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David Johnson
Senior Resident Fellow

David Johnson is CDT's first Senior Resident Fellow. Before joining CDT for this one year fellowship, starting in May 2009, Mr. Johnson was a Visiting Professor at New York Law School for a period of five years. Prior to that, he practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. Mr. Johnson is a graduate of Yale College (B.A. 1967, summa cum laude) and Yale Law School (J.D. 1972). He completed a year of post graduate study at University College, Oxford (1968). Following graduation from law school, he clerked a year for Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. Johnson joined Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1973 and became a partner in 1980.

Mr. Johnson's law practice focused primarily on the emerging area of electronic commerce, including counseling on issues relating to privacy, domain names and Internet governance issues, jurisdiction, copyright, taxation, electronic contracting, ... More »

David Johnson is CDT's first Senior Resident Fellow. Before joining CDT for this one year fellowship, starting in May 2009, Mr. Johnson was a Visiting Professor at New York Law School for a period of five years. Prior to that, he practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. Mr. Johnson is a graduate of Yale College (B.A. 1967, summa cum laude) and Yale Law School (J.D. 1972). He completed a year of post graduate study at University College, Oxford (1968). Following graduation from law school, he clerked a year for Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. Johnson joined Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1973 and became a partner in 1980.

Mr. Johnson's law practice focused primarily on the emerging area of electronic commerce, including counseling on issues relating to privacy, domain names and Internet governance issues, jurisdiction, copyright, taxation, electronic contracting, encryption, defamation, privacy, ISP and OSP liability, and intellectual property. He helped to write the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and CALEA. He was involved in discussions leading to the Framework for Global Electronic Commerce. He has also devoted substantial time to the development of new types of "graphical groupware" and has been active in the introduction of personal computers in law practice.

Mr. Johnson served as founding director of the Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project and as founding president, CEO, and chairman of Counsel Connect, an online meeting place for the legal profession. He also was a founder and has served as co director of the Cyberspace Law Institute. Mr. Johnson has served on the boards of directors of the National Center for Automated Information Research and the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction. He is a co founder of the Law Practice Technology Roundtable. Mr. Johnson has served on the Board, as a policy fellow, and as chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Mr. Johnson's writings include: "Regulation and the Political Process," co-authored with Lloyd N. Cutler, 84 Yale Law Journal 1395 (June 1975);"Law and Borders: The Rise of Law in Cyberspace," co-authored with David G. Post, 48 Stanford Law Review 1367 (May 1996) (1997 McGannon Award);"And How Shall the Net Be Governed";" The New Civic Virtue of the Internet," both co authored with David G. Post and available at www.cli.org; and "The Life of the Law Online", 51 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 956 (2007) or First Monday, Issue 11-2. His work on the legal issues posed by cyberspace has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

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Blog Post - What Larry Strickling Meant to Say (and Should have Said)
3/2/2010 Internet Openness & Standards
On February 24, Larry Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, gave a speech to The Media Institute in which he said: “Given all the human actors involved in the Internet with all their competing interests, we have to ask, do governments have to be involved to sort out these interests so that the Internet will continue to thrive?” He answered his own question as follows: “I say yes but, just as emphatically, I say that the government’s role need not be one of a heavy-handed regulator.”
 
Well, that set the cat among the pigeons! The resulting headlines included: “NTIA Chief: Net Needs a Ref,” “US Gov’t.
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Blog Post - CDT Celebrates One Web Day
9/22/2009

Today is One Web Day — a day to acknowledge the many ways in which the Internet has made and will make the world a better place. Some will engage in service projects to get more people online. Some will educate each other regarding the policy issues that will determine how online society develops. Some will organize group action to improve the Net. Some will just have a good time with friends.

This morning, the local DC celebration of OneWebDay included a panel presentation on Capitol Hill during which many “bold ideas” for the future of Internet were discussed. Everyone in the room seemed to share a certain optimism that the Net can help use deal with the challenges of health care, education, providing employment opportunity and more.

Because CDT Fellow David Post wrote the book about Jefferson’s moose (In Search of Jefferson’s Moose — Notes on the State of Cyberspace), we particularly like the “Moosical” that Mario Tosto published in honor of One Web Day.

CDT is celebrating by inviting you to read and sign “A Call to Defense and Celebration of the Online Commonwealth.” We think that would be a great way to celebrate this inspirational day.

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Blog Post - Narrow Mission, Consensus-Based Processes Critical to ICANN's Future
6/8/2009 Internet Openness & Standards

It's getting to be decision time for the future of ICANN--the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers--and the Obama Administration is going to have to get up to speed quickly. Since its creation in 1998, ICANN has managed the Internet's domain name system (DNS) under several contracts with the U.S. government. One of those contracts, known as the Joint Project Agreement, expires on September 30 of this year. This "JPA" has been used to spur ICANN procedural reform. ICANN says it has done enough, so that the U.S. can cut the umbilical cord. Most observers, even those who support the independence of ICANN, say it is just a little too soon to let go. <!--more--> In comments filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce today, CDT laid out its most detailed roadmap yet for ICANN's transition to full independence. CDT has long argued that ICANN should be freed of U.S. control, but only if it is accountable to the global Internet community and protected from interference by other governments. In our comments today, CDT set out five steps that must be taken to make ICANN fully independent. Central among these is limiting ICANN's mission solely to matters affecting competition, security and stability of the DNS and requiring consensus among affected stakeholders for the adoption of ICANN rules. In essence, CDT is saying that ICANN should make policy the way that standards bodies do - through multi-stakeholder consensus, without giving governments any special say.

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