They had better hurry with the autonomous vehicle rules

From Electrek
https://electrek.co/2016/11/11/teslaautopilotchipsupplierselfdrivinghardwareitsfiveyearsahead/


NVIDIA reported its financial results for the last quarter yesterday and surprised Wall Street. The chip maker, which is now becoming an “AI company” according to its leadership, reported revenue of $2 billion on expectations of $1.7 billion and they also surpassed earnings expectations by a similar margin. On a conference call with CEO Jen-Hsun Huang following the results, analysts were particularly interested in the company’s push in AI and the automotive industry, especially since Tesla’s started delivering every single one of its vehicles with NVIDIA’s Drive PX2 supercomputer. Huang offered some very interesting insights into how he sees Tesla’s self-driving program playing out.He says that by introducing the necessary hardware for full autonomy now, Tesla “sent a shock wave through the automotive industry”:

“And I think what Tesla has done by launching and having on the road in the very near-future here, a full autonomous driving capability using AI, that has sent a shock wave through the automotive industry. It’s basically five years ahead. Anybody who’s talking about 2021 and that’s just a non-starter anymore. And I think that that’s probably the most significant bit in the automotive industry. I just don’t – anybody who is talking about autonomous capabilities in 2020 and 2021 is at the moment re-evaluating in a very significant way.”

For a tiny insight into the regulators, but one that unfortunately does not not delve deep enough.

Policing Driverless Cars an interview with Christopher Hart, who heads the National Transportation Safety Board. MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, VOL. 119 | NO. 6 p 15. 

The ideal scenario that I talked about, saving the tens of thousands of lives a year, assumes complete automation with no human engagement whatsoever. I’m not confident that we will ever reach that point. I don’t see the ideal of complete automation coming anytime soon. Some people just like to drive. Some people don’t trust the automation, so they’re going to want to drive. [And] there’s no software designer in the world that’s ever going to be smart enough to anticipate all the potential circumstances this software is going to encounter. The challenge is that when you have not-so-complete automation, with still significant human engagement, complacency becomes an issue.

China's new cybersecurity rules

From MIT Technology Review Blog
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602812/chinas-new-cybersecurity-rules-may-block-western-innovation/



China has announced a new set of cybersecurity rules that could make it harder than ever for foreign technology companies to operate in the country.The rules, announced Monday, will provide central Chinese authorities with greater powers over the monitoring of data and hardware. Notably, the laws will open companies up to far greater scrutiny from the government, demanding that Internet firms coöperate with the state’s criminal investigations and provide full access to data if officials suspect them of wrongdoing. The law also demands that companies demonstrate that their systems are capable of withstanding hacks

.

European messiness

Court Decision 

A recent court decision in Germany has just made things even more messy in the European Union.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently announced its decision in Sony v McFadden with important consequences for open wireless in the European Union. The court held that providers of open wifi are not liable for copyright violations committed by others, but can be ordered to prevent further infringements by restricting access to registered users with passwords. EFF reported on the legal aspects of the case last year and collaborated on an open letter to the ECJ on the costs to economic growth, safety and innovation of a password lockdown.

Free wifi is rare in Germany compared with other EU countries due to legal uncertainty generated by the doctrine of Störerhaftung, a form of indirect liability for the actions of others,which has deterred cafes, municipalities and others from offering free connectivity. Many in Germany hoped that the McFadden case would remove these doubts, but it is now clear that a legislative fix is needed instead. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/european-allows-copyright-owners-demand-open-wifi-networks-be-password-protected 

Google / Facebook tax

As the European Union reviews its copyright rules there appears to be the re-emergence of an idea that is twice tried and failed. The idea is to limit or tax or somehow force changes where uses upload a link of a news stories to the web and you get that that little picture and the headline of the article.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/european-copyright-leak-exposes-plans-force-internet-subsidize-publishers 

The idea will probably fail again because all it does it reduce the exposure of news stories to a wider audience.

 More here @BBC Click

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04955tn

Obama's regulatory legacy

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/us/politics/obama-era-legacy-regulation.html?xid=nl_daily&_r=0


From the New York Times.

WASHINGTON — In nearly eight years in office, President Obama has sought to reshape the nation with a sweeping assertion of executive authority and a canon of regulations that have inserted the United States government more deeply into American life.

Once a presidential candidate with deep misgivings about executive power, Mr. Obama will leave the White House as one of the most prolific authors of major regulations in presidential history.

Blocked for most of his presidency by Congress, Mr. Obama has sought to act however he could. In the process he created the kind of government neither he nor the Republicans wanted — one that depended on bureaucratic bulldozing rather than legislative transparency. But once Mr. Obama got the taste for it, he pursued his executive power without apology, and in ways that will shape the presidency for decades to come.

The Obama administration in its first seven years finalized 560 major regulations — those classified by the Congressional Budget Office as having particularly significant economic or social impacts. That was nearly 50 percent more than the George W. Bush administration during the comparable period, according to data kept by the regulatory studies center at George Washington University.

