As 2021 winds down, and this blog approaches the mid-point of its tenth year, I ask the following question: Can certain folks stop trying to “fix copyright” in deference to the digital age now that the internet experiment has failed? For over twenty years, the principal argument underlying the “copyright is broken” narrative has been that the legal framework limits ...

I asked the question in 2014:  are we confused by the “Buy” button when we purchase digital media? And the issue is raised again in the class action suit against Apple earlier this year, which alleges that consumers are unsure enough about what it means to “buy” digital goods that online retailers should be held responsible for misleading us. The ...

In this episode, I speak with David Golumbia, author and associate professor of digital studies, American literature, literary theory, philosophy, and linguistics at Virginia Commonwealth University. I asked Golumbia to join me after reading his blog post published on October 20th in which he asserts that Facebook is not just dropping the ball when it comes to curbing hate on ...

Once upon a blustery gray morn, while eyes wandered, red and worn, 'cross many a scant and useless postings of the social roar-- While I emojied, barely reading, suddenly there came a greeting, As of someone gently pleading, pleading like a friend of yore. "'Tis some outsider," I assumed, "greeting me like friend of yore-- Only this and nothing more. ...

In an excellent post on the blog Librarian Shipwreck, the author reminds us to take a more expansive view of the so-called Facebook problem. The article lands direct hits on most of the big nails (for instance, that we cannot trust Facebook to fix Facebook), but perhaps its most critical observation is the one about a difficult conversation we are ...

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