By Brent Skorup and Melody Calkins Recently, the FCC sought comments for its Media Modernization Initiative in its effort to “eliminate or modify regulations that are outdated, unnecessary, or...
https://techliberation.com/2017/08/15/modernizing-us-media-regulations-our-fcc-comments/
At the same time FilmOn, an Aereo look-alike, is seeking a compulsory license to broadcast TV content, free market advocates in Congress and officials at the Copyright Office are trying to remove...
A bill before Congress would for the first time require radio broadcasters to pay royalty fees to recording artists and record labels pursuant to the Copyright Act. The proposed Fair Play Fair Pa...
https://techliberation.com/2015/04/19/the-wrong-way-to-end-the-terrestrial-radio-exemption/
Last week, two very interesting events happened in the world of copyright and content piracy. First, the Pirate Bay, the infamous torrent hosting site, was raided by police and removed from the I...
https://techliberation.com/2014/12/15/the-mpaa-still-doesnt-get-it/
In 2012, the US Chamber of Commerce put out a report claiming that intellectual property is responsible for 55 million US jobs—46 percent of private sector employment. This is a ridiculous sta...
Last week, the Mercatus Center and the R Street Institute co-hosted a video discussion about copyright law. I participated in the Google Hangout, along with co-liberator Tom Bell of Chapman Law S...
https://techliberation.com/2014/06/09/has-copyright-gone-too-far-watch-this-hangout-to-find-out/
Adam and I recently published a Mercatus research paper titled Video Marketplace Regulation: A Primer on the History of Television Regulation And Current Legislative Proposals, now available on S...
https://techliberation.com/2014/05/05/skorup-and-thierer-paper-on-tv-regulation/
Last week, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University published the new book by Tom W. Bell, Intellectual Privilege: Copyright, Common Law, and the Common Good, which Eugene Volokh calls “A...
https://techliberation.com/2014/05/05/book-event-on-wednesday-a-libertarian-vision-of-copyright/
Aereo’s antenna system is frequently characterized perjoratively as a Rube Goldberg contraption, including in the Supreme Court oral arguments. Funny enough, Preston Padden, a veteran televisio...
https://techliberation.com/2014/04/24/the-bizarro-world-of-tv-and-aereo/
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will soon consider whether to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) set to expire at the end of the y...
https://techliberation.com/2014/03/04/repeal-satellite-television-law/
I’m pleased to announce that Alex Tabarrok and I have a new working paper out from the Mercatus Center today, “Public Choice and Bloomington School Perspectives on Intellectual Property.” T...
https://techliberation.com/2013/11/21/new-dourado-and-tabarrok-paper-on-intellectual-property/
Anupam Chander, Director of the California International Law Center and Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall Research Scholar at the UC Davis School of Law, discusses his recent paper with co-author Uyen...
https://techliberation.com/2013/11/12/anupam-chander-on-free-speech-and-cyberlaw/
Ryan Radia is one of the few people in the world with whom it is a true pleasure to discuss copyright issues. We see eye to eye on almost everything, but there is enough difference in our perspec...
Two weeks ago, with much fanfare, PiracyData.org went live. Created by co-liberators Jerry Brito and Eli Dourado, along with Matt Sherman, the website tracks TorrentFreak’s list of which movies...
The launch of our new site PiracyData.org has predictably stirred up a good debate and I thought I’d chime in with a couple of thoughts. First I’d like to address the assertion by some, inclu...
https://techliberation.com/2013/10/16/getting-to-the-heart-of-the-piracy-debate/
Today, we launched PiracyData.org, a site that takes the top ten most pirated movies of the week and mashes them up with data on legal online availability. Our hope is to build an extensive time-...
https://techliberation.com/2013/10/15/launch-day-glitches-at-piracydata-org/
Today, Eli Dourado, Matt Sherman, and I launched PiracyData.org, a very simple site that tries to help answer the question, are the most-pirated movies each week available for legal streaming, di...
https://techliberation.com/2013/10/15/are-the-most-pirated-movies-available-legally-online/
Over the past year, as the debate over internet radio royalty rates has raged, I have been a lonely voice calling for the repeal for compulsory licensing of digital performance rights altogether....
https://techliberation.com/2013/10/01/mel-watt-proposes-true-internet-radio-fairness/
Yesterday the MPAA issued a report commissioned from the global PR firm Millward Brown looking at "the role of search in online piracy." This coincided with the RIAA's Cary Sherman testimony befo...
It’s been over five years since Congress passed major legislation addressing copyright protection, but this hasn’t stopped copyright owners from achieving real progress in securing their expr...
https://techliberation.com/2013/09/18/securing-copyrights-through-voluntary-cooperation/
No doubt I won’t be the only one to point out how funny it is that today’s New York Times front page exposé on the excesses of the Renewable Fuel Standard puts the blame on Wall Street firms...
https://techliberation.com/2013/09/15/how-intellectual-property-rights-are-like-ethanol-credits/
Yesterday, Time Warner Cable and CBS reached a deal to end the weeks-long impasse that had resulted in CBS being blacked out in over 3 million U.S. households. I predicted the two companies wou...
https://techliberation.com/2013/09/03/cbs-time-warner-cable-make-a-deal-to-end-blackout/
There are few things more likely to get constituents to call their representative than TV programming blackouts, and the increase in broadcasting disruptions arising from licensing disputes in re...
https://techliberation.com/2013/08/15/aereo-congress-rescuer/
Sherwin Siy, Vice President of Legal Affairs at Public Knowledge, discusses emerging issues in digital copyright policy. He addresses the Department of Commerce's recent green paper on digital co...
https://techliberation.com/2013/08/13/sherwin-siy-on-digital-copyright/
Patrick Ruffini, political strategist, author, and President of Engage, a digital agency in Washington, DC, discusses his latest book with coauthors David Segal and David Moon: Hacking Politics: ...
https://techliberation.com/2013/07/02/patrick-ruffini-on-the-defeat-of-sopa/
Richard Brandt, technology journalist and author, discusses his new book, One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.Com. Brandt discusses Bezos’ entrepreneurial drive, his business philosoph...
Gina Keating, author of Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs, discusses the startup of Netflix and their competition with Blockbuster. http://surprisinglyfree.com/wp-content/uploads/...
Earlier this year, Ryan Radia and I spilled a lot of ink on these pages critiquing the various “cell phone unlocking” bills that were introduced in reaction to a successful White House petiti...
Over at Freedom to Tinker, Steve Schultze has a response to my Reason article about Craigslist suing its competitors. Steve expresses some surprise that I would suggest that we might want to reco...
https://techliberation.com/2013/05/09/a-response-to-steve-it-still-doesnt-sit-well/
Over at Reason I take a look at the recent controversy around Craigslist suing some smaller competitors who have been using its listings data without permission. While I agree with most commentat...