Home » About » Staff
audio-player.js or player.swf were not found in /sites/all/modules/contrib/mp3player/mp3player/, download the standalone WordPress Audio Player.
Andrew McDiarmid
Policy Analyst

Andrew McDiarmid is a Policy Analyst at CDT's Washington, DC, office. He works on policy issues related to digital copyright, free expression, and Internet neutrality.

Prior to joining CDT, Andrew was a research assistant at the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the UC-Berkeley School of Law, where he researched a range of issues including electronic surveillance and licensing solutions for peer-to-peer networks. He has a master's from Berkeley's School of Information, and a bachelor's in art history from Washington University in St. Louis.

Andrew McDiarmid is a Policy Analyst at CDT's Washington, DC, office. He works on policy issues related to digital copyright, free expression, and Internet neutrality.

Prior to joining CDT, Andrew was a research assistant at the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the UC-Berkeley School of Law, where he researched a range of issues including electronic surveillance and licensing solutions for peer-to-peer networks. He has a master's from Berkeley's School of Information, and a bachelor's in art history from Washington University in St. Louis.

Blog Post - ACTA: Selectively Exporting US Law
3/4/2010 Digital Copyright
Last week’s leak of the Internet section of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) prompted a new round of debate over the controversial multilateral agreement. In addition to renewed calls for transparency, attention turned to the substance of the agreement and its (dis)agreement with US and other countries’ law.  With respect to US law in particular, some analysis sought to quiet ACTA critics by pointing out—and rightly so—that the leaked text would not require changes to existing law.
 
But while the leaked language is consistent with parts of the DMCA (as well as the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement), the real threat may come from what the agreement leaves out. The picture of US copyright policy ACTA would export is heavily skewed towards enforcement, and indeed could result in much stronger protections that we have here. One anonymous commenter to the above post noted as much: “ACTA is not co-extensive with the requirements of US law. Specifically, it includes all the enforcement, but only some of the exceptions.” Exporting secondary liability and other strong US copyright enforcement provisions without counterbalancing exceptions and limitations could be disastrous for online free expression.
 
More »
Blog Post - Google Books Case Nearing an End?
2/18/2010 Digital Copyright
Eyes from the copyright and copyleft alike – as well as privacy advocates – were on a federal court in New York City this morning as Judge Denny Chin presided over the final fairness hearing in the Google Books case. Google and the author and publisher plaintiffs vigorously defended their second attempt at a settlement that would transform Google Books into a massive digital library and bookstore, in the face of major questions from scholars, public interest groups, Google competitors, and the U.S.
More »
Blog Post - "Three Strikes and You're ___?": Two Thoughts from State of the Net
1/30/2010 Digital Copyright

The plenary panel at this week’s State of the Net conference was a debate on if and when it is appropriate to cut off Internet access to repeated copyright infringers. Provocatively titled “Copyright Strikes: When Has a Pirate Graduated to Exile?,” the panel was designed to raise hackles on each side of the debate. On one hand many object to the use of “pirate” to describe copyright infringers; on the other hand, proponents of graduated response policies insist that they do not amount to “exile” from the Internet. John Morris represented CDT on the panel, articulating the serious concerns about proportionality and due process that expedited suspensions raise. You can watch the entire discussion on CDT’s ustream channel.

More »
Blog Post - Filtering Down Under
12/18/2009 Free Expression

Australian officials announced this week that plans for a mandatory Internet filter will go forward.  Broadband, Communications, and Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy heralded the results of recent live testing, and will introduce legislation in August that will force ISPs to block access to websites around the world that are deemed to contain content that is illegal in Australia.  Needless to say, it is disappointing to see a democratic government following China’s lead down the path of Internet censorship.

The plan would require all ISPs to block a subset of an existing blacklist of illegal content.  In Conroy’s words, this will include “child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use”—certainly what many would consider the worst of the worst.  This is narrower than the original plan to filter the full blacklist, which includes legal content deemed inappropriate for children under 15 when it is not behind an age-verification system.  But the system nonetheless poses major problems for free expression online.

More »
Syndicate content
See all Andrew McDiarmid's Work