Marvin Ammori

It’s no secret that I love Washington, DC.

It’s not just the restaurants and bars and wild happy hours. It’s the intellectual stuff too. Today I get to go to both a major Supreme Court argument and an epic conference of ideas.

This morning, I plan to attend the Supreme Court argument in Golan v. Holder, a major case involving Congress’s power over copyrights and its limits. The issue: whether Congress can pull works out of the public domain without violating the “Limited Times” language of the Copyright Clause or the “freedom of speech” language in the First Amendment. I’ve been interested in this issue since before I wrote my law school article on copyright duration for my school’s journal of law & technology. For this case, I joined others affiliated with Yale’s Information Society Project in filing an amicus brief in the case. I worked primarily on the First Amendment arguments in that brief. (I argue that intermediate scrutiny is not the right standard.)

Tony Falzone, of Stanford, will argue the case for users of works that were in the public domain but are no longer–including works by Igor Stravinsky. Tony, whom I know from my summers at Stanford and from general admiration and envy, is a great lawyer and a great guy. So is Don Verrilli, the Solicitor General who will argue the case for the government. Careful readers of this blog (hi Mom) know my high regard for Don.

For a tech policy nerd like me, watching Tony and Don argue about copyright duration is like getting the chance to watch Ali and Frazier in their greatest fight.

After the Supreme Court, I am heading over to the Newsuem for The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum.  The speakers include White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, and former VP Dick Cheney. It’s like the All-Madden team of influence. Thanks to the incomparable Steve Clemons for inviting me to watch.

UPDATE: Tony was amazing in his first argument. Very impressive. Don also did a great job, and received more aggressive questioning than I expected. The questioning came from Justices Breyer and all the conservatives who spoke: Justices Alito, Scalia, and the Chief Justice.

Next week, the evening of Wednesday October 12 at AOL Ventures, the NYC Mobile Forum and Location-Based App Meetups will hold a panel on “Privacy in Mobile and Location.”  Each of these groups has about 1,000 members, primarily mobile applications developers and entrepreneurs in New York City who are interested in promoting innovation in mobile and location based apps.  I’ll be moderating. The panelists include a renowned venture capitalist at Union Square Ventures (Albert Wegner),  the head of a DC advocacy group for developers with some larger sponsors (Morgan Reed of Association for Competitive Technology), the head of policy and strategy for a company leading some self-regulatory efforts in online advertising (Colin O’Malley of Evidon), and a serial entrepreneur (Bob Walczak of Bump Equity).

It’ll be a great panel. Amanda Moskowitz, who brilliantly runs NYC Mobile, asked me to moderate, and I’m looking forward to a great discussion on some important, if challenging, questions.

The Washington Post reports that companies like Yelp, that provide reviews of restaurants and other places, have replaced the reputation-function of brands. That is, people are willing to try independent restaurants, based on online recommendations, rather than simply relying on general reputation, which big chain restaurants develop through advertising and ubiquity.

Before the Internet, it was risky to try some random independent restaurant, unless a friend recommended it personally. The restaurant could have terrible food, bad service, or make you sick. With Yelp and other sites, you can branch out, with the help of recommendations from dozens of users.

Score another point for the Internet and its ability to democratize innovation and help small businesses.

My former employer is coming to my once and current city, Washington, DC, to host panels at the Willard Hotel on space and cyber policy. The conference will be held in the afternoons/early evenings of October 12 and 13. The receptions afterwards are usually fun.

October 13 is the Cyber policy panel. Here are the details. The announced speakers are all elite intellectual giants and advocates in the cyber policy world.

Pre-register here.

Cyber Attacks, Cyber Espionage, and Cyber Crime

 Th, Oct. 13th 3:00-5:00PM; reception 5:00-6:30PM

Speakers:

• Col. Gary Brown, Staff Judge Advocate, US Cyber Command
• Catherine Lotrionte, Professor, Georgetown Univ. (former Assoc. Gen. Counsel, CIA)
• Joe DeMarco, Partner, Devore & Demarco (former Asst. US Attorney for Southern District of NY)
• Jim Lewis, Director and Senior Fellow, Technology and Public Policy Program, CSIS (invited)

On October 12, I will have to miss the Space policy panel, as I will be in NYC moderating a panel on mobile privacy .

I hope to attend October 13’s cyber panel–with a lineup like these four, it’s hard to skip.

Woo!!!

Please see my previous post: Don’t Judge My Old Cracked Phone: I’m Waiting for the iPhone 5.

I’m also happy to see Sprint will get the iPhone 5. It’s a bold and expensive business move–one that highlights the potential policy problem of exclusive contracts with particular carriers. But the move could help improve Sprint’s viability as a third competitor to Verizon and AT&T–especially if AT&T eventually gets government approval to merge with T-Mobile.

Economists at NYU have produced a report of some economic benefits of a network neutrality rule.

Politico’s Tony Romm has the story. In a draft report, the GAO has found inadequate data security procedures 24 major federal agencies.

“Weaknesses in information security policies and practices at 24 major federal agencies continue to place the confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive information and information systems at risk,” noted the GAO in a draft report.

Some senators “express outrage” as a result.

On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing will hold a hearing on “Protecting Children’s Privacy in an Electronic World.”  Expect discussion of the FTC’s proceeding on the same topic.

Here are the details of the hearing:

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

9:00 a.m.
2123 Rayburn House Office Building
Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade
Hearing on “Protecting Children’s Privacy in an Electronic World”

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled, “Cyber Threats and Ongoing Efforts to Protect the Nation,” on October 4, from 10am to 1pm. You will be able to watch the hearing here.

The LA Times published a story yesterday on digital technology and privacy, with an emphasis on newer issues raised by mobile services, digital television, and retail.