J.R.McHale

> [Twenty Questions for 2015](http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2015/1/1/20-questions-for-2015) – [Benedict Evans](http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans) of Andreessen Horowitz

> [16 Things](http://a16z.com/2015/01/22/16-things/) – also from Andreessen Horowitz

> [What is Going to Happen](http://avc.com/2015/01/what-is-going-to-happen/) – Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures at [AVC](http://avc.com) with his predictions for 2015

> [If the Supreme Court Tackles the NSA in 2015, It’ll be one of these Five Cases](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/if-the-supreme-court-tackles-the-nsa-in-2015-itll-be-one-of-these-five-cases/) – ArsTechnica

> [California’s Online Eraser Law and Other New Developments for 2015](https://ilccyberreport.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/california-online-eraser-law-and-other-new-developments-for-2015/) – Internet Law Center Cyber Report

> [Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2014](http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2015/01/top-10-internet-law-developments-of-2014-forbes-cross-post.htm) – Professor Eric Goldman at The Technology and Marketing Law Blog

> [Top 10 Fair Use Cases of 2014](http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2015/01/top-10-fair-use-cases-of-2014-guest-blog-post.htm) – Professor Dan Nabel at The Technology and Marketing Law Blog

> [What Just Happened](http://avc.com/2014/12/what-just-happened/) – Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures at [AVC](http://avc.com) with a look back at 2014

> “[W]hen I speak of the ‘blog’ I am referring to a regularly-updated site that is owned-and-operated by an individual . . . And there, in that definition, is the reason why, despite the great unbundling, the blog has not and will not die: it is the only communications tool, in contrast to every other social service, that is owned by the author; to say someone follows a blog is to say someone follows a person.” – Ben Thompson at [Stratechery](http://stratechery.com/2015/bloggings-bright-future/)

> “A good blog exists independently of people reading it. Even if no one read my blog, I’d still write it. Not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s something like this — I would still cook even if I was the only person eating. I write because I am a writer.” – Dave Winer at [Scripting News](http://scripting.com/2015/01/25/aNoteAboutBlogging.html)

> “[My blog] has seen Flickr explode and then fade. It’s seen Google Wave and Google Reader come and go, and it’ll still be here as Google Plus fades. When Medium and Tumblr are gone, my blog will be here. The things that will last on the internet are not owned. Plain old websites, blogs, RSS, irc, email.” – Brent Simmons at [Inessential](http://inessential.com/2014/08/27/waffle_on_social_media)

> “There is something about the personal blog, yourname.com, where you control everything and get to do whatever the hell pleases you. There is something about linking to one of those blogs and then saying something. It’s like having a conversation in public with each other. This is how blogging was in the early days. And this is how blogging is today, if you want it to be.” – Fred Wilson at [AVC](http://avc.com/2014/08/the-personal-blog/)

> “Social media has come to symbolize, for me, the tyranny of having to appear relevant, visible and clean to everyone else, the inability to define my own boundaries and the uncertainty about what’s going to happen tomorrow to the fundamental structure of this tool that I’m using – all the while someone either makes money off of me or adds to the looming amorphousness trying to stay afloat. You don’t have to share these fears, but that’s why I’m writing this on hosting space I pay for myself on a domain I own myself . . . I do it because it’s the worst alternative, except for all the others.” – Jesper at [Waffle](http://waffle.wootest.net/2014/08/24/community-services/). Read the whole thing.

[Tor Browser 4.0.3](https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-weekly-news-%E2%80%94-january-21st-2015) and [Tails 1.2.3](https://tails.boum.org/news/version_1.2.3/index.en.html) have been released, in each case allegedly addressing security issues in their respective prior releases.

Beginning January 20th, a [Coursera course on Surveillance Law](https://www.coursera.org/course/surveillance) taught by [Jonathan Mayer](https://jonathanmayer.org/) of Stanford University.

[The Blockchain Application Stack](http://joel.mn/post/103546215249/the-blockchain-application-stack) – Joel Monegro of Union Square Ventures

[There’s a Blockchain for That! The Code that Secures Bitcoin could also Power an Alternate Internet – First, Though, It Has to Work](https://medium.com/backchannel/how-bitcoins-blockchain-could-power-an-alternate-internet-bb501855af67) – Scott Rosenberg at Medium

[Bitcoin (and Blockchain) – Three Things to Think About This Year](http://a16z.com/2015/01/22/bitcoin-and-blockchain/) – Andreessen Horowitz

[“How the Bitcoin Protocol Actually Works.”](http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-actually-works/) A lengthy, somewhat technical explanation by writer/scientist/programmer, [Michael Nielsen](http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/michael-a-nielsen/) (via [Bruce Schneier](https://twitter.com/schneierblog/)).

**Related**: “Bitcoin: Questions, Answers and Analysis of Legal Issues” ([pdf](http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43339.pdf)) – Congressional Research Service (January 2015)

The Executive Summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on the CIA detention program was released today ([free pdf](http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf), approximately 525 pages; [paperback/epub/pdf/mobi for purchase](http://www.mhpbooks.com/books/the-senate-intelligence-committee-report-on-torture/) at Melville House). The full report (approximately 6,000 pages, including about 37,000 footnotes) has not been declassified or released. Joseph Margulies, law professor and counsel to Abu Zubaydah, the first prisoner subjected to enhanced interrogations and the first held at a CIA black site, on the call for criminal prosecutions for the “War on Terror” torture cases:

> “And this brings me back to prosecutions for the torture program. Unfortunately, imposing criminal sanctions on what was concededly criminal behavior would be the first and last step in a national campaign to define these events as merely aberrational. Admittedly, if prosecutions were part of a larger re-examination of the foundational assumptions and structures in American life that led to this behavior, they could play a valuable role in the debate. But that is not how prosecutions would be deployed or described. The very premise of the criminal law in this country is that the system which created the law is fundamentally sound and that compliance is a proxy and predicate for social order. The criminal law, therefore, is invoked as a solution for disorder, complete in and of itself. When the Executive Summary is released, a very small number of us will call for institutional reform. The rest will clang the partisan pans. And when talk turns to prosecution, as it will, I will turn away—not because no crimes were committed, but because the crime implicates us all.”