An army of lawyers working under Mr. Obama’s authority has sought to restructure the nation’s health care and financial industries, limit pollution, bolster workplace protections and extend equal rights to minorities. Under Mr. Obama, the government has literally placed a higher value on human life.

a16z podcast - the sharing economy & Arun Sundararajan

From a16z


https://soundcloud.com/a16z/sharing-economy





In this podcast Arun Sundararajan discusses the economics of the sharing economy and his views on regulation as they change from no regulation to self regulating industries.

EU Robot 'persons' proposed law

Reuters
http://in.reuters.com/article/europe-robotics-lawmaking-idINKCN0Z72CW

Europe's growing army of robot workers could be classed as "electronic persons" and their owners liable to paying social security for them if the European Union adopts a draft plan to address the realities of a new industrial revolution. Robots are being deployed in ever-greater numbers in factories and also taking on tasks such as personal care or surgery, raising fears over unemployment, wealth inequality and alienation.Their growing intelligence, pervasiveness and autonomy requires rethinking everything from taxation to legal liability, a draft European Parliament motion, dated May 31, suggests. Some robots are even taking on a human form. Visitors to the world's biggest travel show in March were greeted by a lifelike robot developed by Japan's Toshiba and were helped by another made by France's Aldebaran Robotics.

However, Germany's VDMA, which represents companies such as automation giant Siemens and robot maker Kuka, says the proposals are too complicated and too early. German robotics and automation turnover rose 7 percent to 12.2 billion euros ($13.8 billion) last year and the country is keen to keep its edge in the latest industrial technology. Kuka is the target of a takeover bid by China's Midea.

Regulating Energy Systems

Journal of Bioeconomics DOI 10.1007/s10818-016-9216-9

Redesigning a 20th century regulatory framework to deliver 21st century energy technology 
Tim Nelson

Abstract
Electricity systems are shifting from a once highly centralised regulated model to become more renewable, distributed and consumer-centric. Australia has some of the highest installation rates of embedded renewable electricity generation in the developed world. This has been driven by increasing grid-supplied energy prices, policy incentives and declining technology costs. The emergence of cost-effective distributed battery storage and energy management systems is likely to fundamentally alter the electricity industry—which has been largely unchanged for decades. Evolutionary economics indicates that firms must adapt to new technologies and market conditions or they will become extinct. Energy markets will only evolve, however, if regulatory frameworks continuously adapt to ensure that consumer preferences for reliability, control and environmental outcomes are able to be achieved at lowest cost. Most importantly, regulators will need to ensure that facilitating efficient consumer decision making is prioritised.

Mowat Centre work

Looking back at the Mowat centre, it some interesting work.

https://mowatcentre.ca/

Policymaking for the Sharing Economy

Beyond Whack-A-Mole

Feb 16 2015 https://mowatcentre.ca/policymaking-for-the-sharing-economy/

This report looks at the public policy questions raised by the sharing economy and makes recommendations on how governments should approach these new marketplaces.

Across the economy, informal and lightly-regulated marketplaces are emerging that directly connect individuals and small businesses. New technology platforms such as Uber, Airbnb and TaskRabbit are accelerating the advent of the “sharing economy” with rapid speed and massive scale. This report looks at the public policy questions raised by the sharing economy and makes recommendations on how governments should approach these new marketplaces.

Reprogramming Government for the Digital Era

Nov 11 2014 https://mowatcentre.ca/reprogramming-government-for-the-digital-era/

This Shifting Gears report explores the promise and perils of digital technologies for the core functions of governments.

The Shifting Gears series reviews the trends and challenges facing governments in delivering high-quality public services in times of fiscal constraint. Today’s public servants face a challenging operating environment. Governments are implementing ambitious reforms to service delivery models and administrative systems, while also undertaking short-term cost cutting and revenue raising measures. Yet this agenda also presents government with a significant opportunity to re-envision a public service for the 21st century. Transformative efforts—aimed at providing better quality services with fewer resources—are coalescing around a number of broad trends:

• the move to citizen-centred services re-designed around the needs of the end user. 

• the sharing of responsibility for policy development and service delivery with new partners from the private and not-for-profit sectors.

• the adoption of new digital technologies that lower transaction costs and respond to evolving citizen expectations of how to interact with government.

• the integration of operations both within and across government departments.

• the evaluation of services on the basis of outcomes rather than process or method.

Future State 2030

Nov 05 2013 https://mowatcentre.ca/future-state-2030/

The global megatrends shaping governments

This report outlines global megatrends facing world governments between today and 2030, and highlights necessary transformative changes and appropriate strategies required for successfully responding to these megatrends.

Foreword

Major global forces taking shape today will significantly impact the business landscape for the public and private sector through to 2030. While global megatrends have been documented on a macro scale, KPMG International wanted to delve more deeply into the implications for national governments and public sector policy makers and thus engaged the Mowat Centre at the School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto, to conduct targeted research. What we found will help guide important conversations over the next few years.

