Techdirt Podcast Episode 212: Breaking Facebook, With Mike Godwin And David Kaye

from the facing-the-book dept

The topic of what (if anything) to do with Facebook was hardly fading from public discourse anyway, but it received a bump when co-founder Chris Hughes called for the company to be broken up. This week, we've got two returning guests on the podcast with plenty to say on the subject — UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression David Kaye, and famed internet lawyer Mike Godwin — to discuss the many sides of the Facebook question.

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Filed Under: david kaye, mike godwin, regulation, social media
Companies: facebook

Techdirt Podcast Episode 211: Politicians (Usually) Don't Understand Technology

from the shocking,-I-know dept

The regulation of technology is an extremely important issue that impacts all our lives, but it tends to take a back seat in the world of mainstream politics, and when it does come to the fore, the lack of knowledge on display among elected representatives can be... disheartening, to say the least. In some ways that's starting to change as a generation of people who grew up with modern technology gets more and more involved in politics, but we're still a long, long way away from having a majority of tech-savvy (or even tech-literate) lawmakers. This week, we're joined by lawyer and pioneering law blogger Denise Howell to discuss the challenge of even determining whether a politician knows what they are talking about when it comes to tech.

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Filed Under: internet, podcast, politics, regulation, technology

Techdirt Podcast Episode 210: Cory Doctorow On Anti-Circumvention (And More)

from the dmca-fiction dept

Whether it's from his novels, or his work for the EFF and others, most of you probably know all about Cory Doctorow. He last joined the podcast two years ago to discuss his book Walkaway, and this week he's back to talk about his latest book, Radicalized — a collection of four novellas, the first of which is directly based on the issues with the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. Check out the episode for a discussion about the book, anti-circumvention, tech companies, and more.

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Filed Under: anti-circumvention, copyright, cory doctorow, dmca, podcast

Techdirt Podcast Episode 209: The Past & Future Of Section 230

from the vital-law dept

Of all the laws we discuss here at Techdirt, probably none comes up as often or in relation to as many things as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It's not an exaggeration to describe it the way Professor Jeff Kosseff does in the title of his new book, The Twenty-Six Words That Created The Internet, offering a detailed history of this vital piece of law. This week, Jeff joins us on the podcast for an in-depth discussion about where Section 230 came from, and where it's going.

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Filed Under: cda 230, jeff kosseff, podcast, section 230

Techdirt Podcast Episode 208: A Free Speech Chat With FIRE

from the content-moderation-and-more dept

It's time for another special cross-post from a different podcast. Mike was recently a guest on the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's So To Speak podcast, for an interview about Techdirt, free speech, content moderation, and a range of other topics. If you didn't catch it there, you can listen to the whole interview here in this week's episode.

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Filed Under: content moderation, fire, free speech, podcast

Techdirt Podcast Episode 207: MEP Julia Reda Explains What's Next With The EU Copyright Directive

from the post-vote dept

Unfortunately, as you know by now, the EU Parliament approved the current (disastrous) version of the EU Copyright Directive, which is now on track to become the law of the land. It's not good, but things aren't quite over yet. For this week's episode, we've got returning guest MEP Julia Reda — who has been a key force opposing the terrible articles in the Directive — to talk about what happens now.

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Filed Under: copyright, eu copyright directive, europe, julia reda, podcast

Techdirt Podcast Episode 206: Charter Cities & Innovative Governance

from the new-ideas dept

We're pretty optimistic about innovation here at Techdirt, but it isn't an automatic good thing all by itself: implementation and intention matters, and that means political entanglements and complicated questions about governance, and that calls for big, new ideas. This week, we're joined by Tamara Winter from the Center for Innovative Governance Research to discuss new experiments in government like charter cities and special autonomous zones.

Also, learn more about Shenzhen, the Val D'Europe, and the original vision for Disney World.

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Filed Under: charter cities, governance, government, podcast, tamara winter

Techdirt Podcast Episode 205: The Surveillance State, With Marcy Wheeler

from the metadata-matters dept

We've been covering surveillance and the intelligence community for a long time here at Techdirt, but if you had to limit yourself to just one source on the subject, even we'd probably recommend you choose Marcy Wheeler. Following the recent news that the NSA has apparently shut down its bulk records collection program — the first exposed by Edward Snowden — Marcy joins us on this week's episode to discuss the surveillance state and why it might abandon Section 215.

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Filed Under: marcy wheeler, metadata, nsa, podcast, privacy, section 215, surveillance

Techdirt Podcast Episode 204: The Failure Of High Tech Policing

from the bad-tech-or-bad-cops dept

Sometimes people ask us why we write so much about the police on Techdirt. Though our coverage has grown somewhat beyond the boundaries of incidents directly involving technology, the reality is that the problems with law enforcement persistently intersect with the same technological and legal issues we've always discussed here. But this week the focus is squarely on cops and technology: Mike is joined by Matt Stroud, author of the new book Thin Blue Lie, as well as our own Tim Cushing, to talk about the failure of high-tech policing.

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Filed Under: law enforcement, podcast, police, technology
Companies: taser

Techdirt Podcast Episode 203: Crying Wolf Over Conservative Censorship

from the conspiracy-theory dept

You've heard the uproar — conservatives are being censored on social media! But... are they? The short answer is no. The long answer is this week's podcast, with Lincoln Network policy head Zach Graves joining us for a discussion about the misinformation, hyperbole and general ridiculousness surrounding supposed social media bias.

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Filed Under: censorship, moderation, podcast, social media
Companies: facebook, google, twitter, youtube