Issues

Media as Data Extraction: Towards a New Map of a Transformed Communications Field

Increasingly, media narratives are associated with consumer data collection. Media is becoming more closely linked to economic transactions and structures.

Age Discrimination by Platforms 

In future, older workers will constitute a larger proportion of the population. Many digital platforms hinder the efforts of older people to find employment.

AT&T Shellacs the Government in Time Warner Merger Case

In June of 2018, United States District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled that government failed to provide enough evidence to enjoin the merger of AT&T with Time Warner.

The European Commission Picks a Fight with Google Android over Business Models

In 2018, the European Commission (EC) ordered Google to change the way its Android software was licensed. The EC’s decision pressures Google to change its business model to mimic Apple.

Rendering Sensible Salient 

Technological changes threaten democracy, producing polarization and fragmentation. Deliberative conventions of ordinary citizens could help restore a common understanding of issues.

Borders and Bits

Governments seek to regulate and access data stored outside of their traditional territorial limits. Private multinational companies that process data have become key players in shaping privacy and free speech rights.

Running Out of Time: The Impact and Value of Flexibility in On-Demand Crowdwork

Workers in on-demand digital labor markets often have little control over their schedules. Giving workers more control yields more work product without loss of quality. Workers value control of their pace of work.

The Song Remains the Same: What Cyberlaw Might Teach the Next Internet Economy

Regulation is not truly incompatible with innovation. Over time, businesses that once resisted regulation will welcome the involvement of government, and regulators will learn to adopt creative solutions to new problems, just as in the early days of the Internet.

The Sharing Economy and the Edges of Contract Law: Comparing U.S. and U.K. Approaches

Online platforms and apps like Uber allow work and business to be structured in new ways. Courts must consider how to classify new types of work to resolve disputes over wages and benefits.

Usage Patterns and the Economics of the Public Cloud

Airlines raise and lower prices to ensure that supply and demand are roughly equivalent. But cloud computing service providers usually do not use “peak load” pricing. So far, cloud providers rarely vary prices with demand because datacenter traffic loads are stable.