The findings identify nine global megatrends that are most salient to the future of governments and their core responsibilities of economic prosperity, security, social cohesion and environmental sustainability. While their individual impacts will be far-reaching, the trends are highly interrelated. Therefore, governments will need to consider an evaluate their impacts both in isolation and in combination. We present possible options for governments to consider using the core tools available – policy, regulation and programs – as well as the strategies, structures and skills that future governments will need to have in place to achieve the characteristics of a ‘leading practice’ government in the future.

Fintech

UK initiates novel regulatory environment

http://techcitynews.com/2016/05/02/how-the-fcas-regulatory-sandbox-scheme-could-help-uk-fintech-startups/

Possibly the most eye-catching initiative, particularly for startups and, importantly, investors is the regulatory sandbox.

The sandbox has been formed to provide a safe environment for businesses to test their products.

For new entrants to the financial services market, the intention is that unauthorised businesses can use the sandbox to test products, services, business models and delivery without first needing to meet all of the normal regulatory requirements and incurring the considerable costs of putting in place the complex structures and processes to successfully apply for regulatory authorisation.

These firms will be granted limited authorisation for testing purposes. Consumers will not be left be exposed during the testing process. The FCA has suggested a number of safety measures ranging from informed consent through to the businesses in the sandbox providing a meaningful indemnity for losses.

Furthermore, the FCA will apply discretion in determining both the level of limited authorisation and the safety measures on a case-by-case basis rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all model.

 Meanwhile in Canada late in 2015 something similar was suggested in a Munk School report. No word yet on any implementation.

http://tfsa.ca/storage/reports/Current_State_Financial_Technology_Ecosystem_Toronto_Region.pdf

Findings in Canada

2. Despite encouraging signs, so far, Canadian financial institutions have not been as effective as their competitors in other international centres, like New York and London at developing strong partnerships with Fintech startups. Even where relationships between leading financial firms and local Fintech companies exist, they tend to be located at the margins of the financial institutions’ main operations, in incubators or accelerators. Furthermore, the individuals assigned by the banks to represent them in such incubators often lack the executive power to make the strategic decisions required to fully realize the potential of the relationship. The result is that Canadian Fintech companies developing products with the aim of becoming partners or suppliers to domestic financial institutions are at a significant disadvantage vis-à-vis their American and UK competitors. In short, one of the greatest potential advantages of the GTA, the concentration of leading financial institutions, is being significantly underutilized in growing the ecosystem.

5. Canadian financial regulations, considered by some as “best in kind,” are seen as a source of strength allowing Canada’s financial industry to develop a trusted and secure brand in comparison with their international competitors. However, with the rapid rise of Fintech, there is a growing and significant disconnect between the regulators and the latest technological advances. The result is that current regulations make it extremely difficult to undertake the low-level-rapid-experimentation that is necessary to develop safe, useful Fintech products. Even what are now considered to be basic Fintech offerings – such as crowd sourcing and loans – cannot be developed and offered in Canada with the participation of a licensed bank. Thus, what has traditionally been seen as a source of competitive advantage for the financial service sector, our regulatory system, is now seen by many to be an obstacle in the context of the evolving Fintech ecosystem. We believe that it is possible to turn our regulatory environment into an effective growth asset. If the financial sector in Toronto can brand Toronto as a Fintech centre that is safe and reliable, as well as flexible and innovative, it can create a powerful asset for the Fintech ecosystem.

Autonomous vehicles legislation coming to the UK

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/18/bill-announced-in-queens-speech-will-help-britain-become-leader/

Britain’s car industry has welcomed a new Bill announced in the Queen's Speech that will help ensure the UK is in pole position in the development of self-driving vehicles.

The Queen said measures in the Modern Transport Bill would “ensure the UK is at forefront of technology for new forms of transport, including autonomous and electric vehicles”.
The Bill is intended to reduce red tape around new technology that will allow cars to be driven by on-board computers - so-called “autonomous driving” - and adapt the legal system to take into account issues such as insurance liability when a human is not in control.Nissan has said that from 2017 it will build its Qashqai SUVs equipped with self-driving technology at its giant Sunderland factory. Paul Willcox, the company’s European chairman, welcomed the plans in the Queen’s Speech.

 .... follow the link for more.

Crowd sourcing legal frameworks in Finland

Tanja Aitamurto and Hélène Landemore. Crowdsourced Deliberation: The Case of the Law on Off-Road Traffic in Finland. Article first published online: 27 APR 2016 DOI: 10.1002/poi3.115

This article examines the emergence of democratic deliberation in a crowdsourced law reform process. The empirical context of the study is a crowdsourced legislative reform in Finland, initiated by the Finnish government. The findings suggest that online exchanges in the crowdsourced process qualify as democratic deliberation according to the classical definition. We introduce the term “crowdsourced deliberation” to mean an open, asynchronous, depersonalized, and distributed kind of online deliberation occurring among self-selected participants in the context of an attempt by government or another organization to open up the policymaking or lawmaking process. The article helps to characterize the nature of crowdsourced policymaking and to understand its possibilities as a practice for implementing open government principles. We aim to make a contribution to the literature on crowdsourcing in policymaking, participatory and deliberative democracy and, specifically, the newly emerging subfield in deliberative democracy that focuses on “deliberative systems.”

