Barry Lynn, the critic of monopolies fired this week from the New America Foundation, insisted in emails to his superiors that pressure from Google got him and his Open Markets program terminated. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the think tank’s CEO, has denied… Read More ›
Archive for August 2017
Stupid Patent of the Month: JP Morgan Patents Interapp Permissions
We have often criticized the Patent Office for issuing broad software patents that cover obvious processes. Instead of promoting innovation in software, the patent system places landmines for developers who wish to use basic and fundamental tools. This month’s stupid… Read More ›
Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU Win Court Ruling That Police Can't Keep License Plate Data Secret
Police Have Collected Data on Millions of Law-Abiding Drivers Via License Readers San Francisco, California—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU won a decision by the California Supreme Court that the license plate data of millions of law-abiding drivers, collected… Read More ›
The New CEO of Uber Sits on the Board of The New York Times Company
On Wednesday, the New York Times wrote about a Google-funded think tank terminating an entire team run by an anti-monopoly scholar who was critical of Google’s practices. It is an important story about how corporate interests, by virtue of their position inside… Read More ›
How I Got Fired From a D.C. Think Tank for Fighting Against the Power of Google
In 2010, while I was pushing to break up big banks because they had become too powerful, I started to realize that the problem in America wasn’t just big banks, it was corporate monopolies. But it was hard to find… Read More ›
Student Privacy Tips for Teachers
The new school year starts next week for most schools across the country. As part of the first line of defense in protecting student privacy, teachers need to be ready to spot the implications of new technology and advocate for their… Read More ›
Google-Funded Think Tank Fired Google Critics After They Dared Criticize Google
The New America Foundation’s Open Markets group was a rare, loud voice of protest against Google’s ever-growing consolidation of economic and technological power around the world. But New America, like many of its fellow think tanks, received millions in funding… Read More ›
Judge Cracks Down on LinkedIn’s Shameful Abuse of Computer Break-In Law
Good news out of a court in San Francisco: a judge just issued an early ruling against LinkedIn’s abuse of the notorious Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to block a competing service from perfectly legal uses of publicly available… Read More ›
Taking the Fight to the Appeals Court: Don’t Lock Laws Behind Paywalls
It’s almost too strange to believe, but a federal court ruled earlier this year that copyright can be used to control access to parts of our state and federal laws—forcing people to pay a fee or sign a contract to… Read More ›
In Europe, Hate Speech Laws are Often Used to Suppress and Punish Left-Wing Viewpoints
Terrorist attacks, and the emotions they spawn, almost always prompt calls for fundamental legal rights to be curtailed in the name of preventing future attacks. The formula by now is routine: The victims of the horrific violence are held up as… Read More ›