If I can amplify a bit on a post at the Cato blog earlier today, I want to clarify that I fully agree some of the ISP behaviors that net neutrality proponents have identified as demanding a regulatory response really are seriously problematic. My point of departure is that I’d rather see if there are […]

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And not even resting that much, but as I noted earlier, expect to see a good deal more of my blogging over at Cato@Liberty these days. Here’s a long one on the recent call for more regulation of behavioral ads—which, believe it or not, I only mostly disagree with.

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I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say “net neutrality is crap,” but John Dvorak’s column sums up the substance if not quite the tone of my feelings on the issue—which is to say, it’s a  disconcertingly nebulous solution to a thus-far largely hypothetical problem. It’s certainly understandable that people think it’s important […]

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The stories appear so frequently these days that it’s practically a new genre: The lawsuit over some patent claiming monopoly on a bang-your-head-on-a-desk obvious procedure, emerging from the shadows to threaten a technology that’s long been ubiquitous.  The most recent instance is likely to get some play outside the tech press because it’s resulted in […]

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Sometimes I swear the Times runs articles just to make my head hurt. Consider this op-ed by one Robert X. Cringely, who does actually appear to be a fictional character dreamt up by Arthur Sulzburger (or other, darker forces) to be the instrument of my torment: Microsoft makes most of its money from two products, […]

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I think it’s probably a mistake to extrapolate too much from one kid’s anecdotes about his circle of friends, but researcher danah boyd has also basically found that average teens aren’t leading early adoption of Twitter in the same way that they did with social networking sites. And it strikes me that Twitter is subject […]

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I’m flattered to learn, via Techdirt, that Rep. Robert Wexler—by which I mean, in all likelihood, a 20-something staffer in his office—is among the readers of this humble blog. I’m slightly chagrined to see the idea of the “one-way hash argument” invoked on behalf of copyright maximalism: Julian Sanchez from CATO has discussed this exact […]

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Peter Suderman’s post on why, in the present context, Republicans should be a little less Twitterpated and a little more focused on old-fashioned blogging seems exactly right to me. A better way to circulate soundbites is great, but right now the party needs to work on churning out some actual substantive ideas that it can […]

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Much as I hate to admit it, and much as I regard the vast majority of people pushing the “Internet makes us dumber” line as vacuous douchebags, this seems about right. Addendum: A commenter objects that the Internet is not displacing more “worthy” activities (reading Proust, socializing) but merely providing a new way to do […]

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I could probably write a post running several thousand words just listing all the issues on which I disagree with legal/political theorist Cass Sunstein, but I was nevertheless pretty sanguine about news of his appointment to head the Office of Information an Regulatory Affairs. Via David Weinberger, I see that Sunstein is the latest victim […]

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