The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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Syntax highlighting
I’ve been progressively building and adding to the custom-designed Halcyon theme that I’m using for this site. The latest round of changes includes support for code syntax highlighting in posts and static pages, which is powered by a combination of prism.js and some CSS styling. Read more →
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Facebook and the 2011 London riots
Be careful what you write. In R v Blackwell [2011] EWCA Crim 2312, Lord Judge CJ offers this blunt description of the role played by “modern technology” (principally Facebook, Blackberry’s BBM protocol, Twitter and SMS messaging) in the recent London riots. Rejecting the appellants’ argument that incitement via Facebook was a less serious offence because… Read more →
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FCC adopts new network neutrality rules on unstable jurisdictional ground
After months of consultation and over 100 000 submissions, the Federal Communications Commission has adopted an order which requires providers of a “broadband internet access service” to comply with its three principles of network neutrality: The Commission adopts three basic protections that are grounded in broadly accepted Internet norms, as well as our own prior decisions.… Read more →
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High Court of Australia grants leave to appeal iiNet ruling
Today the High Court of Australia granted leave to appeal against the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia in Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd. I haven’t been able to uncover a copy of the transcript or a list of the grounds of appeal, but the appellants are likely… Read more →
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Guardian interview with Professor Tim Wu: the Internet as a teenager
The Guardian is running an interview with Professor Tim Wu, who recently published The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires . I’m about three quarters of the way through the book, which offers a refreshingly detailed comparison between regulation of early communications networks in the 19th and 20th centuries and the future… Read more →
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Digital avatars as risk-free social substitutes: Scruton
Philosopher Roger Scruton offers this Hegelian critique of our growing digital lives: This process of raising ourselves above the animal condition is crucial, as the Hegelians emphasized, to the growth of the human subject as a self-knowing agent, capable of entertaining and acting from reasons, and with a developed first-person perspective and a sense of… Read more →
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European Electronic Communications Package moves closer to UK transposition
The UK government is preparing to transpose Directive 2002/21/EC on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (the Framework) into UK law. The Framework is a new regulatory package that will affect how service providers supply email, telecommunications and internet access services, but it seems to have received very little attention. The… Read more →
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WikiLeaks roundup: a selection of the best analysis
The WikiLeaks controversy continues to capture headlines and provoke vitriol from governments around the world. Most reactions, however, have been surprisingly unsophisticated. Commentators repeatedly conflate WIkiLeaks the platform with its spokesperson, Julian Assange (who is, whatever your opinion of the man, largely irrelevant), assume the platform’s actions are unlawful (probably not — and this is… Read more →
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Google bookstore: closed platform or platform innovator?
Has openness become a mere buzzword? I’m not arguing that “openness” is a bad thing in the tech business. What I’m saying is that it is not an unmitigated virtue, and it’s not necessarily the first thing people should care about when they’re shopping for a product. I’m glad that Google has introduced its new… Read more →