Month: March 2020

Another merger the FTC should block

This is a bonus episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast – a freestanding interview of Noah Phillips, a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. The topic of the interview is whether privacy and antitrust analysis should be merged, especially in the context of Silicon Valley and its social media platforms.

Commissioner Phillips, who has devoted considerable attention to the privacy side of the FTC’s jurisdiction, recently delivered a speech on the topic and telegraphed his doubts in the title: “Should We Block This Merger? Some Thoughts on Converging Antitrust and Privacy.” Subject to the usual Cyberlaw Podcast injunction that he speaks only for himself and not his institution or relatives, Commissioner Phillips lays out the very real connections between personal data and industry dominance as well as the complexities that come from trying to use antitrust to solve privacy problems. Among the complexities: the key to more competition among social media giants could well be more sharing between companies of the personal data that fuels their network effects, and corporate sharing of personal data is what privacy advocates have spent a decade crusading against.

It’s a wide-ranging interview, touching on, among other things, whether antitrust can be used to solve Silicon Valley’s censorship problem (he’s skeptical) and what he thinks of suggestions in Europe that perhaps the Schrems problem can be solved by declaring that post-CCPA California meets EU data privacy standards. Commissioner Phillips is bemused; I conclude that this is just Europe seeking revenge for President Trump’s Brexit support by promoting “Calexit.”

Download the 303rd Episode (mp3).

Take our listener poll at steptoe.com/podcastpoll!

You can subscribe to The Cyberlaw Podcast using iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or our RSS feed!

As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com. Remember: If your suggested guest appears on the show, we will send you a highly coveted Cyberlaw Podcast mug!

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, or relatives.

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‘Til Wrong Feels Right

“Can I come over, tonight?” asks Iggy Pop in an early song with the Stooges, the late ’60s/early ’70s band from Michigan that directly inspired many later wild rock music movements, especially punk. “We will have a real cool time, tonight.”

Like most Stooges songs, it’s more of a chant, a primal mood set to grinding, twangy, sludgy guitars that sound like a factory assembly line, or maybe a military sortie in Vietnam, to name the two things Pop was desperately trying to escape in his early 20s.

Iggy and the Stooges reduced rock to its essence of sex and drugs—of sensual, nihilistic escape from a dreary everyday life that seemed to be their birthright as members of the white working class. “Dope, dope, dope. Fucking Vietnam…Joy and insecurity of being young…Oblivion necessary to escape America,” Pop writes in ‘Til Wrong Feels Right, a brilliant collection of lyrics and photos documenting his life’s work and the half-century of U.S. history whose sounds and rhythms his work beautifully warped.

Now 72 and revered as a rock elder, Pop lives in South Florida like the semi-retired Baby Boomer he is and drives a Rolls Royce. This book documents the life of a great individualist who, even more than Sinatra, did things his way—including inventing stage diving, playing the muse to David Bowie and countless others, kicking all sorts of addictions, and constantly updating his sound and image as he matured.

The man born as James Osterberg, late of a Midwestern trailer park, hasn’t just lived the American Dream of ceaseless growth and reinvention; he inspires it in others.

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Sticking It to the Man

I haven’t read The Presidential Plot, but I want to. According to the new anthology Sticking It to the Man, Stanley Johnson’s 1969 novel features a CIA so fed up with the failure in Vietnam that it orchestrates a coup and installs a black-power leader called Panther Jones as president. The book reportedly presents this deep-state operation as a good thing, not a betrayal. And—oh, yeah—it was written by future U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s dad.

Despite its name, the counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s didn’t always counter the mainstream. It mixed with it, often in unpredictable ways. Sticking It to the Man explores how that played out in the worlds of pulp fiction and mass-market paperbacks. Sometimes it meant embracing the ferment around them. Sometimes it meant half-assed attempts to co-opt the ferment. Sometimes it meant backlash.

And sometimes it meant weird combinations that don’t fit any readymade category. In 1973, for example, the experimental science fiction writer Barry Malzberg got a contract to churn out 10 vigilante novels in under a year. Writing as “Mike Barry,” he dashed off stories so violent that they passed through Death Wish territory into something more satiric and surreal: The protagonist would kill virtually anybody, with an ethic more like a serial killer than an avenging angel. In time, Malzberg later recalled, the character “was driving cross-country and killing anyone on suspicion of drug-dealing.”

But the strangest combination of all—one where it becomes impossible to discern just who was co-opting who—was an Australian outfit called Gold Star Publications. The canny businessmen behind the company put out everything from porn mags to spy thrillers, and they weren’t afraid to publish books with politically subversive themes. But then, why wouldn’t they? They weren’t just entrepreneurs: They were literally Maoists.

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Another merger the FTC should block

This is a bonus episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast – a freestanding interview of Noah Phillips, a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. The topic of the interview is whether privacy and antitrust analysis should be merged, especially in the context of Silicon Valley and its social media platforms.

