I’m leaving for Boston shortly in order to attend what promises to be a really interesting symposium organized by the Boston College Law Review on Owning Standards. I think that the conference organizers and moderators (Profs. Lawrence Cunningham, Joe Liu and Fred Yen) have done something very clever: they’ve identified an important but under-theorized topic and are focusing attention on it. Not only do I get to see a bunch of smart and nice folks, but I hope to learn a lot too. And the weather forecast says it will only be cold at night.
Recent Bluessky Posts- There is: Reward your friends and those who pay you. Punish opponents and perceived enemies. June 13, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- I gather that Trump's name came off the Kennedy Center after the courts rejected the ridiculous 11th hour attempt (unhinged brief not signed by career lawyers) to block it, but the work was done behind a tarp to block the cameras. Missed opportunity to sell tickets; might have raised real money. June 13, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Seen at MIA in the TSA departures queue, this invitation to 'self-deport' in exchange for a $1000 per person and a free flight. Although I recall reading they don't necessarily deliver. In any case a sour taste for the start of international travel. June 13, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- In a strange way you almost could admire the Trumpies' leave-no-stone-unturned approach to graft. There is really no bottom. No limit. And justice is at best slow. June 12, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Jotwell Adlaw: Fred Jacob, Administrative Agencies & the People who Love Them, JOTWELL (June 12, 2026) (reviewing Anya Bernstein & Cristina Rodriguez, Working with Statutes, 103 Tex. L. Rev. 921 (2025)), adlaw.jotwell.com/__trashed-2/. June 12, 2026 Jotwell
I am so glad that the study of standards has gone beyond IETF-swooning.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=615201
Abstract:
“If code is law then standards bodies are governments. This flawed but powerful metaphor suggests the need to examine more closely those standards bodies that are defining standards for the Internet. In this paper we examine the International Telecommunications Union, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association, the Internet Engineering Task Force, and the World Wide Web Consortium. We compare the organizations on the basis of participation, transparency, authority, openness, security and interoperability. We conclude that the IETF and the W3C are becoming increasingly similar. We also conclude that the classical distinction between standards and implementations is decreasingly useful as standards are embodies in code – itself a form of speech or documentation. recent Internet standards bodies have flourished in part by discarding or modifying the implementation/standards distinction. “