Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Speaking at American University on Friday

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

I’ll be presenting my latest draft paper, now entitled Regulating Mass Surveillance as Privacy Pollution: Learning from Environmental Impact Statements at a faculty workshop at the American University Washington College of Law at lunch time on Friday. So I’m off to DC early Thursday morning.

This will likely be my last chance to learn what I may need to do to punch up the paper before I send it out to law reviews, which I plan to do very soon. I’ll post a link to a draft of it here once I’ve incorporated the next round of comments.

As far as sending papers to law reviews is concerned, I’ve actually been very spoiled: almost all my work for the past decade has been book chapters or conference papers, so I have not had to send them out en mass to law reviews the way most law professors do most of the time. In fact, the last time I sent a paper out to law reviews seems to be … in 2003. (Has it really been that long?) And in that case, I was even luckier, as that paper was picked up by the Harvard Law Review.

I really think this is the best paper I’ve written in many years; that of course doesn’t necessarily tell one much about where it will end up. It isn’t short (23,000 words and counting), which is unfashionable. And I think it has two ideas, which could make it unwieldy. The political feasibility of what I propose is certainly open to question. But I think it might be somewhat original.

After this, there’s another paper in the pipeline on a very different topic. It’s good to think that I’m over the productivity hiccup caused by my aortic dissection almost exactly four years ago. Coincidentally, I had been scheduled to fly to DC on Feb. 12, 2010, the day I collapsed, but the conference I was planning to attend was snowed out. Had I gone, my aorta likely would have burst in the air, or I would have likely not gone to a hospital quickly enough had it happened in DC. In either scenario, I’d be dead as once it bursts you have less than an hour to be treated or it’s curtains.

So I guess I’m hoping it is the 2003 history, and not the 2010 history, that repeats itself.

Posted in Personal, Talks & Conferences | 2 Comments

I Was on NPR Today

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

I was interviewed on the Takeaway recently, and they played the sequence today. The subject was ICANN’s expansion of the gTLD space. The other speaker was Cyrus Namazi, vice president of Domain Name System Services at ICANN.

For some reason I sounded really hoarse….

Posted in ICANN, The Media | Comments Off on I Was on NPR Today

Best Disclaimer Ever?

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

The TV version of this otherwise endless and pointless commercial for KFC contains what may be the best disclaimer I have ever witnessed in the wild:

Professional. Do not attempt to eat chicken while doing a backflip on a motorcycle. You may choke.

Imagining that some lawyer got paid a lot of money for writing that just makes it funnier.

Posted in Tort | 3 Comments

Today’s Simile

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

The dissent rightfully, in my opinion, points out that Baze has as much to do with abuse of discretion for denying 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss as does a hot dog.

That’s Corey Yung, writing in What do a Writ of Mandamus, 12(b)(6), the Death Penalty, and a Batson Challenge Have in Common?, in an interesting discussion of procedural issues in a recent 8th Circuit opinion in method-of-legal-execution case. That dissent is pretty convincing on some other issues too, by the way.

(I post this in fear that someone will come along and say it’s really some kind of metaphor.)

Posted in Law: Criminal Law | Comments Off on Today’s Simile

Crypto Joke

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

Protocol

Really funny if you are into crypto. From xkcd of course.

Posted in Completely Different, Cryptography | 2 Comments

Terrific We Robot 2014 Program

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Michael Froomkin

Registration is now open for We Robot 2014, April 4-5 here at U. Miami. Tickets are free, but seats are limited.

We have a terrific program planned:

Friday, April 4th

8:00 am Check-in and Breakfast

8:30 am Introductions
Welcome and Introduction of Sponsors
A Few Words from Our Sponsors
Introductory Remarks: A. Michael Froomkin, Program Chair

8:45 am Regulating The Loop
Meg Leta Ambrose, Communication, Culture, and Technology, Georgetown University
Discussant: Elizabeth Grossman, Microsoft Corp.

