My parents received a Google TV (the Sony version) for Christmas. Being the visiting technophile, I was tasked with setting up the device and teaching my parents how to work it. I had previously set up the exact same device for my roommates over the summer in San Francisco, so I was familiar with the set-up and the device itself. This post is a brief review of the set-up process, followed by my thoughts on the concept of Google TV and similar systems.
Today, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). SOPA — along with its Senate counterpart, PROTECT-IP — is a disaster waiting to happen. Calling it a blunt instrument would be a compliment. Essentially, it gives private actors the extrajudicial power to cut off traffic and advertising money to sites that are 99.9% legitimate, but happen to have a few links or pages related to infringing materials. I’m not talking about random websites, either: Etsy. Flickr. Tumblr. All of them could face crippling liability that undercuts the existing DMCA notice-and-takedown system that — while most definitely imperfect — has enabled the birth and flourishing some of the most innovative websites we have today.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Thank you, Steve Jobs, and rest in peace.
Image: cc-by-nc-sa / jmywuaco
So the iPhone 4S looks like an awesome phone, and I agree with those who argue that — viewed in a vacuum — yesterday’s announcement was not a “disappointment.” The phone may look the same, but it’s completely souped up and new inside. It’s a big upgrade.
However, we do not live in a vacuum. Apple’s secrecy game — and its likely side game of spawning rumors to build up excitement — laid the foundation for the disappointment many are feeling. There have been rumblings about an iPhone 5, sporting a new hardware design, for months. I knew of several friends waiting to see what the iPhone 5 was like before deciding on their next phone. Then more recently, there came rumors of two iPhones being announced — an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S. Two iPhones on one day? That would be big.
I don’t know if Apple started these rumors, or if they were true and Apple recently changed its plans, or if it’s just the case of third-party-guesses-turned-predictions… but people are finding yesterday disappointing because Apple did nothing to react to the clamoring rumor mill pre-launch. The launch was disappointing, but the product launched was not.
EFF posted an update on the situation regarding the export of digital speech tools from the United States to sanctioned countries like Syria. The good news is that in its recent escalation of sanctions against Syria, the Obama administration provided a general license for certain Internet technologies related to the exchange of personal communications online. The bad news is that the Commerce Department continues to prohibit the export of certain tools and services. EFF is stepping up and offering to help willing companies get licenses or advisory opinions to make their tools available.
Underneath all of this is an important issue: under several amendments to the President’s export regulation powers, these executive agencies arguably do not have the power to control exports of digital speech tools in the first place. The Berman Amendment — and later the Free Trade in Ideas Amendment — prohibit the President from regulating the export or import of “information or informational materials.” The President may not regulate information either directly or indirectly.
A couple of weeks ago, the William and Mary Law Review approved my proposal to write my student note on this very argument. I will study cases from the past decades that have interpreted those amendments in the context of other media — such as book publishing, live sport broadcasting, and paintings — and then go through both a statutory analysis and policy argument that will show that it is not only illegal for the President to regulate the export of digital speech tools, but also in our best foreign policy interests.
More to come as I develop my research, but kudos to EFF for keeping the pressure up and offering to help out here. It’s an important issue and will likely continue to be so as the “Arab Spring” and related movements persist.
© 2012 Jarred Taylor. Some Rights Reserved. 
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