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 (2) | TrackBack

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