Category Archives: Reviews
Review of Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture
Gillespie’s work can be seen as a nuanced examination of how encryption technologies embedded in digital rights management systems curtail speech, action, and moral autonomy in contemporary democracies. Such limitations are only possible because of the adoption of digital technologies and the integration of surveillant sub-systems to limit the uses of content, often to the detriment of individuals. Continue reading
Review: Internet Architecture and Innovation
I want to very highly recommend this book. Various authors, advocates, scholars, and businesses have spoken about the economic impacts of the Internet, but to date there hasn’t been a detailed economic accounting of what may happen if/when ISPs monitor and control the flow of data across their networks. van Schewick has filled this gap by examining “how changes in the Internet’s architecture (that is, its underlying technical structure) affect the economic environment for innovation” and evaluating “the impact of these changes from the perspective of public policy” (van Schewick 2010: 2). Continue reading
Review: Delete – The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
Viktor Mayer-Schonberger’s new book Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (2009) is a powerful effort to rethink basic principles of computing that threaten humanity’s epistemological nature. In essence, he tries get impress upon us the importance of adding ‘forgetfulness’ to digital data collection process. The book is masterfully presented. It draws what are arguably correct theoretical conclusions (we need to get a lot better at deleting data to avoid significant normative, political, and social harms) while drawing absolutely devastatingly incorrect technological solutions (key: legislating ‘forgetting’ into all data formats and OSes). In what follows, I sketch the aim of the book, some highlights, and why the proposed technological solutions are dead wrong. Continue reading
