adam Marcus @ 10:48 AM | Capitalism, Generic Rant, Innovation, Mass Media

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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Book Review: Nick Carr's Big Switch

posted by Adam Thierer @ 4:40 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Zittrain debate at New America Foundation (11/6, 3:30)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:48 AM | Generic Rant

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Monday, October 27, 2008

Do Irish-Americans Deserve a Satellite Radio Set-Aside?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:42 PM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Monday, October 20, 2008

Book Review: Lee Siegel's Against the Machine

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:05 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Friday, October 10, 2008

book review: Palfrey & Gasser's "Born Digital"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 4:23 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Free Speech, Generic Rant, Online Safety & Parental Controls, Privacy

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Negroponte's "Daily Me" = RSS Feeds + Google Alerts

posted by Adam Thierer @ 3:15 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Innovation, Mass Media

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Saturday, October 4, 2008

DTV Transition Humor

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:40 AM | Digital TV, Generic Rant

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Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Great 'Open v. Closed' Debate Continues: Google Phone v. Apple iPhone

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:06 AM | Economics, Generic Rant, Innovation, Interoperability, Wireless

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

another review of Zittrain's "Future of the Internet"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 5:38 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Lost Laptop Follies, Part 8: ATF Loses Laptops... and Guns!

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:48 AM | Generic Rant, Privacy

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Monday, August 11, 2008

Enough anti-iPhone rants... just get another phone!

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:41 PM | Generic Rant, Innovation

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Should it be illegal to text or talk while walking down the road?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:24 PM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Regulators to Save Us from Loud TV Ads and Product Placements

posted by Adam Thierer @ 3:24 PM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Tech Trumps Politics

posted by Bret Swanson @ 10:24 AM | Generic Rant

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

"The Most Powerful Computer Ever"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:09 PM | Generic Rant

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The Rise & Inevitable Fall of Tech Giants

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:47 AM | Capitalism, Generic Rant, Innovation, Internet

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Saturday, May 3, 2008

What's pointless about fun?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:55 AM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Yale / CFP's "9.5 Theses for Technology Policy in the Next Administration"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:26 PM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Video games, pro wrestling, and the politics of hypocrisy

posted by Adam Thierer @ 4:41 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant

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Justine Bateman, Net Neutrality & Celebrity Witnesses

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:51 AM | Generic Rant, Net Neutrality

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Monday, April 7, 2008

Micropayments reconsidered

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:10 PM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Sunstein's "libertarian paternalism" is really just paternalism

posted by Adam Thierer @ 5:03 PM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Do you have the "S.I.G.N.S." of Net / video game addiction?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:42 AM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

USA Today's story about the Martin FCC

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:26 AM | Cable, Free Speech, Generic Rant, Mass Media, The FCC

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Monday, March 10, 2008

Some books worth reading

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:22 AM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant

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Sunday, February 3, 2008

Political discourse -- then vs. now

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:15 AM | Generic Rant

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Monday, January 28, 2008

Tech & State of the Union address

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:30 AM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Danger of "The Danger of Free"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:21 PM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Only in France...

posted by Adam Thierer @ 12:42 PM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Against "Autonomous Driving"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:36 AM | Generic Rant, Innovation

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Does "the public" really communicate with the FCC?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:25 AM | Generic Rant, Mass Media, The FCC

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Sunday, December 2, 2007

Tech Ignorance: Not Funny

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:35 AM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Thoughts on Andrew Keen, Part 2: The Dangers of the Stasis Mentality

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:44 AM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Thoughts on Andrew Keen, Part 1: Why an Age of Abundance Really is Better than an Age of Scarcity

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:55 AM | Books & Book Reviews, Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Friday, August 17, 2007

On "Digital Divides"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:32 AM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Monday, July 2, 2007

"Child Safety" -- 100 Years Ago vs. Today

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:30 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant, Online Safety & Parental Controls

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Lost Laptop Follies, Part 6: DOE Missing 1,400 Laptops

posted by Adam Thierer @ 1:26 PM | Generic Rant, Privacy

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Monday, April 9, 2007

Confessions of a First Generation Gamer-Parent

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:33 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant

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Monday, March 26, 2007

The Other America

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:00 PM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Thursday, February 8, 2007

What Happened to 'Look Both Ways Before You Cross the Street'?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:26 AM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

