Author Archive
Articles by Sarah Laskow | Email the Author
What MIT really thought of Aaron Swartz
The school leadership’s patience for hacker culture only went so far
By Sarah Laskow Jul 31, 2013 at 06:50 AM
On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a report, produced by an internal "Review Panel," on the school's actions... More
WaPo makes a Switch
The paper’s newest blog will cover tech policy, the Wonkblog way
By Sarah Laskow Jul 25, 2013 at 11:00 AM
The Washington Post announced on Monday the launch of a new tech policy blog, The Switch, that will cover "NSA... More
Creating Internet accountability
Author Rebecca MacKinnon’s new project aims to rank Internet giants on human rights
By Sarah Laskow Jul 23, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Rebecca MacKinnon is the sort of person who, after Edward Snowden leaked details of the government's digital surveillance program, could... More
A new film shows how much we knew, pre-Snowden, about Internet surveillance
Snowden’s disclosures “didn’t feel much like revelations,” says the director
By Sarah Laskow Jul 15, 2013 at 02:00 PM
There was a moment in Terms and Conditions May Apply, a new documentary about the dangers of using the Internet,... More
Copyright for copy writers
“Work-for-hire” contracts in a digital age
By Sarah Laskow Jul 10, 2013 at 10:10 AM
As a freelance writer, I've signed some contracts that consist of a couple simple paragraphs, and others that had tangles... More
A proposal to reform first sale rights
In a digital age, reselling media can be cast as illegal duplication
By Sarah Laskow Jul 2, 2013 at 06:55 AM
In its current iteration, copyright law gives us content consumers a right that we've internalized so thoroughly that most people... More
Reporting, or illegal hacking
Scripps reporters are accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
By Sarah Laskow Jun 13, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The team at Scripps Howard News Service didn't use any tools that aren't used in newsrooms across the country in... More
Fair game
A new set of principles aims to help journalists improve their understanding of fair use
By Sarah Laskow Jun 7, 2013 at 10:00 AM
News breaks. A crime, an accident, a natural disaster. The newsroom starts gathering information, and among the sources reporters and... More
What the government isn’t telling us
The Declassification Engine is a new project using statistical and machine learning to help reveal secrets
By Sarah Laskow May 31, 2013 at 06:50 AM
You probably haven't heard of "Operation Boulder," a Nixon-era program that scrutinized the activities of Arab Americans and profiled visa... More
Copyright 101.2
How CopyrightX managed to convince hundreds of online students to stick with a course on copyright law
By Sarah Laskow May 21, 2013 at 02:56 PM
CopyrightX, an online course run out of Harvard this spring as part of the EdX program, was unusual in a... More
Anything but dull
The House kicks off its review of copyright by finding out how limited agreement about the law is
By Sarah Laskow May 17, 2013 at 04:09 PM
Rep. Howard Coble knows the reputation of intellectual property law--that it is dull and boring. But at a Congressional hearing... More
Digital Public Library of America wants to lend copyrighted works
The DPLA launched last month offering access to public-domain materials, but founders want to expand its purview
By Sarah Laskow May 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Last month, the Digital Public Library of America introduced its discovery portal to the Internet. It invited users in, to... More
And that’s the way it was: April 30, 1993
“WorldWideWeb” software enters the public domain
By Sarah Laskow Apr 30, 2013 at 06:50 AM
In 1993, computer users all over the world were still working out how best to share information over the Internet.... More
Google vs Brazil
Why Brazil heads up Google’s list of takedown requests
By Sarah Laskow Apr 29, 2013 at 06:55 AM
In 2009, Google started releasing some basic information twice a year about the takedown requests it receives from governments around... More
Making Internet politics personal
Activists put a face on acronyms like SOPA, PIPA, and CFAA
By Sarah Laskow Apr 16, 2013 at 06:50 AM
If you start looking for images to illustrate the fight last year over the Stop Online Piracy Act and the... More
Privacy and the right to know
Does the fact that information is publicly available mean news outlets should use it?
By Sarah Laskow Apr 10, 2013 at 02:50 PM
At the Deadline Club's panel on privacy and the right to know on Tuesday, the discussion began with guns and... More
Copyright’s new ‘new law’
Maria Pallante’s vision for copyright reform
By Sarah Laskow Apr 5, 2013 at 02:50 PM
In the world that Maria Pallante, the US Register of Copyrights, inhabits, people sometimes call the Copyright Act of 1976... More
Pity the nutgraf
The AP’s argument that ledes are the heart of its stories helped win a copyright case
By Sarah Laskow Mar 28, 2013 at 02:50 PM
When a reporter writes a story, what is the heart of the work? Is it this paragraph--the lede? This isn't... More
How hard should it be for the government to read your email?
Harder than it is right now
By Sarah Laskow Mar 21, 2013 at 11:00 AM
In 1986, it would have been strange to keep an email for longer than six months. First of all, not... More
You buy it, you own it
The Supreme Court rules it’s legal to resell here a copyrighted item from abroad
By Sarah Laskow Mar 19, 2013 at 03:30 PM
Supap Kirtsaeng came to the United States from Thailand in 1997 to study at Cornell University and, later, earned his... More
Woman’s work - The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria
Sourcing Trayvon Martin ‘photos’ from stormfront - Not a good idea, Business Insider
Elizabeth Warren, the antidote to CNBC - The senator schools the talking heads on bank regulation
Art Laffer + PR blitz = press failure - The media types up the retail lobby’s propaganda
Reuters’s global warming about-face - A survey shows the newswire ran 50 percent fewer stories on climate change after hiring a “skeptic”
Barack Obama: ‘those old times aren’t coming back’
“It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper”
The Guardian’s editor opens up on Reddit
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything
The (almost) lost speech of Justice Anthony Kennedy
How his insightful remarks about the Constitution inadvertently make the case for a Supreme Court “media pool”
Fox News sues TVEyes for copyright infringement
Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
