Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: June 6, 2015

Disruptive Financial Technology Startup – Mobile Payments

Exponential Finance: Who Will Be the Instagram or Uber of Finance? – Jason Dorrier: “Abra is exemplary of what happens when several digital technologies converge in one product. Combining an Uber-like peer-to-peer network with smartphone technology and blockchain, Abra literally stashes the cash in your pocket on your smartphone. From there, users can send cash as easy as they send a text. All this happens without a bank. Abra’s founder, Bill Barhydt, estimates we’re three years away from wireless carriers cycling off every feature phone—simple cell phones—sold when the iPhone and Android first came out. As smartphones become ubiquitous in the developing world, it’s possible many of the world’s unbanked billions in developing countries will skip traditional finance, a little like how they leapfrogged landlines for cell phones. It’s a radical thought. But with Abra, it’s plausible that bank-free, digital cash will be a force to be reckoned with.”

Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee’s Archive Donated to Harry Ransom Center

News release: “The archive of Ben Bradlee (1921-2014), former editor of The Washington Post, has been donated to the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin. With many of the materials spanning the era of Bradlee’s editorial tenure at the Post from 1965 to 1991, the… Continue Reading

Disclosure of Material Information: A Cross-National Comparison

Baker, H. Kent and Haslem, John A., Disclosure of Material Information: A Cross-National Comparison (June 4, 2015). International Journal of Accounting Education and Research, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-16, Fall 1977 (With Robert H.Chenhall and Roger H. Juchau). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2614537 “In recent years the controversy over disclosure and materiality in… Continue Reading

Turbo-Charging Regulatory Cooperation in TTIP

Chase, Peter and Pelkmans, Jacques, This Time it’s Different: Turbo-Charging Regulatory Cooperation in TTIP (June 4, 2015). CEPS Special Report. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2614348 “Regulatory cooperation is both one of the most ambitious and contentious parts of the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. In this paper, having identified the many… Continue Reading

US Legal System on Data Protection in the Field of Law Enforcement

The US Legal System on Data Protection in the Field of Law Enforcement. Safeguards, Rights and Remedies for EU Citizens 15-05-2015: “Upon request by the LIBE Committee, this study surveys the US legal system of data protection in the field of federal law enforcement. It reviews two principal sources of US data protection law, the… Continue Reading

NSA surveillance: how librarians have been on the front line to protect privacy

Dan Roberts – The Guardian UK – “In the hours before US senators voted to take on the might of the National Security Agency this week, their inboxes were deluged with more than 2,200 supportive emails from a most unlikely group of revolutionaries: America’s librarians. Their contribution to the passage of the USA Freedom Act… Continue Reading