January 20, 2012

The Chinese View of SOPA

The New Yorker has a story on the Chinese view of SOPA:

Commentator Shi Han wrote about trying to post a comment to Tencent, the giant Chinese portal. “I’ve written a short article about SOPA. But when I tried to put it up, Tencent replied with a message: ‘Your content has not passed review.’”

Posted by Anupam Chander on January 20, 2012 at 06:39 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 17, 2012

SOPA Teach-In

Posted by Anupam Chander on January 17, 2012 at 09:32 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 10, 2012

Should the United States Continue to Occupy Guantanamo?

Jonathan Hansen argues that we should return Guantanamo to the people of Cuba in an op-ed in the NY Times.  I made a similar call five years ago in my piece, Quit Guantanamo in the SF Chronicle.

Posted by Anupam Chander on January 10, 2012 at 08:42 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

.XXX Operator Earns Millions from Those Worried About .XXX Names

The BNA's Thomas O'Toole has an important post on the exploitation of companies and others worried about a ".XXX" version of their trademark.  He notes that this group has paid about millions  to register .XXX names to block others from exploiting them.

ICM Registry Inc., the registry operator for the .xxx top-level domain, announced Nov. 1 that it sold nearly 80,000 domain registrations in the just-concluded Sunrise A and Sunrise B registration periods.

... 

These dollars represent an enormous tax on the trademark owner community with very little in the way of countervailing social benefit. It's true that nobody forced trademark owners to participate in the .xxx sunrise registration round. On the other hand, how many companies would risk tarnishment of their brand in .xxx if the cost of protection is a mere $299?

These registrations cost nearly $300 per domain, representing a massive expenditure of cash mostly by folks who want to be kept out of .xxx's adult content neighborhood.

Further demonstration of the poor choices made by ICANN.

Posted by Anupam Chander on January 10, 2012 at 04:23 AM in Digitization, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 02, 2012

Thank you, Gordon Hirabayashi

Gordon Hirabayashi, who, along with Fred Korematsu, Mitsuye Endo, and Min Yasui, challenged the unconstitutional and racist Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, has passed away, according to a reliable report.  

Lorraine K. Bannai, Professor of Legal Skills, Director, Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, and a member of the Korematsu coram nobis team, is helping to organize a conference in his honor:

Posted by Anupam Chander on January 2, 2012 at 05:05 PM in Dissent, Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 08, 2011

Illinois Law Professor Attacked in Alleged Hate Crime

The description of the terrible and terrifying event from Paul Caron:

University of Illinois College of Law Tax Prof Dhammika Dharmapala suffered severe knife wounds in a racially motivated attack while awaiting a train to Chicago early Wednesday morning. From the Illinois News-Gazette:

Joshua Scaggs, 23, has been charged with attempted murder and two counts of aggravated battery alleging he slashed the throat of Anurudha Udeni Dhammika Dharmapala, 41, of Champaign. He is a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law specializing in law and economics, tax policy, public economy, and political economy. ...

A male witness told police the men were both seated in the waiting area when one man suddenly jumped up and shouted that this was his country and attacked Dharmapala. The attacker, later identified as Scaggs, then grabbed Dharmapala around the neck and appeared to be choking him. He then forced the victim to the floor. The witness intervened by pulling the attacker off Dharmapala. The witness then noticed that the attacker was holding a utility knife and the victim was bleeding.

My prayers for Professor Dharmapala.

Posted by Anupam Chander on December 8, 2011 at 10:25 AM in Law School | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

December 04, 2011

Women Make Up 9% of Directors of Silicon Valley Firms

The SF Chronicle reports on a new study:

Women account for less than 10 percent of the total number of board directors in the valley, according to global executive search firm Spencer Stuart in the report, "2011 Silicon Valley Board Index."

... Women sat on 91 percent of [S&P 500] boards, accounting for 16 percent of all directors, compared with 9.1 percent in Silicon Valley.

Will lack of female representation among directors (and likely officers as well) affect these companies' ability to serve its users?

Here is a list of Apple Directors (higher than the 9% average--but just 1 of 8):

Apple's top officers are 100% male, as the graphic shows.

Posted by Anupam Chander on December 4, 2011 at 08:19 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 20, 2011

Siri-Everything

The French developer Applidium reports that Siri could be run from any device, were it not for a single line of code that authenticates the iPhone to Apple.  That is, Apple could license the use or Siri for your car, or your fridge, or your shoes. Hat-tip: Gizmodo.

Posted by Anupam Chander on November 20, 2011 at 09:01 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

November 16, 2011

"The Great Firewall of America"

Rebecca MacKinnon has a sobering piece in today's New York Times:

China operates the world’s most elaborate and opaque system of Internet censorship. But Congress, under pressure to take action against the theft of intellectual property, is considering misguided legislation that would strengthen China’s Great Firewall and even bring major features of it to America.

The legislation — the Protect IP Act, which has been introduced in the Senate, and a House version known as the Stop Online Piracy Act — have an impressive array of well-financed backers, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Federation of Musicians, the Directors Guild of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Screen Actors Guild. The bills aim not to censor political or religious speech as China does, but to protect American intellectual property. Alarm at the infringement of creative works through the Internet is justifiable. The solutions offered by the legislation, however, threaten to inflict collateral damage on democratic discourse and dissent both at home and around the world.

Posted by Anupam Chander on November 16, 2011 at 08:55 AM in Digitization, Globalization | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

October 25, 2011

Silicon Valley Focuses on Human Rights Implications of Its Work

I'm attending the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference--the third such conference, following Yahoo's conference in April 2010 (if I recall correctly), and Google's Budapest conference in Fall 2010--a public demonstration of a commitment to the virtues of free speech. Some will question whether billion dollar corporations can ever be sincere in their commitment to human rights, or whether such efforts are simply window dressing. The corporate officers present here--from Google and Facebook--certainly have human rights bona fides in their biographies.

Van Jones is going on now, talking about the "pro democracy struggle going on right here.  A struggle against plutocracy."  Watch it online here.

Posted by Anupam Chander on October 25, 2011 at 12:13 PM in Digitization, Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)