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In: Cyberlaw

Cyberspace has no governing law, but cybercrime is costing trillions of dollars each year. Using the same tools that cybercriminals use, and more, we can reclaim cyberspace and do good and create markets of digital inclusion for peripheralized youth which will help eradicate poverty. Our current projects are in Zambia and Jordan (working with homeless youth are living in poverty) as a proof of concept. Most of our projects involve music and developing world artists, which together have become know as PeaceTones. By incorporating new ways to access law and justice (on a layer of justice of global laws accessible online), access to global opportunitiesRead More →

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In: Uncategorised

Part 1. A history. Can laws protect us? The internet as we know it is dead. You can no longer trust the internet to be a trustworthy communications platform. Worse, it has become an almost impenetrable safe haven for very smart terrorists, criminals, rogue actors who have built global enterprises which threaten the very fabric of our society, and new threats are created daily behind nearly impenetrable walls. A global shutdown of the internet is both possible and has to be prevented. The global public communications infrastructure enveloping the planet has a terminal disease. How did we get here? Take a look at what couldRead More →

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In: Cryptocurrency

This short five minute read should make clear to any lawyer that the new era of smart contracts is here. With a very short introduction of current definitions of blockchain, followed by a 15 year old’s interpretation and example, it’s easy to see how quickly the world of law is about to change. The conclusion points to NFTs as the leading edge for bringing smart contracts into the mainstream.Read More →

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In: Democracy

The Bertelsmann Foundation is running a series of programs on How to Fix Democracy. As Democracy depends upon people who care, believe and respect the rule of law which is the source of democracy, engaged citizens are a must. In this show, Digital Democracy and Citizen Engagement | Wietse Van Ransbeeck who is the Co-Founder and CEO of the CitizenLab, a Brussels-based company that works with governments to enable public participation in decision-making is interviewed by BF host Andrew Keen. For so many who worry that without democracy, human rights will suffer, technology is a double edged sword. Technology’s negative impact on democracy has beenRead More →

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In: Blog

      Technology innovation constantly challenges law to meet the needs of today’s society.  If we rely solely on law to solve the problems of refugees, justice will be delayed. Why?  With the refugee crisis reaching a feverish level in the United States, laws are aspirational from the refugees’ point of view, and US state sovereignty ‘trumps’ any of these aspirations. Citizen pushback, as massive as it is, can only provide very limited legal impact for refugees: (1) finding lawyers to connect to refugees one to one to enter an antiquated court system and make a case for asylum. Resolution of these cases takesRead More →

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In: Blog

On May 31, I spoke at USIP on how our PeaceTones music projects use innovation in the ways we make and enforce laws to help musicians in the developing worlds earn money from themselves and their communities. (See powerpoint slides.) PeaceTones runs programs which teach Intellectual Property laws in the developing world to gifted and aspiring musicians. We also use technology tools to open up global markets for musicians from places like Haiti, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Kenya, Liberia, and Afghanistan. The problem we encounter everywhere, as do musicians all over the world, is that the global norm for IP law is an outdated IP systemRead More →

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In: Blog

One of the earliest letters I received from Nigeria (before the Internet – postage/envelope/letter inside/a “real” signature) invited me to help out an individual there who was a relative of a prince and had a very substantial bank account in New York, but they could not access the funds there (millions of dollars) without my help. Hmmm…. Nigeria has had a reputation for scammers for a long time. The Internet gave these scammers new fuel and new ways to catch people in their lair. These scammers are sophisticated and the reason they don’t give up is because it works. Nevertheless, the reputation that has befallenRead More →

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In: Blog

Two weeks off, and a trip to visit Machupicchu is coming up. It’s a time to stop and take stock. After all, it’s been ten years since I started IBO and at times it has seemed almost mind numbing. Like usual, I gathered some reading materials before leaving Houston.  THE INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson, STARTING WITH WHY by Simon Sinek  and the April issue of WIRED with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un gracing the cover.  It seems like the theme of my reading would become clear once I started turning the pages! It didn’t take long. Sinek’s book is about how great leaders inspire everyone toRead More →

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In: Blog

When I first worked with Don Hagans and Bruce Jaster from Texas and several others in 1986 to help develop the inaugural ABA TECHSHOW, the idea of using computers in the practice of law was at its complete inception. At the time, I had already started the Computer College in Massachusetts as chair of the Law Practice Section of the Mass Bar Association – generously funded by Digital Equipment Corporation (remember when DEC and WANG battled for the legal market…). Running educational programs all across the state of Massachusetts, by 1986, we had trained hundreds of lawyers across the state on how to automate theirRead More →

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In: Blog

I was recently published on The Huffington Post examining the concept of trusted online communities, online identity and the shaping a global democracy online. The chance to establish norms for justice over the Internet that transcend international boundaries is something the world, and the legal community in particular, can drive to secure rights both on and offline: The changes resulting from the rise of the Internet are taking hold, and the legal community has yet to catch up to the way the world is now interacting. As our modes of business and daily interactions take place increasingly over the Web, the world is beginning to define theRead More →