Category Archives: Technology and innovation

Intellectual Property Cause of Covid Death, Genocide

Refusal to temporarily suspend several WTO intellectual property provisions to accelerate broad progress against the pandemic is genocide.

Tim Berners-Lee’s Plan to Save the Internet: Give Us Back Control of Our Data

Tim Berners-Lee endorses data sovereignty, to give individuals the power to control their own data, to counter big tech’s overreach.

Warning: If Your Business Depends on a Platform, You Don’t Have a Business

A warnign to small fry Internet content producers: time to think of getting your own platform as a matter of self-preservation.

New Report From Rep. Katie Porter Reveals How Big Pharma Pursues ‘Killer Profits’ at the Expense of Americans’ Health

Rep. Katie Porter kicks some Big Pharma ass and takes names.

TikTok Got A US Reprieve, But Elsewhere, It’s War

Tik-Tok is getting its wings clippped. But how far will containment efforts go?

Should President Biden Revoke Section 230?

“What to do about tech platforms” has fixated on Section 230, when more should be done.

Michael Olenick: From Intel to Apple – Noncompetes are Bad Business

Silicon Valley would never have taken off if noncompetes had been used in its early years, yet titans later restricted hiring across the industry.

Rise of the Superstar Firms: Taking Oligopoly Seriously in Macroeconomics

Quelle surprise! Only now that EU and US officials are up in arms about monopolies are macroeconomics pros taking it seriously.

Wikipedia: The Overlooked Monopoly

Low-quality anonymous “editors” combined with a Google tie-up turned an interesting experiment into an overlooked but destructive monopoly.

The Pain of Service Crapification

How Covid is extending the reach of crapification.

Schaudenfreude Alert: Bezos-Buffet-Dimon Health Care Industry Disruptor Haven Makes Faceplant, Announces Closure

Even three rich smart guys couldn’t get a half baked idea like Haven off the ground.

Google Rigged Its Own Advertising Auction In Favor of Facebook for a Price (and What That Means for the So-Called Free Market)

Google fiddles with the weights and measures of commerce.

Critics Warn Repeal of Section 230 ‘Would Be Devastating for Human Rights, Social Movements, and Marginalized People’

No, Section 230 is not about Facebook. It protects you from liabilty if you forward an e-mail, so you should think twice about a repeal.

Larry Wilkerson: No Evidence of Massive Russian Hack

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson says so far the anti-Russia hysteria about an alleged hack looks like the phony claims about WMD in Iraq.

Antitrust Spring

Regulators and officials are dusting off antitrust rule books to go after tech monopolists.