10:00 am Break

10:15 am Rethinking Models of Responsibility for Semi-Autonomous Robots
Jason Millar, Philosophy, Carleton University
Discussant: Peter Asaro, School of Media Studies, The New School for Public Engagement, Stanford Law School, International Committee for Robot Arms Control

11:30 am Break

11:45 am Robots as Labor Creating Devices: Robotic Technologies and the Expansion of the Second Shift
Ann Bartow, Pace Law School
Discussant: Jodi Forlizzi, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

1:00 pm Lunch

2:00 pm Panel on Robots and Social Justice
Moderator: Kate Darling, MIT Media Lab

  • The Canny Valley: Law, Ethics, and the Design of Robots Increasingly Able to Mimic and Invite Affection
    Kenneth Anderson, Washington College of Law, American University, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, The Brookings Institution
  • Consumer Cloud Robotics and the Fair Information Practice Principles: The Policy Risks and Opportunities Ahead
    Kris Hauser, Computer Science and Informatics, Indiana University
    Andrew A. Proia, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University
    Drew T. Simshaw, Center for Law, Ethics, and Applied Research in Health Information, Indiana University
  • Professional Ethics for HRI Research, Development, and Marketing
    Laurel D. Riek, Computer Science and Engineering, University of Notre Dame
    Don Howard, Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
  • Robots in School: Disability and the Promise (or Specter?) of Radical Educational Equality
    Aaron Jay Saiger, Fordham University School of Law

3:45 pm Break

4:00 pm Parallel Demonstrations

  • TeleRobotics
    Howard Jay Chizeck, Electrical Engineering & Bioengineering, University of Washington
  • Automated Algorithmic Software Trading Robots: Sousveillance, and Continuous Cloud Sync Audit Trails
    Avi Rushinek, University of Miami School of Business
    Sara Rushinek University of Miami School of Business

5:00 pm Survey: “So, What do YOU think a robot is?” A short quiz for the audience.
Bill Smart, Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University

5:30 pm Reception

7:00 pm Birds of a Feather Sessions
@ Local restaurants

Saturday, April 5th

8:00 am Check-in and Breakfast

8:30 am Chief Justice John Roberts is a Robot
Ian Kerr, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine & Department of Philosophy, University of Ottawa
Carissima Mathen, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
Discussant: Jack Balkin, Yale Law School

9:45 am Break

10:00 am When Robot Eyes Are Watching You: The Law & Policy of Automated Communications Surveillance
Kevin Bankston, New America Foundation
Amie Stepanovich, Electronic Privacy Information Center
Discussant: Neil Richards, Washington University School of Law

11:15 am Break

11:30 am Robotics and the New Cyberlaw
Ryan Calo, University of Washington School of Law
Discussant: David Post, Beasley School of Law, Temple University

12:45 pm Lunch

1:45 pm Prison of Our Own Making: An Expanded View of Automated Law Enforcement
Col. Lisa A. Shay, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, United States Military Academy
Woodrow Hartzog, Cumberland School of Law, Samford University
Col. John C. Nelson, English & Philosophy, United States Military Academy
Col. Gregory Conti, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science & Information Technology Operations Center, United States Military Academy
Discussant: Mary Anne Franks, University of Miami School of Law

3:00 pm Break

3:15 pm Panel on Domestic Drones
Moderator: Dan Siciliano, Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School

  • Robots, Micro-Airspaces, and the Future of “Public Space”
    Peter Asaro, New School for Public Engagement, Stanford Law School, International Committee for Robot Arms Control
  • Risk, Product Liability Trends, Triggers, and Insurance in Commercial Aerial Robots
    David K. Breyer, Digital Risk Resources
    Donna A. Dulo, U.S. Department of Defense
    Gale A. Townsley, Severson & Werson PC
    Stephen S. Wu, Cooke Kobrick & Wu LLP
  • A Legal Framework for the Safe and Resilient Operation of Autonomous Aerial Robots
    Cameron R. Cloar, Nixon Peabody LLP
    Donna A. Dulo, U.S. Department of Defense
  • Self-Defense Against Robots
    A. Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law
    Zak Colangelo, University of Miami School of Law

4:45 pm Final Remarks

Posted in Robots, Talks & Conferences | 1 Comment