UofT Professor Shauna Brail on Uber Regulation

Shauna Brail at University of Toronto has two videos outlining the issues for regulating Uber in Toronto.

OECD regulation paper

Koske, I. et al. (2016), “Regulatory management practices in OECD countries”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1296, OECD Publishing, Paris.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jm0qwm7825h-en


From the Introduction

1. A competition-friendly regulatory environment can help raise living standards by increasing investment, employment and productivity. A number of empirical studies have confirmed this link, including Bouis and Duval (2011), Bourlès et al. (2010), Conway et al. (2006) and Sutherland et al (2011). There are two important elements to a competition-friendly regulatory framework. First, regulations must be designed in a way that enhances competition and encourages firms to innovate and improve efficiency without being a too heavy burden on companies and, second, these regulations must be complied with or enforced in a transparent and cost-effective way. While in many areas of product markets, regulation is designed and implemented by the government, in network sectors, it is typically network regulators that take on this role.

2. Network sectors have historically been vertically integrated natural public monopolies before the introduction of competition in the market.2 In some instances the natural monopoly elements still exist such as in electricity distribution, which is why governance matters. The importance for effective regulatory institutions to facilitate the effective and fair operation of the market in network sectors is critical (Berg, 2000) in terms of investment (Jarvis and Sovacool, 2011), performance monitoring (Jenkins et al, 2007)
and ultimately outcomes of the sector (Gutierrez, 2003; OECD 2015a)

3. This paper presents a new set of indicators that measure regulatory management practices in six network sectors: electricity, gas, telecom, railroad transport infrastructure, airports and ports.3 It is meant to complement the network components of the OECD’s indicators of non-manufacturing regulation (NMR), which measure the regulations that are imposed on network sectors, by measures of the governance of the bodies that design, implement and enforce these regulations. The focus is on economic regulators, i.e. on institutions or bodies that are authorised by law to exercise regulatory powers over the sector for the purpose of setting prices and/or improving the operation of the market so that consumers have access to secure services and service providers receive a reasonable rate of return. Regulators that deal only with health, safety, or environmental issues are not considered. The indicators are computed for 33 OECD countries.

4. The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. It first briefly discusses the database that underlies the indicators and the methodology to compute them. It secondly presents the overarching indicators and presents general findings of regulatory management practices across OECD countries and sectors. It then examines the structure of regulators in greater detail in relation to their independence, accountability and scope of action. It also provides some specific country case examples. The paper is
complemented by an Annex which gives further details on the methodology used to compute the indicators.

Australian IP report

http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/intellectual-property/draft

The big headline comment

'Rights holders and their intermediaries need to do more to deliver timely and accessible content. The Government should also make clear that Australians should be able to circumvent geoblocking technology,' said Commissioner Karen Chester.

 This is how the public 'broadcaster' reported it.

 "Unless you've got a teenager that can help you get around the geoblocking, some people will be able to access and others won't," Ms Chester said.

"Making copyright material more accessible and more competitively priced online, and not geoblocking, is the best antidote to copyright infringement."

The practice of geoblocking prevents access to material on the basis of geographical borders but users can circumvent the technology by setting up a virtual private network, or VPN, which masks their location and identity.

The Productivity Commission report argued that the Federal Government needs to send a clear message that it is not an infringement of copyright for consumers to evade geoblocking technology.

The Government is also being urged to avoid entering international obligations or trade deals that support restrictions like geoblocking. "People actually want to do the right thing. They're happy to pay for copyright, but they want it now and they want it competitively priced," Ms Chester told AM.

"Those that won't will just breach copyright, do what we're all doing and get around the geoblock and access the US Netflix or the Canadian Netflix.

SOUNDCLOUD: Peter Ryan discusses geoblocking with Karen Chester

Productivity Commission Media Release in full
Australia's intellectual property system has lost sight of users.

Action must be taken to rebalance Australia's intellectual property (IP) arrangements, according to a wide-ranging draft report released by the Productivity Commission.

A good IP system balances the interests of rights holders and users, but Australia's system has swung too far in favour of vocal rights holders and influential IP exporting nations.

 'No matter how you measure it, Australia overwhelmingly imports more IP than it exports — and this gap is widening. Most of the profits from excessive IP rights flow offshore, while Australian consumers and taxpayers are left to pick up the tab,' said Commissioner Karen Chester.

Many of Australia's IP arrangements are locked-in by trade agreements, frustrating much needed change. Despite these constraints, the Commission has identified a workable bundle of reforms.

"Contrary to views that more patents are always better, Australia's patent system is poorly targeted. Some patented inventions border on trivial and protection can last too long. For pharmaceuticals alone, excessive protection costs the Australian Government, taxpayers and consumers over a quarter of a billion dollars each year,' Commissioner Jonathan Coppel said.

