Techdirt

"Dynamic pricing" is an idea that sounds efficient and effective in economic theory, but often collapses under the weight of customer anger when put into practice. But while that is true of some of the most egregious approaches, other forms of dynamic pricing are ubiquitous and largely accepted — in part because of how the systems work, and in part because of how they present themselves to customers. This week, we're joined by Perfect Price CEO Alex Shartsis to discuss the many facets of dynamic pricing, and whether it deserves the hate it gets.

The future of the internet is... uncertain. We've always been optimistic about what technology and innovation can achieve, and that hasn't changed, but right now it often feels like we're facing more new challenges and more reactions to them (including dangerous ones) than ever, and pessimism about the internet seems to be at an all-time high. This week we're joined by EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn, who recently wrote an essay (pdf link) about internet pioneer John Perry Barlow and how his famous tech optimism was more complex — and more aware of challenges — than it is often portrayed, to discuss a positive future for the internet, and how we get there. Cindy Cohn's Essay: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=dltr

By now, you likely all know the story of David Karpf's mild "bedbugs" joke that drew the personal, professional and journalistic ire of the New York Times' Bret Stephens. As it turned out, Karpf — a professor with expertise in media and political communication — was more than capable of responding to Stephens and talking about what was happening in a variety of media outlets, with far more insight than the Pulitzer-winning columnist himself, turning what started as a very silly incident into an exploration of very serious topics. So this week, David Karpf joins us on the podcast to talk about his experience, and what we can all learn from it.

We've talked a lot about how many of the controversial, challenging problems that exist online could be addressed by refocusing on making the internet what it was always supposed to be: a network of open protocols, not a cluster of walled gardens. Mike's recent paper on the subject lays out the reasons in detail, and on this week's episode of the podcast we're joined by one of the people working towards that goal: Anil Dash, whose Glitch community aims to bring development back to the masses. Mike's Paper - https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech Glitch - https://glitch.com/

Last week, we featured part one of our discussion with lawyer Joshua de Larios-Heiman, about the details of the FCC's Facebook settlement, beyond the headline-grabbing fine. It was a long conversation that we cut off right in the middle, so be sure to listen to part one first and then come back for part two, in which we finish picking apart the settlement item by item. PART ONE: https://soundcloud.com/techdirt/whats-really-in-the-ftcs-facebook-settlement-part-one

Ever since the FCC announced its proposed settlement with Facebook, the headlines have focused on the largest-ever privacy fine that came with it — but few people paid attention to the many, many important details. This week, we've got the first half of a two-part podcast with lawyer Joshua de Larios-Heiman, who helps us go through the entire settlement from start to finish, and pick apart what it means.

There's a new but growing desire, both within the tech industry and among onlookers, for more technologists to get involved in public policy and doing work to serve the public interest. Various plans to help make this happen are starting to appear, and an especially interesting one is the Aspen Tech Policy Hub, which aims to help establish a new generation of tech policy entrepreneurs using an incubator model in the vein of Y Combinator. This week, Mike is joined by director Betsy Cooper to discuss the Hub's resources and programs, its inaugural cohort of technologists, and what comes next.

Moral panics are nothing new, but they've taken on many new forms in the internet era, and their patterns have rubbed off on other kinds of techno-panics. This week, I join Mike on the podcast to discuss the way we talk about the potentially scary aspects of tech, how to spot a tech panic, and how to start changing the conversation into something more constructive.

Bruce Schneier is a name most Techdirt readers are very familiar with — he's a famous computer security expert who most recently has taken up the mantle of Public Interest Technologist, and been exploring exactly what that means. This week, Bruce joins us on the podcast to discuss how technologists can dedicate themselves to the common good.

Josh Hawley's bill that aims to force "political neutrality" on social media platforms has caused a lot of stir for something so obviously unconstitutional and doomed to failure. There are so many problems with the bill that we've got three experts this week — Daphne Keller, Jeffrey Koseff, and Aaron Mackey — to help dig into all the ways this attack on Section 230 sucks.

Live streaming is here to stay, and it seems to be getting more popular by the minute — but for many people, it still seems like a foreign land and evokes a cliched "I feel old" response. This week, Mike is joined by not-so-regular-anymore co-host Dennis Yang, who has been experimenting with Twitch, to get a beginner's perspective on the platform, the community, and the medium of streaming.

In all the attempts to understand just what happened with the 2016 election, a lot of blame has fallen on the internet and especially on Facebook. The attention, which often focuses on the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian interference, is not unwarranted — but it often seems to lose track of the fact that Facebook is just one part of a broader media ecosystem, and not necessarily the most important one. This week, we're joined by Yochai Benkler of the Berkman Klein Center to discuss why Fox News, not Facebook, might deserve the lion's share of scrutiny.

Once upon a time, there was something called the Office of Technology Assessment, charged with the critical if unenviable task of educating members of congress about issues related to technology. Since that seems like a pretty good thing to have, recently some people have been pushing to re-establish the office. This week, we're joined by two of those people — Daniel Schuman from Demand Progress and returning guest Zach Graves from the Lincoln Network — for a discussion about bringing back the OTA.

The topic of what (if anything) to do with Facebook was hardly fading from public discourse anyway, but it received a bump when co-founder Chris Hughes called for the company to be broken up. This week, we've got two returning guests on the podcast with plenty to say on the subject — UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression David Kaye, and famed internet lawyer Mike Godwin — to discuss the many sides of the Facebook question.

The regulation of technology is an extremely important issue that impacts all our lives, but it tends to take a back seat in the world of mainstream politics, and when it does come to the fore, the lack of knowledge on display among elected representatives can be... disheartening, to say the least. In some ways that's starting to change as a generation of people who grew up with modern technology gets more and more involved in politics, but we're still a long, long way away from having a majority of tech-savvy (or even tech-literate) lawmakers. This week, we're joined by lawyer and pioneering law blogger Denise Howell to discuss the challenge of even determining whether a politician knows what they are talking about when it comes to tech.

Whether it's from his novels, or his work for the EFF and others, most of you probably know all about Cory Doctorow. He last joined the podcast two years ago to discuss his book Walkaway, and this week he's back to talk about his latest book, Radicalized — a collection of four novellas, the first of which is directly based on the issues with the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. Check out the episode for a discussion about the book, anti-circumvention, tech companies, and more.

Of all the laws we discuss here at Techdirt, probably none comes up as often or in relation to as many things as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It's not an exaggeration to describe it the way Professor Jeff Kosseff does in the title of his new book, The Twenty-Six Words That Created The Internet, offering a detailed history of this vital piece of law. This week, Jeff joins us on the podcast for an in-depth discussion about where Section 230 came from, and where it's going.

It's time for another special cross-post from a different podcast. Mike was recently a guest on the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's So To Speak podcast, for an interview about Techdirt, free speech, content moderation, and a range of other topics. If you didn't catch it there, you can listen to the whole interview here in this week's episode.

Unfortunately, as you know by now, the EU Parliament approved the current (disastrous) version of the EU Copyright Directive, which is now on track to become the law of the land. It's not good, but things aren't quite over yet. For this week's episode, we've got returning guest MEP Julia Reda — who has been a key force opposing the terrible articles in the Directive — to talk about what happens now.