kNOw Future Inc.

law, technology and cinema, washed down with wine

What am I?

Alan Toner, intellectual property and communications researcher, lost between New York, Buenos Aires, Rome, Berlin and Dublin. Mixing law, alcohol, politics and media in various languages since 1973. You may have met me at New York University, where I was a fellow at the Information Law Institute and the Engelberg Center on Law and Innovation, read something I wrote for Mute or Diagonal, or conspired in the shenanigans around the World Summit on the Information society when I worked with WSIS: We Seize!

Leave a comment on an article if you want to get in touch.

Current Interest: The new Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED 2), which I oppose. See the FFII page dedicated to the question here. I follow conflicts in Argentina related to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and the ongoing fights around peer production, p2p and piracy. Consequently I’m following events in relation to the French  Creation and Internet law (Hadopi), and the Pirate Bay’s trial in Sweden. If you’re interested in this subject you can download and watch Steal This Film, and check out our searchable archive of interviews.

Driven by a basic hedonism and the need to maintain some connection with material culture, I’ve been investigating wine: how it’s made, the story it tells, and of course, how it tastes. Responsibility for this laundering of my vice can safely be attributed to Critical Wine, a network of small producers in Italy who presented it in a political/cultural context that I found… compelling!

Here are links to some blog entries which I think are important:

3 Comments »

  1. nice site

    Comment by david quesnel | July 6, 2007 | Reply

  2. [...] Read more about this topic from the author here. [...]

    Pingback by Copyright Revewals » What am I? kNOw Future Inc. | March 24, 2008 | Reply

  3. Hey,

    thank you very much for the translation of the open letter signed by various artists against Hadopi. Actually its not Paulo Branco but his son, Juan Paulo Branco, who occures to be me, that wrote the letter (it can be seen on the blog):).

    It is important for us to see that this fight againt hadopi has been followed closely in the foreign countries, it gave us strenght. Now hadopis should be censored by the “conseil constitutionnel”, and if not by the european court of justice. Anyway, it’s sure no court will ever apply it.
    I’m now working on a “memoire” on the different approaches the US and France had on fighting against downloading. If you have any piece of advice, don’t hesitate to contact me !

    thanks again,
    juan paulo branco lopez

    Comment by juanpaulobranco | May 22, 2009 | Reply


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