Monthly Archives: August 2012

Dodged That

Looks like Isaac is going westward of the previously foreseen track, and we’ll get tropical storm force winds at worst. Right now (mid-afteroon) it is at times very wet and blustery outside — a good day to be indoors.

UM has cancelled classes tomorrow in what may turn out to be an excess of caution, but I think they are still smarting from the day some years ago when they did not close early and staff were forced to drive home in dangerously strong winds. Miami-Dade schools are closed tomorrow, which is another reason I’m sure the U felt pressure to close — many staff will not have alternate childcare on tap.

The result for me is that my first Torts class will not be until Wednesday, by which time jet leg will just be a dim memory. The Oslo trip was physically tiring, but it was a good conference. It’s amazing how many scholars outside the US are interested in ICANN and related legal/political questions. Far more, I suspect, than in the US, even though (or because!) ICANN is based here, and the US government is more than primus inter pares in its oversight.

Speaking of weather, I’m told that I’ve was fortunate to enjoy exceptional summer weather there — it got over 60 every day I was there, and there were several hours of actual sunshine on Tuesday. But it’s true what they say about prices in Norway. Wow.

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Isaac Headed Straight for Us?

Bonus frisson #1: Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew (although so far I’ve seen nothing suggesting that Isaac should be anywhere as bad). It’s just a couple days over 20 years since I first arrived in Miami. We had a pretty rude welcome from Nature.

Bonus frisson #2: If Isaac keeps going it might hit Tampa around time that the GOP coronation of Mitt Romney is scheduled. Should that happen, though, I doubt I’ll be seeing Pat Robertson explaining this as a sign of divine disapproval of the GOP. Or will someone actually link it to the selection of a protestant-free ticket?

I’m due to be home late Friday, so if all goes on schedule this shouldn’t impact my trip, and I get to hunker with the family.

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment

Yes, Assange Would Be Safer in Sweden

One thing that always comes up when I discuss WikiLeaks with other lawyers, whatever country they may be from, is shared incredulity at Assange’s claim that he faces a great risk of hypothetical extradition to the US from Sweden, or that his risk would be greater there than in the UK…especially given that when it comes to extradition to the US, the UK has to be in the running for Top Poodle. But what do I know about Swedish law?

Thus, it it is reassuring and unsurprising to find a quality analysis of the Swedish legal rules relating to any hypothetical extradition request. And, no, according to Klamberg on Extraditing Assange from Sweden to the U.S. Assange wouldn’t seem to have much to worry about.

Which leads suspicious minds to wonder if perhaps there isn’t some other reason why Assange doesn’t want to be extradited to Sweden?

Posted in Internet, Law: International Law | 4 Comments

Slides From my P3P Talk

I thought I would post the slides from my P3P talk. I’m not sure if I will write this up into a paper. On the one hand, there’s really nothing surprising in what I’m saying here. On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be a paper out there that directly addresses the topic, so there would at least be some point in writing it up.

A. Michael Froomkin, Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P): Lessons Learnt for Privacy Standards (Oslo, Aug. 21, 2012).

I’ve also attempted to embed the files, but that doesn’t seem to be working out….

[gview file=”http://staticd.discourse.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/P3P-talk-Froomkin-021.pptx”]

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Speaking at Two Events in Oslo, Norway

I’ll be speaking at two events in Oslo this week.

The first, on Tuesday 21 August, is a workshop on ‘Technical standards and privacy by design — A half-day Internet Science workshop at the University of Oslo. I’m speaking about what we can learn from the not entirely happy history of P3P.

In the second event is an igov2 Symposium on Governance of the Domain Name System and the Future Internet Project. On Wednesday I will be commenting on a paper by Kevin McGillivray about the changing role of the IANA contract. The IANA contract is one of the agreements between ICANN and the US government regarding the administration of the Domain Name System (DNS), and in light of recent changes in their relationship, it is now both the most important and the most obscure of those agreements. igov2, by the way, is short for “Governance of the Domain Name System and the Future Internet: New Parameters, New Challenges”; the conference runs through Thursday.

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Proving the Truth of the Old Saying

“A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on” pretty much sums up Day4 – How we screwed almost the whole Apple community. Either that or a lot of people have a screw loose somewhere.

— spotted via the slacktivist

Posted in Etc | Comments Off on Proving the Truth of the Old Saying