Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

MIT REAL ID Forum Online

Posted on September 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

I’m going to be participating in the MIT REAL ID online Forum this week, and you’re invited. Here’s the description sent out by co-organizer Daniel Greenwood, Lecturer, MIT Media Lab and Director of the MIT E-Commerce Architecture Program:

Your digital identity and physical identity may be about to merge under a new federal law that requires a standard federally controlled identity card. You are invited to participate in the first Real ID Forum, convened by the MIT Media Lab and MIT E-Commerce Architecture Program. The Real ID Act of 2005, as enacted by Congress and signed by the President, sets up a new federally controlled driver license that can be read by computers according to common national standards. This raises many public policy, technical and business problems and prospects. The act is binding starting in less than three years.

The first forum is on online discussion, facilitated by experts in the relevant fields, and taking place from Monday, September 19th at 3pm Eastern Time through Friday, September 23rd. Is the Real ID going to be a National Identity for the USA? Does it represent the ultimate convergence of physical identity cards and your digital log in? Are the privacy, civil liberties and administrative issues addressed adequately? How should the various competing interests surrounding implementation of the Real ID Act be balanced? These are among the questions that will be addressed in the online Forum. There will also be a face to face meeting, held at the MIT Media Lab in November, 2005. To find out more information and to register for this free program, please see http://ecitizen.mit.edu/realid.html

The tracks and moderators include:

Track 1. Real ID And National Convergence of Physical and Digital Identity (facilitated by Dan Combs, President of Global Identity Solution)

Track 2: The Need for a Secure Driver License (facilitated by Colleen Gilbert, Executive Director, Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License)

Track 3: The Need for Privacy and Civil Liberties (facilitated by Lee Tien, /Senior Staff Attorney, /Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Track 4: Practical Implementation Issues (facilitated by David Lewis, Former CIO, Massachusetts and President of American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators)

Track 5: Balancing Interests Going Forward (facilitated by Professor Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law)

In addition, there will be a section of the web site called What is Real ID? This is where we’ll house the background information on the Act itself.

While you are encouraged to register and participate from the start of this event, we will be accepting new participants throughout the week. Again, to find out more information and to register for this free program, please see http://ecitizen.mit.edu/realid.html. We sincerely hope you will join us for this important and timely event.

My track won’t actually get under way until Wednesday, but it all promises to be interesting and informative.

Posted in ID Cards and Identification, Talks & Conferences | 1 Comment

Stuff Which Would be Much Funnier If It Had Less Truth

Posted on September 18, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Sort of funny, sort of tragic.

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on Stuff Which Would be Much Funnier If It Had Less Truth

Stuff Which is True and Not at All Funny

Posted on September 18, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Stuff which appears all true, and quite horrible:

  • Sickening Beyond Belief. Here’s just a small bit:

    In the midst of administering chest compressions to a dying woman several days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Dr. Mark N. Perlmutter was ordered to stop by a federal official because he wasn’t registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    “I begged him to let me continue,” said Perlmutter, who left his home and practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania to come to Louisiana and volunteer to care for hurricane victims. “People were dying, and I was the only doctor on the tarmac (at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) where scores of nonresponsive patients lay on stretchers. Two patients died in front of me.

  • The follow-up posting detailing other examples of the deadly refusal of assistance.
  • Meanwhile FEMA still can’t get its act together.

PS. Here comes Tropical Storm Rita, soon to be Hurricane Rita. See the details via the University of Miami’s cool Google hack that plots hurricane track observations and predicted path. (Note that in this case the track is a little misleading, maybe, as it is quite possible the center will reform farther north during the next 36 hours. That is, right here. Although the real hurricane force may not grow until it hits the Gulf.)

Posted in Unspeakably Awful (Katrina) | 3 Comments

It’s All Going to the Dogs

Posted on September 16, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

First there was this…but now there’s this.

(Click, it’s worth it.)

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on It’s All Going to the Dogs

And When They Came For Me…

Posted on September 16, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Once again, a “what he said” reference to Eric Muller at IsThatLegal.org for Is That Legal?: I Propose The Government Maintain a List of Everyone Who Eats Baba Ghanouj

Massachusetts governor (and 2008 Republican presidential candidate) Mitt Romney seeks the wiretapping of mosques.

Naturally, the Boston Globe article reporting on this charming proposal casts those alarmed by the proposal as “civil libertarians” and “immigrants’ rights advocates.”

Have we really reached the point where it’s just “civil libertarians” who get nervous when powerful politicians propose the suspicionless wiretapping of houses of worship?

Remember this?

In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me…By that time there was no one to speak up for anyone.

–Reverend Martin Niemoller

Posted in Civil Liberties | 6 Comments

Blogs, Ads, and Insurance

Posted on September 16, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

When stuff on this blog doesn't work like it should, I start thinking about maybe taking the blog off a shared server and putting on its own machine. The trouble is, it would cost a lot to have my own machine to host this blog, and while I'm happy to pay a little for what is basically a hobby, I'm not sure if I'm willing to spend what it takes to have my own hosted machine run by professionals. (I could run it at home, but I want it done right, and the upload bandwidth on my home line is rather puny.)

One solution many people adopt to defray the cost of a server is to run ads. I intend to resist that option unless I have no choice. There are two reasons.

First, I don't like ads, so I don't want to foist them on the people kind enough to follow my ramblings.

Second, I am pretty confident that my homeowners insurance policy covers my hobbies: Suppose, for example, someone were someone crazed enough to sue me for something related to one of my postings. Not only would they lose, but there would be someone who'd pay to defend me. (Otherwise I'd have to throw myself on the mercy of the EFF.)

The trouble is, I am not certain how my insurance would treat a hobby that had a revenue-producing component, even if I wasn't making a profit off it. Could it be considered a business, in which case it wouldn't be covered? I could imagine an insurance lawyer making that argument. Heck, if I were the insurance lawyer I'd make that argument. I think the counter-argument is better — it's a hobby that happens to bring a few bucks — but would I count on a judge inevitably seeing it that way? No I would not.

Then again, lots of other academic bloggers run ads. So what does it mean? There are lots of possibilities:

  1. I have a more restrictive insurance policy than most other bloggers
  2. Other academic bloggers have not thought about this aspect of blogging
  3. Other academic bloggers have thought about and are less risk-averse
  4. Academic bloggers as a class are judgment-proof1

Update: Turns out that Eugene Volokh not only had the same thought some time ago, but he actually did some research on the question, which pretty much supports my instincts (although laws do vary by state). And one of the trackbacks to that post, Antinome sounds knowledgeable and recommends David J. Marchitelli, Construction and Application of “Business Pursuits” Exclusion Provision in General Liability Policy,35 A.L.R.5th 375, which I will make it a point to read the next time I have insomnia.

1 To be judgment-proof is to have little or no property (or income) that a creditor can legally take to collect in the foreseeable future.

Posted in Blogs | 6 Comments