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ContactAllen said he made the name up, then said he recalled that he had a niece nicknamed 'Maca Maca.' " [Los Angeles Times;8/24/06]
January 21, 2010
My Two Bits on Google in China
Last Saturday, the Sacramento Bee ran my op-ed on Google's leadership in China. I begin:
While most American companies are rushing into China, why are so many Americans cheering Google pulling out?
This week Google announced it had discovered attempts to hack into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. This prompted Google to declare it was ready to leave China if it could not provide honest search results to the people of China.
At the same time that Google was boldly threatening to pack its bags, General Motors was announcing that its sales of cars in China had nearly doubled last year. Yet, few people urged GM to pull up stakes even though it is doing business in a society that lacks political freedoms.
What explains this divergent reaction?
Posted by Anupam Chander on January 21, 2010 at 02:14 PM in Digitization, Globalization | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 14, 2010
A2K4: Access to Knowledge and Human Rights Conference, February 12-13
The Access to Knowledge and Human Rights Conference seeks to lay the groundwork – conceptual and strategic – to build bridges between the A2K and human rights communities pursuing common goals of promoting greater access to knowledge, culture, technology and tools for innovation worldwide.
The two-day conference will feature an international lineup of academics and practitioners addressing topics including Technologies of Dissent, Freedom to Innovate, Digital Education, and the Right to Health. For more information, including a detailed agenda and list of confirmed speakers, please visit http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/a2k4.htm .
The event will take place at Yale Law School, located at 127 Wall Street in New Haven, Connecticut on Friday and Saturday from 8:30-5pm. Attendance is open to the public with registration via http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=803707 .
The conference is organized by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, in collaboration with the following organizing partners: 3D: Trade, Human Rights, Equitable Economy; AAAS Science and Human Rights Program; Access to Knowledge for Development (A2K4D) Research Center, Department of Economics, School of Business, American University in Cairo; A2K Research Program at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas School of Law in Sao Paulo; Association for Progressive Communications; The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University; Centre for Technology and Society at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas School of Law in Rio de Janeiro; Centro de Estúdios Interdisciplinários de Derecho Industrial and Económico; Consumers International; Electronic Frontier Foundation; Human Rights USA; Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School; Intellectual Property Watch; IQSensato; Knowledge Ecology International; Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School; UCT Intellectual Property Law and Policy Research; and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies.
Please join us for this exciting and important event! More information at http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/a2k4.htm .
Posted by Anupam Chander on January 14, 2010 at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 15, 2009
Glenn Beck Suggests that "Ganges" River "sounds like a disease"
Posted by Anupam Chander on December 15, 2009 at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
November 17, 2009
Where Are the Jobs in International Law?
The National Jurist carries a cover story on the subject in its November issue, available in full online.
It includes some startling information (apparently, 82% of Baker & McKenzie's lawyers work outside the United States).
The "Top International Law Firms" chart is misleadingly titled, however. A more accurate title might be "Law Firms With Highest Foreign Presence."
Posted by Anupam Chander on November 17, 2009 at 09:58 AM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 20, 2009
"Exposed: The Erosion of Privacy in the Internet Era"
Harvard Magazine runs a nice piece discussing the "ambivalence we sometimes feel about new technologies that reveal identifiable personal information."
Latanya Sweeney's research, in particular, is pretty startling: "Fully 87 percent of the United States population is uniquely identified by date of birth, five-digit zip code, and gender, she says: “So if I know only those three things about you, I can identify you by name 87 percent of the time. Pretty cool.”"
Posted by Anupam Chander on October 20, 2009 at 01:16 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Yale Journal of International Law Symposium on My "Trade 2.0" Paper
The Yale Journal of International Law is hosting a symposium on my new paper, Trade 2.0, at the online site, Opinio Juris. My first entry in the symposium is titled: "The New Global Traders on Your iPhone." International trade expert Mark Wu will provide the commentary.
Posted by Anupam Chander on October 20, 2009 at 06:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 22, 2009
Will Standard Chartered Be the First Foreign Company to List on an Indian Exchange?
