social ordering
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Rights and Votes, Again
The Irish referendum on same-sex marriage has brought a common trope back into the public discourse: rights should not be subject to voting. There are actually a number of distinct claims that can be advanced under this heading, although they are often run together, as for instance in this piece by Saeed Kamal Dehghan in the Guardian. These Continue reading
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The Course of Human Events
David R. Johnson and David Post have published a fascinating essay, “Governing Online Spaces: Virtual Representation,” at the Volokh Conspiracy, arguing that Facebook ought to move towards becoming something like a representative democracy. While various attempts at regulating Facebook and other online services and communities from the outside are a frequent topic of discussion, including, for Continue reading
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iPrudes
There was an interesting story by Michael Posner in The Globe and Mail yesterday on Apple’s decision not to allow the sale of books and apps telling the story of Danish hippies on its commercial platforms, iBookstore and the App Store, because they contain some photographs featuring naked men and women. Apple says the pictures Continue reading
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To Track or Not to Track?
There was an interesting article in the New York Times this weekend about the brewing fight around “do not track” features of internet browsers (such as Firefox or Internet Explorer) that are meant to tell websites visited by the user who has enabled the features not to collect information about the user’s activity for the Continue reading
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Unsettling Settlement
I blogged some time ago about a settlement between an unspecified group of plaintiffs and Facebook regarding Facebook’s approach to what it calls “sponsored stories” which tell us that such and such friends “like” a certain company’s page. I raised some questions about the way in which this settlement works to create new rules, social Continue reading
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Google as Regulator, Part Deux
A recent story, reported for example by the Globe and Mail, nicely illustrates Google’s dual, and perhaps ambiguous, role as “speaker and censor,” at once exercising, or claiming to exercise, an editorial judgment and making itself he agent of speech-restricting governments, about which I blogged some time ago. According to the Globe, “Google’s search algorithm will Continue reading
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The Art of Judging Art
The New York Times ran a fascinating article yesterday about lawsuits in which courts are asked to rule on the authenticity of works of art. Of course it is a rare judge or member of a jury who has any sort of experience expertise in such matters. So the cases become battles of experts, with Continue reading
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In with the New?
Last week, I suggested that “[n]ew technologies seem not so much to create moral issues as to serve as a new canvass on which to apply our old concerns.” But there is no doubt that our legal rules, unlike perhaps moral ones, need updating when new technology comes along. How this updating is to happen is Continue reading
Double Aspect 