Commissioner Phillips, who has devoted considerable attention to the privacy side of the FTC’s jurisdiction, recently delivered a speech on the topic and telegraphed his doubts in the title: “Should We Block This Merger? Some Thoughts on Converging Antitrust and Privacy.” Subject to the usual Cyberlaw Podcast injunction that he speaks only for himself and not his institution or relatives, Commissioner Phillips lays out the very real connections between personal data and industry dominance as well as the complexities that come from trying to use antitrust to solve privacy problems. Among the complexities: the key to more competition among social media giants could well be more sharing between companies of the personal data that fuels their network effects, and corporate sharing of personal data is what privacy advocates have spent a decade crusading against.

It’s a wide-ranging interview, touching on, among other things, whether antitrust can be used to solve Silicon Valley’s censorship problem (he’s skeptical) and what he thinks of suggestions in Europe that perhaps the Schrems problem can be solved by declaring that post-CCPA California meets EU data privacy standards. Commissioner Phillips is bemused; I conclude that this is just Europe seeking revenge for President Trump’s Brexit support by promoting “Calexit.”

Download the 303rd Episode (mp3).

Take our listener poll at steptoe.com/podcastpoll!

You can subscribe to The Cyberlaw Podcast using iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or our RSS feed!

As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com. Remember: If your suggested guest appears on the show, we will send you a highly coveted Cyberlaw Podcast mug!

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, or relatives.

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Greta Thunberg Trashes The New EU “Green Deal” Climate Law

Greta Thunberg Trashes The New EU “Green Deal” Climate Law

Authored by Eric Worral via WattsUpWithThat.com,

For once I agree with something Thunberg said; the European Union’s new Green Deal is a total sham.

Greta Thunberg brands EU’s new climate law ‘surrender

Ms Thunberg spoke in Brussels on Wednesday as the EU unveiled a proposed law for reducing carbon emissions. 

If passed, the law would make it a legal requirement for the EU to be carbon neutral by 2050.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the law as the “heart of the European Green Deal”.

But 17-year-old Ms Thunberg dismissed the law as “empty words”, accusing the EU of “pretending” to be a leader on climate change.

“When your house is on fire, you don’t wait a few more years to start putting it out. And yet this is what the Commission is proposing today,” Thunberg told the European Parliament’s environment committee.

…

“Your distant targets will mean nothing if high emissions continue like today, even for just a few more years, because that will use up our remaining carbon budget before we even have the chance to deliver on your 2030 or 2050 goals,” Ms Thunberg said.

…

The EU has always had a problem translating words into actions. Their 2005 carbon market collapsed, in my opinion because all the member states tried to cheat by issuing too many carbon credits to their own national champions. I believe Greta is right when she says that the EU setting a 2050 climate goal or even a 2030 climate goal is meaningless.

I don’t support Greta, I think a serious attempt to implement her ideas would be a disaster. But I see the funny side of this situation; all those EU hypocrites who hyped the Greta phenomenon, who hoped to use her as a green smokescreen, are currently having a very uncomfortable time.

Let us hope Greta doesn’t experience the remarkably bad luck with traffic accidents which has afflicted a handful of other high profile critics of EU policy.

A few other examples of bad traffic luck. 

Note I have no evidence of foul play, other than the nasty incident Nigel Farage suffered.

Hard right Austrian politician and EU critic Jörg Haider died in a car accident in 2008, after stunning establishment parties by repeatedly winning a sizeable fraction of the national vote.

Leading Danish Eurosceptic Ole Krarup suffered a nasty bicycle accident in Strasbourg in 2007, the medical consequences of which led him to resign.

High profile Polish Euroskeptic and cold war resistance hero Filip Adwent died in a car crash in 2005.

Bob Cryer, a leading British Labour Euroskeptic, died in a car crash in 1994.

*  *  *

Click here to see the EU’s explanation of their new green deal, their ambition to move to a “clean circular economy”.


Tyler Durden

Fri, 03/06/2020 – 05:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2TsZi1e Tyler Durden

Brickbat: Shifting the Costs

With the market for recyclables in the doldrums, some Maine cities have opted to end their curbside recycling programs because the costs of those programs exceed the costs of just sending that material to the landfill. But Democratic state Rep. Ralph Tucker has a 21-page bill that would force companies that make packaging to subsidize local recycling programs. Industry officials oppose the bill, noting that it will do nothing to actually create a market for recyclables and that it would force them to pass the costs onto consumers.

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Brickbat: Shifting the Costs

With the market for recyclables in the doldrums, some Maine cities have opted to end their curbside recycling programs because the costs of those programs exceed the costs of just sending that material to the landfill. But Democratic state Rep. Ralph Tucker has a 21-page bill that would force companies that make packaging to subsidize local recycling programs. Industry officials oppose the bill, noting that it will do nothing to actually create a market for recyclables and that it would force them to pass the costs onto consumers.

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Turkey Sends 1,000 Special Forces To EU Border To Prevent Migrant Return

Turkey Sends 1,000 Special Forces To EU Border To Prevent Migrant Return

Starting last week multiple journalists published proof that Turkish authorities were actively facilitating refugee and migrant movement toward EU borders after Erdogan began making good on his prior threat to ‘open the gates’ — angry over the unfolding Idlib crisis. This included footage of buses staged in Istanbul and other cities to take thousands to the land border with Greece.