'Only genuine innovations should be granted patent protection and patent fees need to be higher to discourage rights holders from hanging on to patents longer than they need to,' Commissioner Jonathan Coppel said.

Copyright is important for rewarding creative endeavour. But in Australia, it is more a case of 'copy(not)right'. Copyright is pervasive, affecting everyone from hip hop artists sampling music, school children watching a documentary in class, libraries and museums preserving Australia's history, to innovative researchers accessing databases for data mining.

Copyright protection lasts too long — a book written today by an author who lives for another 50 years will be protected until 2136.

To correct these imbalances, Australia needs a new, principles-based, fair use exception, to protect user rights without undermining the incentive to create.

'Surveys reveal much online copyright infringement is out of sheer frustration from poor access. The best antidote to copyright infringement is accessible and competitively priced online content, not draconian penalties and big brother enforcement.'

'Rights holders and their intermediaries need to do more to deliver timely and accessible content. The Government should also make clear that Australians should be able to circumvent geoblocking technology,' said Commissioner Karen Chester.

The benefits of IP reform would be far reaching. 'True innovation and creativity will be rewarded, while consumers will have better access to new and cheaper goods and services. Australian firms won't have to engage in costly workarounds that hinder follow-on innovation,' Commissioner Jonathan Coppel said.

The Commission is inviting submissions on the draft report by 3 June 2016 and will hold public hearings in June.

MOWAT Centre note

https://mowatcentre.ca/how-can-delivery-units-work-in-a-federation-like-canada/


This is an interesting move by the federal government in Canada - delivery units. Found this on the MOWAT centre website... just a snippet.

The federal government is embarking on an ambitious new mandate with over 300 commitments flowing from its election platform and Ministerial mandate letters.

 Voters, opposition parties and the media will all be watching the government’s progress closely over the next four years. So too, will the government itself, which has made tracking progress on the delivery of its promises a key priority. It has created a new secretariat in the Privy Council Office tasked with managing the government’s Delivery and Results agenda, and supporting the Agenda, Results and Communications Cabinet Committee. In plain language, this means the new unit will track departmental performance and report to Cabinet Ministers and the Prime Minister on potential obstacles, or opportunities, that might affect key platform promises.

Delivery units have been successfully tried in other jurisdictions, but how will the delivery methodology translate in a decentralized federation like Canada when the federal government must rely on provinces and municipalities for progress on many of its key commitments?

Drones

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36067591

A plane approaching Heathrow Airport is believed to have hit a drone before it landed safely, the Metropolitan Police has said. The British Airways flight from Geneva was hit as it approached the London airport at about 12:50 BST with 132 passengers and five crew on board. After landing, the pilot reported an object - believed to be a drone - had struck the front of the Airbus A320. Aviation police based at Heathrow have launched an investigation.

The Economist's Babbage podcast discussed the incident here http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21697197-week-we-discuss-how-keep-drones-away-manned-aircraft-and-talk 

Meanwhile, the fire season has started early in British Columbia this year. After last year's incidents with drones, the BC government and transport Canada have new regulations and penalties ($25,000 in some cases). http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wildfires-northeast-bc-1.3542747?cmp=rss

What is clear is that regulation or even technologies built-in to the drone rely on either the good will of the operator or the the ability to catch offenders. 

That is probably too much to ask for. I wonder if it is possible to create geo-fences from the outside thus allowing for temporary situations as well as permanent ones.

BC Minister for the sharing economy

Back in January (2016) Peter Fassbender was tasked with regulating the sharing economy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-government-sharing-economy-uber-airbnb-1.3434727

The so-called sharing economy—be it Uber or Airbnb—is firmly on the B.C. government's radar, Peter Fassbender, the minister for community, sport and culture, said Thursday.
But before he decides on what regulations—if any—the province may institute, he says he first needs to spend time hearing arguments from all sides affected.

 But curiously there is nothing on the Department's website, so what exactly is going on or how urgent any of this is .....

Regulating AirBnB in Vancouver and others

CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/airbnb-canada-agrees-on-need-for-new-regulations-and-data-sharing-1.3516407

and more
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-needs-new-bylaws-for-airbnb-crackdown-says-councillor-1.3514217

The gist ....

The City of Vancouver needs new bylaws to crack down on Airbnb listings and protect its stock of long-term rentals, says one city councillor.

Coun. Geoff Meggs says while most Airbnb listings in the city are actually illegal, existing bylaws are not effective enough to enforce a crackdown and protect the city's stock of long-term rentals.

You are not allowed to rent your home for less than 30 days unless you have a bed and breakfast business licence."

"The problem is that we have a complete mismatch between the regulatory regime and the new technology, " said Meggs.

The existing bylaw, he explains, is problematic because it is complaint-driven and requires bylaw officers to gather much more evidence than a simple online listing.As a result, many who list on online vacation rental websites are just ignoring the rules, he says.

