David Kris opens this episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast by laying out some of the massive disruption that the Biden Administration has kicked off in China’s semiconductor industry – and its Western suppliers. The reverberations of the administration’s new measures will be felt for years, and the Chinese government’s response, not to mention
Antitrust
Episode 424: Big Tech’s Chickens Coming Home to Roost
We open today’s episode by teasing the Supreme Court’s decision to review whether section 230 protects big platforms from liability for materially assisting terror groups whose speech they distribute (or even recommend). I predict that this is the beginning of the end of the house of cards that aggressive lawyering and good press have…
Episode 423: President DeSantis’s First Supreme Court Nominee
This episode features a much deeper, and more diverse, examination of the Fifth Circuit decision upholding Texas’s social media law. We devote the last half of the episode to a structured dialogue about the opinion between Adam Candeub and Alan Rozenshtein. Both have written about it already, Alan critically and Adam supportively.…
Episode 422: Judge Oldham Bails Out Texas
The big news of the week was a Fifth Circuit decision upholding Texas social media regulation law. It was poorly received by the usual supporters of social media censorship but I found it both remarkably well written and surprisingly persuasive. That does not mean it will survive the almost inevitable Supreme Court review but…
Episode 391: How Much of the Quantum Tech Boom Is Just Welfare for Physicists?
That’s the question I had after reading Law and Policy for the Quantum Age, by Chris Hoofnagle and Simson Garfinkel. It’s a gracefully written and deeply informative look at the commercial and policy prospects of quantum computing and several other (often more promising) quantum technologies, including sensing, communications, and networking. And it left me…
Episode 383: Cyber Incident Reporting Bill: Good News for K Street
Two major Senate committees have reached agreement on a cyber incident reporting mandate. And it looks like the big winner are the business lobbyists who got concessions from both committees. At least that’s my take. Dmitri Alperovitch says the bill may still be in trouble because of Justice Department opposition. And Tatyana Bolton…
Episode 375: China, U.S. Tech Policy: “Let Thousand Hands Throw Sand in the Gears.”
Jordan Schneider rejoins us after too long an absence to summarize the tech policy coming out of Beijing today: Any Chinese government agency with a beef against a tech company has carte blanche to at least try it out. From Didi and others being told to stop taking on subscribers to an end to…
Episode 374: What’s the Opposite of Facial Recognition? Ask Your “Smart Toilet.”
The district court has ruled in the lawsuit between Epic and Apple over access to the Apple app store. Apple is claiming victory and Epic is appealing. But Apple’s victory is not complete, and may have a worm at its core. Jamil Jaffer explains.
Surprised that ransomware gangs REvil and Groove are back –…
Episode 370: Should We Add “Jumping U.S. Red Lines” to the 2021 Olympics?
We begin the episode with the Biden administration’s options for responding to continued Russian ransomware outrages. Dmitri Alperovitch reprises his advice in the Washington Post that Putin will only respond to strength and U.S. pressure. I agree but raise the question whether the U.S. has the tools to enforce another set of alleged red…
Episode 368: The Trustbusters Come for Big Tech
This episode offers an economical overview of the six antitrust reform bills reported out of the House Judiciary Committee last week. Michael Weiner and Mark MacCarthy give us the top line for all six (though only four would make substantial new policy). We then turn quickly to the odd-couple alliances supporting and opposing the…