Professor Margulies’s entire [**post**](http://www.lawfareblog.com/2014/08/in-trouble-with-the-law/#more-37640) at LawFare is worth a read.

**Related:**

[Wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Intelligence_Committee_report_on_CIA_torture) – Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture

George Washington University’s National Security Archive – [Torture Archive](http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/torture_archive/report.html)

Washington Post – [Senate Report on CIA Program Details Brutality, Dishonesty](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senate-report-on-cia-program-details-brutality-dishonesty/2014/12/09/1075c726-7f0e-11e4-9f38-95a187e4c1f7_story.html)

New York Times – [Panel Faults C.I.A. Over Brutality and Deceit in Terrorism Interrogations](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/senate-intelligence-committee-cia-torture-report.html?_r=0)

Background: [U.S. Senate Bill Proposes Sweeping Curbs on NSA surveillance](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/us-usa-nsa-congress-idUSKBN0FY1EM20140729) – Reuters’ news report.

Update: On November 18, 2014, the Senate voted to end further discussion of the proposed Act during the 113th United States Congress. [Critical NSA Reform Bill Fails in the Senate](http://www.wired.com/2014/11/usa-freedom-act-fails-in-senate/) – Wired

Text: txt, pdf and html versions at [Congress.gov](https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2685/text?q={%22search%22%3A[%22USA+Freedom+Act+Senate%22]}).

Summary of the Bill: [Senator Leahy’s NSA Reform Bill: A Quick and Dirty Summary](http://www.lawfareblog.com/2014/07/senator-leahys-nsa-reform-bill-a-quick-and-dirty-summary/) — LawFare

Position of the Electronic Frontier Foundation: [EFF’s Decision to Support the Bill](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/08/understanding-new-usa-freedom-act-questions-concerns-and-effs-decision-support) and [The New Senate USA FREEDOM Act: A First Step Towards Reforming Mass Surveillance](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/new-senate-usa-freedom-act-first-step-towards-reforming-mass-surveillance) at EFF’s DeepLinks blog.

Other Commentary: [Our Privacy and Liberty Still at Risk, Even if Leahy NSA Bill Passes](http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25491-our-privacy-and-liberty-still-at-risk-even-if-leahy-nsa-bill-passes) – Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice.

Debate¹: Stewart Baker, former NSA general counsel, debating Harley Geiger, Deputy Director for the Freedom, Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology ([Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast](http://www.steptoecyberblog.com/2014/08/15/steptoe-cyberlaw-podcast-debate-with-harley-geiger/)); debate sponsored by the Federalist Society).

1. http://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/3019695/height/400/width/450/theme/standard/direction/no/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/ ↩

[“Countdown to Zero Day – Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon”](http://www.randomhouse.com/book/219931/countdown-to-zero-day-by-kim-zetter) by Kim Zetter: “Stuxnet, as it came to be known, was unlike any other virus or worm that came before. Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it escaped the digital realm to wreak physical destruction on equipment the computers controlled.” – [excerpt](http://www.wired.com/2014/11/countdown-to-zero-day-stuxnet/) at Wired

[“The Coming Swarm: DDOS Actions, Hacktivism, and Civil Disobedience on the Internet”](http://oddletters.com/the-coming-swarm/) by Molly Sauter (pay what you want ebook)

[“Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age”](http://craphound.com/?p=5387) by Cory Doctorow

“Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2365 into law, to be codified as California Civil Code Sec. 1670.8. The law is a first-in-the-nation statute to stop businesses from contractually gagging their consumers.
The new law says that a consumer contract ‘may not include a provision waiving the consumer’s right to make any statement regarding the seller or lessor or its employees or agents, or concerning the goods or services.’ . . . The penalties may be financially modest, but any California business foolish enough to take an anti-review contract to court will end up writing a check to their customers.” – Professor Eric Goldman: [California Tells Businesses Stop Trying To Ban Consumer Reviews](http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2014/09/california-tells-businesses-stop-trying-to-ban-consumer-reviews-forbes-cross-post.htm)

“Today’s privacy policies don’t tell consumers the whole story for two main reasons. First, websites have adopted a kind of precautionary legalese to inoculate themselves against lawsuits and fines. The vaguer and more elastic their language, the more risk reduced. Second, over the past ten years, a new industry of ‘data brokerage’ has arisen to help sites learn more about the people like you and me on the other side of the screen . . . Gathering and analyzing that data is big business, and it creates a strong financial incentive for the firms that collect it to make it as difficult as possible for you to opt out of their net.” – [Why Privacy Policies Are So Inscrutable](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/why-privacy-policies-are-so-inscrutable/379615/) – The Atlantic

Related: [The Potemkinism of Privacy Pragmatism – Civil Liberties are Too Important to be Left to the Technologists](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/09/data_use_regulation_the_libertarian_push_behind_a_new_take_on_privacy.single.html) – Slate

> Why do most MOOCs appear to be made on $500 budgets despite sponsorship by $$$ inc.’s and universities w/amazing student av/design talent? – [@jrmchale](https://twitter.com/jrmchale): September 6, 2014

> Related: [Why Free Online Classes Are Still the Future of Education](http://www.wired.com/2014/09/free-online-classes-still-future-education/) – Wired

> #### Law, Tech and Policy