That Whirring Sound? Mao Spinning in His Grave

posted by Patrick Ross @ 1:13 PM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Banning In-Car Technologies Won't Work

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:40 AM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Amazing Gains in Digital Storage Technology

posted by Adam Thierer @ 4:09 PM | Generic Rant, Innovation

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

CES Wrap-Up: Cool Upcoming Gadgets

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:00 PM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Dispatch from CES - FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's remarks

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:13 PM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Dispatch from CES - Day 3 (Net Neutrality Panel)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:01 PM | Generic Rant, Net Neutrality

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Dispatch from CES - Day 3 (Is Packaged Media Dead?)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 7:07 PM | Generic Rant, IP, Mass Media

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Dispatch from CES - Day 2 (Future of TV & Video Distribution)

posted by Adam Thierer @ 1:36 AM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Sunday, January 7, 2007

Dispatch from CES: Day 1 -- Gaming Issues

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:05 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Dispatch from CES: Scale and Perspective

posted by Patrick Ross @ 6:20 PM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

What Was the Biggest Tech Policy Story of 2006?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 3:49 PM | Generic Rant, Net Neutrality

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

A Sad Commentary

posted by Adam Thierer @ 7:01 PM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

"Dangerous" Toys -- Then and Now

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:10 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant

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Declaration of Independence for Virtual Worlds?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:35 AM | Generic Rant, Innovation, Mass Media

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Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Another Non-Solution to the Online Predator Problem

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:19 AM | Free Speech, Generic Rant

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Thursday, November 16, 2006

One Laptop Per Child Reconsidered

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:18 AM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Nonsense about Predatory Pricing of Video Game Consoles

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:30 PM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, November 9, 2006

Democratic "Innovation Agenda" Smells Like Pork, Tastes Like Regulation

posted by Adam Thierer @ 3:31 PM | Free Speech, Generic Rant

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Monday, October 16, 2006

Virtual Reality Reporters

posted by Adam Thierer @ 3:17 PM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Virtual Reality or Virtual Stupidity?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:52 AM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Backdating Ethics

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:20 AM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Lost Laptop Legislation Introduced

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:52 AM | Generic Rant, Privacy

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Friday, September 22, 2006

How Does Government Lose So Many Laptops?

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:50 AM | Generic Rant, Privacy

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Blogging has Officially Become Passe

posted by Patrick Ross @ 3:41 PM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Another Case of "Rights Inflation": Sports on Cable TV

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:56 PM | A La Carte, Cable, Economics, Free Speech, Generic Rant, Mass Media, Sports

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Does This Phone Match My Shoes?

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 4:13 PM | Generic Rant

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Tuesday, August 1, 2006

The Economics of Trade Shows & the Downsizing of "E3"

posted by Adam Thierer @ 8:41 AM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Hands-Free E-Mail

posted by Patrick Ross @ 4:02 PM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Fun Fact of the Day: Flat Panel Prices Plummet

posted by Adam Thierer @ 4:06 PM | Generic Rant, Innovation

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Thursday, May 18, 2006

Got a Million Bucks to Burn?

posted by Patrick Ross @ 3:53 PM | Generic Rant

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Friday, May 5, 2006

Thierer the Burkean Conservative?

posted by Ray Gifford @ 7:25 PM | Communications, Generic Rant, The FCC

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Why Communications and Media Markets Will Probably Never Be Deregulated

posted by Adam Thierer @ 11:17 AM | Communications, Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Monday, April 24, 2006

Job Retention Strategies

posted by Patrick Ross @ 5:23 PM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, April 19, 2006

A Paranoid Parent Ponders GPS Tracking His Kids

posted by Adam Thierer @ 9:25 AM | Generic Rant, Mass Media, Privacy

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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

France and Free Markets

posted by Patrick Ross @ 3:03 PM | Generic Rant

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Friday, March 17, 2006

Memo to Tom Cruise: Just Ignore What Offends You

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:23 PM | Generic Rant

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Wednesday, March 1, 2006

A Few Snooty Words about Technological Etiquette

posted by Adam Thierer @ 10:05 AM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

A Sign of the Times

posted by Patrick Ross @ 4:40 PM | Generic Rant

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Thursday, June 30, 2005

Is Google Evil? The Never-Ending Search for High-Tech Villainy

posted by Adam Thierer @ 2:45 PM | Generic Rant, Mass Media

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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Enduring Notions of Common Carriage

posted by @ 3:36 PM | Generic Rant

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