Digital Life


Updates to the Media Page

2012 is off to a fast start, and we’re trying hard just to keep up. We’ve already added over thirty posts to the Media Page, including articles, radio and television interviews, and quotes in a wide range of online and offline publications. There are several video and audio clips for your enjoyment. The year began [...]

What Makes an Idea a Meme?

On Forbes today, I look at the phenomenon of memes in the legal and economic context, using my now notorious “Best Buy” post as an example. Along the way, I talk antitrust, copyright, trademark, network effects, Robert Metcalfe and Ronald Coase. It’s now been a month and a half since I wrote that electronics retailer [...]

How the SOPA Fight Was Won…For Now

On Forbes yesterday, I posted a detailed analysis of the successful (so far) fight to block quick passage of the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). (See “Who Really Stopped SOPA, and Why?“) I’m delighted that the article, despite its length, has gotten such positive response. As regular readers know, I’ve [...]

Updates to the media page

We’ve recently added another dozen posts to the Media page. These include several articles and interviews related to Larry’s efforts to help stop dangerous copyright legislation pending in Congress, known as SOPA and Protect IP. Larry also provides detailed analysis of a more sensible alternative proposal from Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Darrell Issa, the [...]

My article on Best Buy’s strategy strikes a chord…or a nerve

My Jan. 2, 2012 post on Forbes, “Why Best Buy is Going out of Business…Gradually,” apparently struck a chord with customers of the consumer electronics retailer–or maybe just a nerve. The post has so far received over 250,000 views and nearly 200 comments, mostly from disgruntled Best Buy customers.  I’ve also received many emails from [...]

The FCC Enters the Steampunk Era

I’ve written several articles in the last few weeks critical of the dangerously unprincipled turn at the Federal Communications Commission toward a quixotic, political agenda.  But as I reflect more broadly on the agency’s behavior over the last few years, I find something deeper and even more disturbing is at work.  The agency’s unreconstructed view [...]

Stop the “Stop Online Piracy Act”

For CNET today, I have a long analysis and commentary on the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” introduced last week in the House. The bill is advertised as the House’s version of the Senate’s Protect-IP Act, which was voted out of Committee in May. It’s very hard to find much positive to say about the House [...]

Net Neutrality: High Cost, No Benefit

For Forbes this morning, I reflect on the publication late last week of the FCC’s “Open Internet” or net neutrality rules and their impact on spectrum auctions past and future. Hint: not good. An important study last year by Prof. Faulhaber and Prof. Farber, former chief economist and chief technologist, respectively, for the FCC, found [...]

Why U.S. v AT&T Should Worry Silicon Valley

On Forbes this morning, I argue that the Department of Justice’s effort to block the AT&T/T-Mobile merger signals a dangerous turn in antitrust enforcement. While President Obama promised during his campaign to “reinvigorate” antitrust, few expected the agency would turn its attention with such laser-like precision on the technology sector, one of the few bright [...]

Five simple fixes for the Protect IP Act

For CNET this morning, I offer five crucial corrections to the Protect IP Act, which was passed out of committee in the Senate back in May. Yesterday, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, co-chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus, told a Silicon Valley audience that the House was working on its own version and would introduce it in [...]