Techdirt Podcast Episode 252: The Key To Encryption

from the or-lack-thereof dept

This week we've got another cross-post, with the latest episode of The Neoliberal Podcast from the Progressive Policy Institute. Host Jeremiah Johnson invited Mike, along with PPI's Alec Stapp, to discuss everything about encryption: the concept itself, the attempts at laws and regulations, and more.

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Filed Under: alec stapp, encryption, jeremiah johnson, podcast

Techdirt Podcast Episode 251: Don't Sweat The Copycats

from the monkii-around dept

The standard operating procedure for most companies is to freak out about copycat products, and usually to use intellectual property laws to fight them tooth and nail — even at the expense of other aspects of the business that could use a lot more attention. Today, we're talking to the founder of a company that takes a more nuanced, less panicked approach: Dan Vinson is the creator of Monkii Bars, which launched with a Kickstarter that embraced and celebrated people making DIY copies, and he joins us this week to discuss a better way to think about copycats, and the advantages it brings.

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Filed Under: copycat, copying, dan vinson, podcast
Companies: monkii

Techdirt Podcast Episode 250: Modeling The Pandemic

from the different-approaches dept

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, nobody really knows what's going to happen — especially if kids start going back to school. Statistical models of the possibilities abound, but this week we're joined by some people who are taking a different approach: John Cordier and Don Burke are the founders of Epistemix, which is using a new agent-based modeling approach to figure out what the future of the pandemic might look like.

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Filed Under: coronavirus, covid, health, pandemic, podcast
Companies: epistemix

Techdirt Podcast Episode 248: The Most Serious Threat To Section 230

from the among-many dept

Attacks on Section 230 are relentless and coming from all sides — so we've got another podcast all about the attempts to ruin the most important law on the internet. This week, we're joined by Riana Pfefferkorn, the Associate Director of Surveillance and Cybersecurity at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, to discuss what is currently the most serious threat of all: the latest incarnation of the disastrous and nonsensical EARN IT Act.

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Filed Under: free speech, internet, podcast, policy, riana pfefferkorn, section 230

Techdirt Podcast Episode 247: Trust & Safety Has A Posse

from the overlooked dept

As the debates about content moderation rage on, it is becoming increasingly clear that most people don't know a whole lot about how large internet platforms actually handle these decisions — namely, that they have teams of people who have been working and studying under the "trust and safety" umbrella for a long time. Recently, an association and related foundation were launched to help bring these experts into the public conversation, and this week we've got two of the founding board members — Adelin Cai and Clara Tsao — joining us on the podcast to discuss the actual process of addressing tough content moderation choices.

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Filed Under: content moderation, free speech, podcast, social media, trust and safety

Techdirt Podcast Episode 246: The Latest Attacks On Section 230

from the the-fight-is-on dept

Last week, the attacks on Section 230 kicked into high gear with Senator Hawley's bill and the DOJ recommendations both coming out on the same day. As usual, the content of the bill and recommendations — and the discussion around them — is a huge mess, so this week we've got returning guests Emma Llansó and Cathy Gellis joining us to discuss just what's going on with Section 230 and what these proposals would do.

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Filed Under: doj, free speech, josh hawley, podcast, section 230, technology

Techdirt Podcast Episode 245: Pandemic Privacy

from the ethical-questions dept

COVID-19 has thrust old questions about privacy into the spotlight, often with new and different framing, and has raised the big question of whether our conception of privacy needs to change entirely in the midst of a pandemic. On this week's episode, we're joined by reporter, analyst and investor Esther Dyson to discuss the challenging ethical quandaries raised by the pandemic.

Also, as a bonus, Dyson (who is a former founding chair of ICANN) takes a moment at the beginning to respond to our recent episode with Mike Godwin.

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Filed Under: podcast, privacy

Techdirt Podcast Episode 244: Section 230 & Trump's Executive Order

from the more-than-16-minutes dept

This week, we've got a special cross-post from 16 Minutes On The News — an excellent tech podcast by a16z that's well worth subscribing to. For the latest episode, host Sonal Chokshi interviewed Mike all about Section 230 and Trump's recent executive order about social media — and as you might imagine, it took a lot longer than 16 minutes! We've got the complete interview here on the Techdirt Podcast.

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Filed Under: donald trump, executive order, podcast, section 230
Companies: a16z

Techdirt Podcast Episode 243: The .ORG Deal Post-Mortem, With Mike Godwin

from the the-podcast-returns dept

We're back! It's been a while since the last podcast, for obvious reasons, but today we've got a new episode following up on something we discussed with Mike Godwin in January: the Internet Society's proposed sale of the .org domain registry. That deal has since been cancelled, and some groups including the EFF assert that it showed ISOC can't be trusted to handle the registry, so this week Godwin joins us again to discuss what happened in more detail.

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Filed Under: .org, internet society, mike godwin, podcast, technology