Ultimately Meggs wants to see a new law drafted to regulate short term rentals, including those from other popular websites like VRBO, Tripping and Roomorama. Specifically, he'd like to mandate licenses for these types of rentals.

"If I go into restaurants I have an expectation that they are following the rules...and they have to show a licence to show that that is the case. And when people go into business to rent, they have to understand that there are going to be certain obligations."

Santa Monica California has regulated AirBnB ... from NPR....
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/13/406587575/santa-monica-cracks-down-on-airbnb-bans-vacation-rentals-under-a-month May 13, 20159:38 PM ET

Santa Monica, Calif., is cracking down on Airbnb and the rest of the short-term rental industry. Tuesday night, the Santa Monica City Council adopted its home-sharing ordinance, which bans the rental of an entire unit for less than 30 days and requires those who take part in allowable home-sharing to obtain a business license from the city and pay a 14% hotel tax. The law takes effect June 15. The city says proceeds from the hotel tax will help pay for enforcement officers and an analyst to find illegal rentals online.

.....

Santa Monica isn't the only city to push back against Airbnb and others in the short-term rental industry. We previously reported that New York's attorney general found that almost three-quarters of New York City bookings break the law, and that the state is owed $33 million in hotel taxes. An increasing number of cities across the country are starting to institute hotel taxes on Airbnb rentals. The pushback has even gone international, with Spain fining Airbnb $40,000 and threatening to block its website.

In California at least, Santa Monica's latest regulations are harsher than others. San Francisco, for instance, has allowed residential rentals of less than 30 days, with some "caveats," as the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Protecting Consumers in the digital economy - OECD

http://www.oecd.org/internet/consumer-protection-laws-need-updating-to-improve-trust-in-e-commerce.htm

30/03/2016 - Countries should modernise their consumer protection laws to address new risks posed by online commerce, including “free” apps and peer-to-peer Internet transactions, according to new OECD guidelines for member countries and emerging economies.

The OECD Recommendation on Consumer Protection in E-Commerce says people buying online are entitled to the same level of protection as with conventional transactions. It calls on governments to work with business and consumer groups to determine legal changes that could improve consumer trust in e-commerce.

In particular, it suggests consumer protection laws should cover online apps and services offered for free in exchange for gaining access to the user’s personal data.

While consumers are increasingly drawn to the convenience and choice of online commerce, concerns about privacy, payment security or legal recourse in case of a problem mean that many others remain wary. Other concerns include online product safety risks and doubts over whether consumer reviews are genuine.

While 75% of consumers in OECD countries access the Internet each day, a recent OECD report found that only one person in two made an online purchase in 2014. Those who did not cited security and privacy concerns as the main reasons holding them back.

OECD Report.

http://www.oecd.org/sti/consumer/ECommerce-Recommendation-2016.pdf

Sorry but more on AVs

http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/senate-to-vote-thursday-morning-on-regulations-for-autonomous-vehicles-cms-25888#.Vv1sGvkrLIV


Surprisingly this is from Tennessee ....

A bill to codify the definitions of autonomous, or self-driving, vehicle use is likely to become law soon when the Tennessee Senate votes on Sen. Mark Green's (R-Clarksville) bill this Thursday.

The bill, SB 1561, will be the first in the U.S. to codify the definition of autonomy, expanding the definition of a driver to include that a human isn't required to control the vehicle.

It will amend a section of the Tennessee Code by adding that "'autonomous technology' means technology installed on a motor vehicle that has the capability to drive the motor vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring by a human operator."

This bit is really interesting...

Director of Audi Government Affairs in D.C. Brad Stertz said that there are six levels of autonomous driving. A level zero AV is a vehicle with no advanced technology. A level one AV is one that has things like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection and lane keeping technologies. A level two AV is one that is semi-autonomous and those are just now starting to come on the market.

Level three AVs are about two to three years away for Audi and allow hands-free operation in highway traffic at around 35 to 40 miles per hour. For a computer algorithm, it's easier to predict the highway environment rather than in suburban areas that have more stops and lines on the roads.
Level four AVs would include technology like detecting when a passenger is having a heart attack, even pulling over for them, calling 911 and driving them to the nearest hospital. A level five AV is one that is fully-autonomous. A driver can be completely hands-free and can get where they need to go with no input.

"Eventually the technology will get there," Stertz said. "But it's up to 30 years away."

What I like is the following comment.

"From a legislative standpoint it's important to have these different levels because we've seen in some states where lawmakers want to regulate the cars that might be here in 25 years, not the ones that will be here in two years," Stertz said.

 As always, go read the original.

I will post a link to the actual legislation next week.

Autonomous vehicles won't go away

From FT https://t.co/ZM4hdxMVk3

Daimler finesses its self-driving trucks

Other than the success of driving three trucks together without driver intervention, the important bit.....

