Chokepoints

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Tusikov
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Global Regulators ◽  
Internet Firms ◽  
Property Owners ◽  
The U.S

On January 18, 2012, millions of people participated in the now-infamous “Internet blackout” to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and the rights it would have given intellectual property holders to shape how people use the Internet. SOPA’s withdrawal was heralded as a victory for an open Internet. However, as Natasha Tusikov documents in Chokepoints: Global Private Regulation on the Internet, rather than accept defeat, a small group of corporations, tacitly backed by the U.S. and other governments, have implemented much of SOPA via a series of secret, handshake agreements among powerful corporations, including Google, PayPal, and Microsoft. This book is the first to explore these agreements. Drawing on extensive interviews with corporate and government officials, Tusikov details the emergence of a new realm of global governance, in which large Internet firms act as global regulators for powerful intellectual property owners like Nike, and raises questions about the threat these new global regimes pose to democratic accountability itself. The book argues that these global regulators are significantly altering the ways in which governments and corporations regulate content and information on the Internet.

Internet Firms Become Global Regulators

Chokepoints ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Tusikov
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Counterfeit Goods ◽  
Global Regulators ◽  
Internet Firms ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
Online Regulation ◽  
The U.S

Having set the backdrop to the private agreements, this chapter discusses how the non-binding agreements emerged from distinct historical and political circumstances. It provides a brief historical overview that traces the growing influence of multinational rights holders on the U.S. government’s intellectual property policymaking processes from the late 1970s to 2012. The chapter then examines in detail four U.S. intellectual property bills, including the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, which proposed to reshape fundamentally the online regulation of intellectual property rights infringement. In doing so, the chapter documents a significant shift in enforcement strategy from a focus on removing problematic content (e.g., advertisements for counterfeit goods) to disabling entire websites for allegedly trafficking in counterfeit goods. The chapter argues that Internet firms have become global regulators (known as macro-intermediaries) attractive to governments and corporations for policing a wide range of social problems, including counterfeit goods. The chapter concludes that government officials from the U.S., U.K., and European Commission played a central role in pressuring Internet firms to adopt the non-binding agreements. These agreements serve strategic state interests as well as the financial interests of rights holders.

Secret Handshake Deals

Chokepoints ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Tusikov
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Domain Name ◽  
Counterfeit Goods ◽  
Search Advertising ◽  
Internet Firms ◽  
Closed Door ◽  
The Many ◽  
Industry Associations ◽  
The U.S

This chapter sets the scene for the rest of the book by describing the emergence of non-legally binding enforcement agreements among large Internet firms through a series of closed-door meetings. It introduces the key actors: mostly U.S.-based Internet firms, multinational rights holders, influential industry associations, and policymakers and politicians from the U.S., U.K., and European Commission. Together these actors form a private transnational regime with the goal of suppressing the trafficking of counterfeit goods on the Internet. To provide context, the chapter explains the importance of regulating intellectual property rights to rights holders and governments, as well as the many challenges involved in identifying and policing the distribution of counterfeit goods. The chapter introduces the concept of ‘macro-intermediaries’ (which are globally operating, powerful Internet firms) and explains how these major Internet firms regulate through technology (termed ‘techno-regulation’) to remove content from and disable websites selling counterfeit goods. It describes the focus on five types of Internet sectors (search, advertising, payment, domain name, and marketplace). Companies providing these services can enact different types of regulatory ‘chokepoints’ to target the distribution of counterfeit goods.

A Future for Digital Rights

Chokepoints ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Tusikov
Keyword(s):  
Public Awareness ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Rights ◽  
Internet Firms ◽  
Surveillance Programs ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Do So

The conclusion argues that Internet firms and the U.S. government have common interests in expanding the surveillance economy, which refers to the massive online accumulation of information. It also considers measures to address the considerable challenges raised by the state-endorsed non-binding enforcement agreements. It explores ways in which states and corporations can use technology to regulate in ways that are fair, proportionate, and accountable. The chapter offers several recommendations. First is the need to cultivate greater public awareness of corporate regulation on the Internet. One way to do so is through industry transparency reports, in which corporate actors participating in the regulation disclose their involvement in regulation, a practice that has become more common following Edward Snowden’s disclosure of Internet firms’ involvement in the U.S. government’s Internet surveillance programs. The book ends with a call to establish digital rights and looks for inspiration to Brazil’s 2014 law, Marco Civil da Internet, which codified a set of digital rights.

Syria under Pressure

2004 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDERS STRINDBERG
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Mass Destruction ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Wrong Side ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Sharp Criticism ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Invasion Of Iraq

Syria's sharp criticism of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 opened a particularly tense phase in Syrian-American relations, culminating in the May 2004 imposition of U.S. economic sanctions under the Syria Accountability Act. While accusing Damascus of being on the ““wrong side”” in the wars against terror and Iraq, Washington has raised a number of other issues, including Syria's military presence in Lebanon, its support for Hizballah and various Palestinian factions, its alleged ““interference”” in Iraq, and its possible possession of weapons of mass destruction. This report, based on numerous interviews with government officials, analysts, opposition figures, and ordinary citizens, examines Syria's reactions to these allegations, gradual changes in Syrian political culture, and various domestic developments.

scholarly journals The Logic and Legitimacy of Bank Supervision: The Case of the Bank Holiday of 1933

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Peter Conti-Brown ◽  
Sean H. Vanatta
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Banking Crises ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Bank Supervision ◽  
Political Skills ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. banking holiday of March 1933 was a pivotal event in twentieth-century political and economic history. After closing the nation's banks for nine days, the administration of newly inaugurated president Franklin D. Roosevelt restarted the banking system as the first step toward national recovery from the global Great Depression. In the conventional narrative, the holiday succeeded because Roosevelt used his political talents to restore public confidence in the nation's banks. However, such accounts say virtually nothing about what happened during the holiday itself. We reinterpret the banking crises of the 1930s and the 1933 holiday through the lens of bank supervision, the continuous oversight of commercial banks by government officials. Through the 1930s banking crises, federal supervisors identified troubled banks but could not act to close them. Roosevelt empowered supervisors to act decisively during the holiday. By closing some banks, supervisors made credible Roosevelt's claims that banks that reopened were sound. Thus, the union of FDR's political skills with the technical judgment of bank supervisors was the key to solving the banking crisis. Neither could stand alone, and both together were the vital precondition for further economic reforms—including devaluing the dollar—and, with them, Roosevelt's New Deal.

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