Timothy B. Lee, adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, a contributor to Ars Technica, and blogger at Forbes.com, discusses the recent patent wars and the prospects for reform. Over the last two decades, large software companies like Microsoft and Apple began acquiring a significant number of patents, gaining the power to shut down or demand payment from any software company that might inadvertently infringe those patents. Lee talks about Google’s entry into the patent game, particularly with the acquisition of Motorola. He also discusses the theory behind these patent wars and how the use of patents have been altered from incentives for innovation to a litigation shield. Finally, Lee talks about different proposals for patent reform, including a first to file scheme that is part of the America Invents Act.

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Related Links

• “Mostly pointless patent reform bill goes to Obama for signature”, Ars Technica
• “Specialist Patent Courts Are Part Of The Problem”, Forbes.com
• “Google, Motorola and the Patent Wars”, The Wall Street Journal

Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent for CNET and former Washington bureau chief for Wired News, discusses WikiLeaks. McCullagh gives a quick recap of the WikiLeaks saga so far, comments on the consequences of the leaks themselves, and talks about the broader significance of the affair. He also offers a few insights into Julian Assange’s ideology based on his interactions with Assange in early ’90s cypherpunk circles. Lastly, McCullagh discusses the future of diplomacy and the chance that Assange will be indicted in the United States.


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Related Links

• “DOJ sends order to Twitter for Wikileaks-related account info”, by McCullagh
• “Assange legal case could hang on contradiction”, by McCullagh
• “Amid criticism, WikiLeaks shifts focus”, by McCullagh
• “Wikileaks’ war files disclosure roils Washington”, by McCullagh

Evgeny Morozov, a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributor to Foreign Policy, the Boston Review, and the Wall Street Journal, talks about his new book, The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. Morozov first discusses misperceptions about the effectiveness of American broadcasts and pamphlets to promote democracy and liberty during the Cold War. He then suggests consequences of bringing such historical baggage to internet policymaking, pointing out that many people today have faulty assumptions about the power of internet freedom to effect change in places like China, Russia, and Iran.


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Related Links

• “Freedom.gov: Why Washington’s support for online democracy is the worst thing ever to happen to the Internet”, by Morozov
• “Technological Utopianism”, by Morozov
• “Battling the Cyber Warmongers”, by Morozov

Milton Mueller, Professor and Director of the Telecommunications Network Management Program at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, discusses his new book, Networks and States: The Global Politics of Internet Governance. Mueller begins by talking about Wikileaks’ recent leak of diplomatic cables, using the incident to elaborate on the meaning of internet governance. He notes the distinction between traditional centralized systems of authority and peer-produced, distributed governance that rules much of cyberspace. He also discusses global democracy, contradictions in cyber libertarian views, judicial checks and balances on the internet, and future issues in internet governance.


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Related Links

• “Mueller’s Networks and States = Classical Liberalism for the Information Age”, by Adam Thierer
• “Why Wikileaks polarizes America’s Internet politics”, by Mueller
• “How to Discredit Net Neutrality”, by Mueller
• “‘Networks and States’ at the Internet Governance Forum”, by Mueller

Bruce Yandle, Dean Emeritus at Clemson College of Business and Behavioral Sciences and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Economics for the Mercatus Center’s Capital Hill Campus, discusses the rise of national TV broadcasting and the spread of health, safety, and environmental regulation in mid-20th century America. The discussion also turns to the history of regulation in the United States, the decline of common law and the growth of code law, and the death (and return) of good beer in America.


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Related Links

• National TV Broadcasting the Rise of the Regulatory State by Bruce Yandle (pay content)
• Bootleggers and Baptists at Wikipedia
• Raising Railroad Rates: Trying to Stop Ruinous Competition from the October 25, 1881 New York Times
• Regulatory Capture at Wikipedia
• Agency Cost at Wikipedia
• Public Bads and Public Nuisance: Common Law Remedies for Environmental Decline by Karol Boudreaux and Bruce Yandle (pay content)
• Common Law at Wikipedia
• The Rise of the Chicago Packers and the Origins of Meat Inspection and Antitrust by Gary Libecap (pay content)
• Video Killed the Franchise Star: The Consumer Cost of Cable Franchising and Proposed Policy Alternatives by Jerry Brito and Jerry Ellig
• The Common Law and Economic Growth: Hayek Might Be Right by Paul G. Mahoney (pdf)