One of the defining characteristics of U.S. IP policy in the last 16 years has been an inevitable move towards stronger protection, while in IT the move has been towards laissez-faire deregulation of media. Many people politically classed as either liberal or progressive have come to expect nothing but bad Read more…
This topic has little to do with IT Law, but it is part of my growing interest in the use of science for policy-making. This video on YouTube has to be seen to be believed. There is an assumption that growth is good, our economic system relies entirely on steady Read more…
The technology media has been filled with the story of the partnership dispute between One Laptop Per Child and Intel. For those unfamiliar with the story, OLPC is a non-profit organisation which produces affordable laptops to be sold to developing countries so that they can be distributed to children. The Read more…
One of the surprises from my trip to Costa Rica has been the prevalence in the media of stories regarding internet fraud, phishing and other hacking attacks. Back in August the police arrested 16 individuals involved in identity theft in order to remove ¢800 million CRC (about $1.6 million USD) Read more…
The EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, is on his way to the United States to continue compensation talks with trade representatives in order to reach a settlement over the internet gambling ban. Mandelson has commented that the US should not discriminate against EU online gambling firms. The US lost the Read more…
Costa Rica held a referendum on Sunday October 7th to decide whether or not it would approve the Dominican Republic and Central America Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and the ayes have the day with 51.6% against 48.4% nays. I have always been conflicted about DR-CAFTA. This is Read more…
Those following free trade agreements and TRIPS-plus agreements will be familiar with the tortuous approval process of the Dominican Republic and Central American Free Trade Agreement in Costa Rica (DR-CAFTA). While all other signatory states have already approved the agreement, Costa Rica is still in the process of passing it Read more…
Abbe Brown, Jordan Hatcher and yours truly have started a new blog as part of a research project on the practicalities of free trade agreements in the signatory countries.
Continuing the series of stories from Costa Rica, the Costa Rican govenrment has started to implement a series of measures to reduce the digital divide between the information haves and have-nots. Starting in February, the government will be offering computer and internet connections at affordable prices. For as little as Read more…
The Commission on International Affairs of the Costa Rican legislature has approved CAFTA amidst strong opposition from students, intellectuals and union leaders. The vote in the commission was 6-3 in favour of sending the agreement to the plenary for it to be voted. As mentioned earlier, some of the less Read more…