India's Aadhaar

I first saw this mentioned in The Economist http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21694493-technological-blueprint-better-government-domesday-20

The article not only referred to an Indian Government ID database system and a book Rebooting India: Realising a Billion Aspirations (By Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah.Allen Lane; 337 pages) and unlike the Economist which is generally very readable, this article got a bit confusing in places as it moved between the book and what is happening in India.

On this occassion I recommend the Wiki page - it is full of useful information - here is the intro.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a central government agency of India.^[3] Its objective is to collect thebiometric and demographic data of residents, store them in a centralised database, and issue a 12-digit unique identity number called Aadhaar to each resident.^[4][5] It is considered the world's largest national identification number project.^[6][7]

As of March 2016, the original legislation to back UIDAI is still pending in the Parliament of India.^[8] However, on 3 March 2016, a new money bill was introduced in the Parliament for the purpose.^[9] On 11 March 2016, the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, was passed in the Lok Sabha.^[10]

Some civil liberty groups, like Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties and Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), have opposed the project on privacy concerns.^[11][12][13]

On 23 September 2013, the Supreme Court of India issued an interim order saying that "no person should suffer for not getting Aadhaar" as the government cannot deny a service to a resident if s/he does not possess Aadhaar, as it is voluntary and not mandatory.^[14] In another interim order on 11 August 2015, the Supreme Court of India ruled that "UIDAI/Aadhaar will not be used for any other purposes except PDS, kerosene and LPG distribution system" and made it clear that even for availing these facilities Aadhaar card will not be mandatory.^[15][16][17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_Identification_Authority_of_India

The unique registrations as percentage of the population census counts the wiki page suggest are truly impressive.

Finland crowdsourcing laws

http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/policy/do-finlands-digitally-crowdsourced-laws-show-a-way-to-resolve-democracys-legitimacy-crisis/  - 16 November 2015

Based on ....Taneli Heikka  'The Rise of the Mediating Citizen: Time, Space, and Citizenship in the Crowdsourcing of Finnish Legislation' Policy & Internet Volume 7, Issue 3, pages 268–291, September 2015  Abstract. 

The digitally crowdsourced law for same-sex marriage was passed in Finland in 2014. Activists produced the draft text of the law on digital collaboration platforms, and support for the law was petitioned using strong digital identification. This article analyzes how the campaign for the Equal Marriage Law used new digital tools and created practices that affect democratic citizenship and power making. The campaigners succeeded in introducing to the national political debate the idea of a bill that had been twice rejected in the political process. This article introduces the typology of the mediating citizen to describe civic action that is able to affect representative politics in a constructive way and reprogram power. The radical legal framework, the Citizens' Initiative Act, offered a channel to pursue meaningful civic agency in Finland and counter the legitimacy crisis of representative democracies. In future efforts for enhancing digital civic participation such a channel for real impact should be part of the design.

Back to the source blog.

Ed: But realistically, how useful is the input of non-lawyers in (technical) legislation drafting? And is there a critical threshold of people necessary to draft legislation?

Taneli: I believe that input is valuable from anyone who cares to invest some time in learning an issue. That said, having lawyers in the campaign team really helps. Writing legislation is a special skill. It’s a pity that the co-creation features in Finland’s Open Ministry website were shut down due to a lack of funding. In that model, help from lawyers could have been made more accessible for all campaign teams.In terms of numbers, I don’t think the size of the group is an issue either way. A small group of skilled and committed people can do a lot in the drafting phase.

Ed: But can the drafting process become rather burdensome for contributors, given professional legislators will likely heavily rework, or even scrap, the text?

Taneli: Professional legislators will most likely rework the draft, and that is exactly what they are supposed to do. Initiating an idea, working on a draft, and collecting support for it are just phases in a complex process that continues in the parliament after the threshold of 50,000 signatures is reached. A well-written draft will make the legislators’ job easier, but it won’t replace them.

I recommend reading the whole blog.

Urgent research needed into risks from nanomaterials in household waste

From the OECD.

http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/urgent-research-needed-into-risks-from-nanomaterials-in-household-waste.htm

22/2/2016 - Urgent research is needed to assess the possible risks to human health and ecosystems from the ever-increasing amounts of engineered nanomaterials going into household waste and ending up in the environment, according to a new OECD report.

 Nanomaterials in Waste Streams: Current Knowledge on Risks and Impacts says engineered nanomaterials are entering landfill sites, incinerators, and wastewater treatment facilities that are not designed to filter out particles as tiny as a millionth of a millimetre in size. Nanoparticles are thus ending up in sewerage sludge used as agricultural fertiliser and in sewage plant effluent that flows into rivers and lakes, as well as in recycled goods.

 “Nanomaterials are revolutionising everyday products, with benefits to society, but there are many unanswered questions about the risks some may pose to our health and the environment,” said OECD Environment Director Simon Upton. “We urgently need a better understanding of these risks so we can assess whether our waste treatment systems should be adapted to contain them.”