And now Ankara is now openly saying it’s implemented a policy of not only pushing migrants to the border, but ensuring they won’t come back — even after Greece shut its border and has been seen using harsh tactics to keep people from entering in a heightened militarized response.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced Thursday the deployment of 1,000 special operations police officers to ensure migrants can’t return.

Greek riot police stand guard as migrants try to enter Greece from Turkey, via AP.

“Turkey will deploy 1,000 special operations police officers to prevent migrant pushback at the border,” the minister said, according to Turkey’s Daily Sabah. 

The newspaper reported further: “Soylu told reporters that the European Union’s border protection agency Frontex and Greece have pushed 4,900 migrants back to Turkey since March 1.” He also claimed 164 migrants had been injured by Greek border security and Frontex.

The interior minister also estimated that almost 140,000 migrants are in the first wave headed toward Europe, which began departing Turkey last Friday.

This provocative Turkish move is sure to heighten charges out of Europe that Erdogan is weaponizing the vulnerable refugee and migrant population to blackmail the EU.

EU ministers met Wednesday in Brussels and issued a statement saying the bloc “strongly rejects” the “use” of migrants by Turkey’s government, saying that the “situation at the EU’s external borders is not acceptable.”

“The EU and its member states remain determined to effectively protect EU’s external borders,” the statement affirmed.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian unleashed the most direct accusation of “blackmail.” He said in Paris Wednesday: “This migratory pressure is organized,” adding that, “It is organized by President Erdogan’s regime as a form of blackmail against the European Union.”

This latest move by Ankara to ensure migrants “can’t return” once pushed across the border is sure to only spark more chaos at border points already looking like war zones.

“Greek authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades to drive away a crowd of migrants making a push to cross the border from Turkey on Wednesday, as pressure on Greece continued after Turkey declared its previously guarded gateways to Europe open,” the AP reported earlier.

Injuries and possible deaths have been reported, however, the Greek government has rejected initial reports of its border guards firing on and killing migrants as “fake news.”


Tyler Durden

Fri, 03/06/2020 – 04:15

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UK Council Removes “Transphobic” Flags Because They Displayed Dictionary Definition Of The Word “Woman”

UK Council Removes “Transphobic” Flags Because They Displayed Dictionary Definition Of The Word “Woman”

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A council in the UK removed two “transphobic” flags because they displayed the dictionary definition of the word ‘woman’.

Yes, really.

The flags, which were flown outside Bootle & Southport town halls, were meant to celebrate International Women’s Day.

They featured the words “woman” and the dictionary definition that a ‘woman’ is an “adult human female.”

However, after a Twitter user called Adrian Harrop complained that the flags were a “transphobic dog whistle,” the offending items were removed.

“We have been made aware of a potential issue regarding the messaging on a flag flown at Bootle & Southport town halls and have taken them down,” tweeted Sefton Council.

“We have a proud history of supporting LGBTQ+ rights across the borough,we continue to support all members of our communities,” the council added.

“Sefton Council stating here that the dictionary term for ‘woman’ is now offensive. This isn’t a joke. I’m not exaggerating this in any way. This is literally what they are saying here,” tweeted another Twitter user.

“This was the offensive flag. Seriously, absorb this. They took these flags down because they were seen as OFFENSIVE. This isn’t something happening on social media. This shit is happening in REAL LIFE and it’s fucking BIZARRE,” she added.

She then pointed out the irony of a flag meant to honor International Women’s Day being removed because a man complained.

Presumably, every dictionary that includes a proper definition of the word ‘woman’ will now have to be revised and all old copies burned.

In George Orwell’s 1984, the Newspeak dictionary shrank in size year after year in order to eliminate language and limit free thought and free speech, making it harder for the plebs to vocalize their opposition to The Party.

*  *  *

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Tyler Durden

Fri, 03/06/2020 – 03:30

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“Unparalleled Disruption”: 290 Million Students Around The World Face Weeks At Home

“Unparalleled Disruption”: 290 Million Students Around The World Face Weeks At Home

Nearly 300 million students worldwide are enjoying an unexpected vacation as they face weeks at home, with Italy the latest country to shut schools over the deadly new coronavirus. According to Unesco, 290.5 million children in 13 countries were affected, while a further nine nations have implemented localised closures, the SCMP reported.

“The global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education.” Unesco chief Audrey Azoulay said.

On Wednesday, Italy ordered schools and universities closed until March 15, ramping up its response as the national death toll rose to 107, the deadliest outbreak outside China. South Korea – the country with the largest number of cases outside China with nearly 6,000 – has postponed the start of the current term until March 23.

In Hong Kong schools are closed until at least April 20, while in Japan nearly all schools are closed after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for classes to be cancelled through March and spring break, slated for late March through early April.

Some 120 schools closed in France this week in areas with the largest numbers of infections. In Germany, the health minister said the outbreak was now a “global pandemic” – a term the World Health Organisation has stopped short of using – meaning the virus is spreading in several regions through local transmission.


Tyler Durden

Fri, 03/06/2020 – 02:45

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