According to the Wall Street Journal:
U.K.-based financial-services company Standard Chartered PLC is expected to file paperwork with Indian securities regulators as soon as this week to become the first foreign company to list its shares on an Indian stock exchange, according to people familiar with the matter.
Posted by Anupam Chander on September 22, 2009 at 08:53 PM in Globalization, International Finance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 16, 2009
Disintermediation: Vertical Integration in Cult Bands
After a seven year hiatus, the British pop band Cornershop has released its new album, Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast. The album is self-published; there appears to be no record company other than the band itself. In the U.S., the CD is available through Amazon as a $36.98 import. But the band sells it directly on its own site for 10 British pounds, payable through Paypal. This includes shipping world-wide:
SHIPPING COSTS, TIMES AND METHODS All prices include package and postage worldwide. Cornershop endeavour to despatch your online order within 3-5 working days of receipt (subject to stock availability). Please allow up to 28 days for delivery when an item is out of stock. All digital downloads (MP3s) are simply & immediately downloaded by yrselves after Paypal procedure. In need of shop help? Please contact info@cornershop.comThis is certainly not the first album to be released directly by the band without a record company, but is less commonplace among popular bands (Cornershop's Brimful of Asha reached #1 in the UK in 1998.
A sign of things to come?
Posted by Anupam Chander on September 16, 2009 at 08:49 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 13, 2009
George Allen Offers Yet Another Explanation for Macaca: "Alliteration"
The Washington Post describes a "humble" George Allen's effort to rehabilitate his image for reentry into the public sphere. Along the way, Allen offers yet another, in the long list of ever-shifting explanations for the term:
"It was alliteration or something," he says. "I don't know the word. I should not have called him anything aside from the fellow in the yellow shirt. . . . It was a mistake. That was not intended to insult anyone. It's not my nature. I'm a generally jovial, happy person. Nonetheless, it was a mistake on my part and I apologize for it even if it was unintentional."
The alliteration hunt here might make for a good, if frustrating, third grade exercise:
Looking at Sidarth, Allen said: "This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent... Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."
My favorite of the earlier explanations (which are helpfully cataloged here by Media Matters, in their full dizzying glory):
Apparently, Allen happened to alliterate--twice--in referring to the Indian-American Virginian college student.
The Washington Post photograph of Allen in his office accompanying its story has a poster with the word "Consistency" proudly emblazoned.
Posted by Anupam Chander on August 13, 2009 at 01:57 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 06, 2009
Who Owns Saddam's Pistol?
The New York Times reports that it is likely that the handgun found in the "spider hole" where Saddam Hussein hid is likely to go on display at the President George W. Bush Library.
The Times reports this chain of custody of the weapon:
The odyssey of the gun began on Dec. 13, 2003, when Mr. Hussein was discovered in the 8-foot-deep hole on a farm near Tikrit. Delta Force soldiers did not see the gun at first, said Steve Russell, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who helped lead the mission and is now a Oklahoma state senator.
Mr. Russell said Mr. Hussein had been crouched on all fours, the gun on the floor. The soldiers kept the rare pistol, which can fire bullets automatically, with two AK-47s found in the farmhouse, he said.
In early 2004, one of the soldiers came up with the idea of presenting the gun to Mr. Bush. On March 1 that year, the Delta Force men surprised the president with the pistol at an Oval Office meeting.
Weapons uncovered during combat operations should rightfully be put out of commission by troops, but should those weapons automatically belong to the victor? The weapons certainly are not the property of the victorious soldiers themselves, no matter how much we appreciate their service. Perhaps the Government of Iraq properly transfered the weapon to the United States. There is certainly international law on this issue, and I hope that the United States has followed that law closely.Perhaps the Iraqi museums, who lost many of their artifacts during the invasion, might have wanted to display this trophy. After all, the people who suffered most under that gun were the people of Iraq. From ancestral relics to Elgin Marbles to jewels, countries newly-freed often keenly feel the loss of national treasures. Perhaps that feeling might extend even to objects of infamy.
Posted by Anupam Chander on July 6, 2009 at 10:34 AM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