Engineered nanomaterials are valued for the novel properties caused by their near-atomic size. The number of products containing them leapt fivefold from 2006 to 2011 as manufacturers used them to improve performance in more than 1,300 products from car tyres and tennis rackets to smartphone batteries, deodorant and hair conditioner.
The report says that while state-of-the-art waste treatment plants may collect a large share of nanomaterials from waste, less efficient processes used in much of the world mean a significant amount is likely released into the environment as exhaust gas from incineration, as ash applied on roads, as treated wastewater or leaches into soil and water sediment.

Most concerning is the existence of nanomaterials in the dried and composted wastewater sludge that is often spread on farmland as fertiliser. In France, for example, half the national wastewater sludge is used for agricultural fertilisation. The potential transformation of engineered nanomaterials in soil, their interactions with plants and bacteria and their transfer to surface water has never been studied in depth.
The report calls for research into the type and amount of nanomaterials entering waste streams, what happens to it inside treatment facilities and the potential impacts of residual waste containing nanomaterials. It recommends greater safety measures for workers at recycling facilities.

Existing research suggests the distinctive properties of nanomaterials – which can more easily penetrate skin and cells than larger compounds – may carry health and environmental risks including cancer causing properties in lungs, toxic effects to the nervous system and antibacterial properties that could harm ecosystems. Despite this, waste containing engineered nanomaterials is disposed of along with conventional waste, with no special precautions or treatment.

2015 Analysis (including 2014)

Last year I did an analysis of the coverage of topics. Doing that again I can include a comparison with 2014.

2015 Coverage of technology regulatory issues

	Counts
Regulation issues & commentary	7
European laws & courts	3
Uber	2
Autonomous vehicles	2
Energy	2
Patents copyright etc	2
cybersecurity and dark net	2
Bitcoin	1
Space mining	1
Tax digital companies	1
Cloud computing	1
Wearables	1

What is noticeable about this list and was actually clear during the year 'regulation' as topic emerged as its own topic very clearly. The obvious omission as I look back over the year is that I didn't cover the drones as much as was present in the press.

Comparison 2014-2015

• 
  

Here is the table comparing the two years.

	2014	2015
Cybersecurity	4	2
Drones	4	X
New vehicles	3	2
Policy issues and analysis	3	7
Nanotechnology	2
Digital and data law	2	3
Uber	2	2
Mining / space mining	1	1
Labour markets	1
Bitcoin	1	1
Energy		2
Patents / copyright		2
Cloud computing		1
Wearables		1
Taxing digital companies		1

2015 Rate, Direction and Coupling

Economist cover topics for 2015

As an added bonus this year I have conducted an analysis of Economist cover page technology topics during 2015. Only stories on the cover are mentioned here + highlighted points = a link to the cover picture.

3-01-2015

•     Workers on Tap
•   Hacking and the Hermit Kingdom
•    Betting the Farm on Faming
•    Silicon Valley’s robber barons

10-01-2015

•       How microeconomics got hot (story about internet shopping etc)
•    The internet’s hidden benefits

31-01-2015

•        Gold & delicious: Apple’s profits

21-02-2015

•        The tech talent war

28-02-2015

•     Planet of phones
•        America’s oversold manufacturing boom

14-03-2015

•      Apple and the age of wearables

28-03-2015

•  The whole world is going to university
•   Coal’s dark future

04-04-2015

•     Sexism in Silicon Valley

11-04-2015

•       The promise of Sky-Fi

18-04-2015

•       Europe v Google: The gloves come off
•       A Robot can do the cooking

02-05-2015

•     How to down a drone

09-05-2015

•      Artificial Intelligence
•     The self-service economy
•      Why humans cause heatwaves

30-05-2015

•       The weaker sex

13-06-2015

•     Where Uber goes next
•      The robots are coming slowly

20-06-2015

•      Computers make a quantum leap

27-06-2015

•      Electricity without wires

04-07-2015

•     Uber jobs in the modern worker

18-07-2015

•   The Internet of Things, a hacker’s paradise

25-07-2015

•    Empire of the geeks

08-08-2015

•   Set innovation free – time to fix the patent system
•    Regulators: masters of the universe

15-08-2015

•   Google does a Buffett

22-08-2015

•    Editing humanity

29-08-2015

•    The scam of pay-as-you-go government
•     Spycraft and corporate security
•     Visions of virtual reality

12-09-2015

•     Learning to love Siri

19-09-2015

•   Electric aircraft on the runway

26-09-2015

•     Car industry’s dirty secrets
•    Welcome to the drone age
•     Pornography and generation XXX

10-10-2015

•     Kill seven diseases, save 1.2m lives per year
•     An end to corporate tax dodges

17-10-2015

•    Piggy in your middle: gene edited organs
•     Dell, EMC and the cumulus effect

24-10-2015

•     Reinventing the company
•    Online reviews: five star fakes

31-10-2015

•   The trust machine: How the technology behind bitcoin could change the world

14-11-2015

•    Softbank: a rare risk taker in Japan

21-11-2015

·         Does German industry do digital (not on the cover- displaced by Paris shootings)

28-11-2015

• Tech unicorns, a species in trouble