, ,

Cheers to Blawgers!

Friday, December 29, 2006

A quote from this week's Time Magazine:

We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.



I know that this has been discussed in many other blogs, so let me just be the tail: Cheers to fellow blawgers who has shared their knowledge in the blogosphere. Hopefully next year people will have a faster, better and cheaper access to the legal knowledge. Law for everyone!

Happy New Year!

 

, , ,

The so-called Berkeley Nanotechnology Regulation

Thursday, December 28, 2006

The famous first-in-the-world Nanotechnology Regulation of the City of Berkeley took effect last week. Curious on what the law actually contains? Take a peek:
15.12.040 Filing of disclosure information.
I. All facilities that manufacture or use manufactured nanoparticles shall submit a separate written disclosure of the current toxicology of the materials reported, to the extent known, and how the facility will safely handle, monitor, contain, dispose, track inventory, prevent releases and mitigate such materials.

15.12.050 Quantities requiring disclosure.
C. The following disclosure requirements shall apply in addition to those in subsections A and B of this section:
7. All manufactured nanoparticles, defined as a particle with one axis less than 100 nanometers in length, shall be reported in the disclosure plan.
That's it. Simple right? Nothing's special at all, the regulation only imposes a duty to report the toxicology features of nanoparticles being manufactured. Here's my analysis:
  1. The duty is to report, no more, no less
  2. There are no exact standard as to the form of the report
  3. General minimum disclosure standards may apply. Producers shall disclose anything within the boundaries of their present knowledge. Non disclosure may arise civil liability
  4. It only applies to "manufactured" nanoparticles produced in the Jurisdiction of the city of Berkeley. That means, natural nanoparticle or nanoparticle resulting from side-reaction could be exempted from this regulation. This could also mean that nanoparticles being imported to Berkeley is outside the scope of this regulation
  5. The city cannot ban production and sale of nanoparticles by simply basing itself on the regulation. These are EPA's authority
  6. The regulation does not regulate nanotechnology as a whole! It only regulates nanoparticle. Obviously, nanostructures are exempted from this regulation
  7. There could be problems with regards to the definition of "nanoparticle"
So, those are the analysis. Really-realy nothing special. I wonder why it had been such a big fuss. By the way, you can download the draft regulation yourself here. Let me know if your analysis are different than mine.


Any information contained herein is intended as a general discussion on legal and other corresponding issues. Tips and advices given on these issues do not constitute legal advice or a legal opinion. You shall seek independent counsel to act upon any laws discussed in this weblog.

ATTENTION: This post has been updated here.

 

,

About Indonesian Law Report

The world's changing and so does the provision of legal services. Internet has make it possible for legal services to be provided one-to-many, done collaboratively with other professionals. Of course, this does not mean that tailor-made legal services are no longer required, it is still actual for the time being but it is also in the process of transformation. This simple weblog is never meant to "row the boat", it is only meant to "ride the wave" of legal transformation, a little token from a lawyer to the knowledge society.

In short, the purposes of this weblog are to:

  • Make friends. Web 2.0 is about networking and collaborating and network always worth more than treasure. If you'd like to be "my friends", you can add me on the social networking sites I listed on the right panel. If you are not listed on those sites, then an email would do fine. Drop me email (movanet[at]gmail.com) and say hi!
  • Participate in the Long Tail of legal services. Longtail phenomenon will dramatically alter the future of legal services and we want to participate in it
  • Legal promulgation. Everyone knows that this country is not so good when it comes to legal promulgation. Draft laws cannot be easily accessed, judicial decisions are hard to get, legislations, acts and decisions are segregated in numerous governmental websites. This weblog will serve as your aggregator for those sources
  • Research tool. The Google Custom Search on the right panel crawls only specific institutions dealing with legislations, policy making and law enforcement, in addition to this weblog
  • Legal education. It is a medium from me to learn the law and for you to add some more. It is always better to know our rights and obligations
  • Self help. This weblog will contain simple tips on how to deal with the bureaucracy. You can also drop a question or two. If I cannot answer your question, I'll forward it to my friends

Have fun!


Any information contained herein is intended as a general discussion on legal and other corresponding issues. Tips and advices given on these issues do not constitute legal advice or a legal opinion. You shall seek independent counsel to act upon any laws discussed in this weblog.

 

,

For your legal research: a new search box!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

I've just added a research tool to this blog in order to assist your work. The Google-powered custom search box is located in the right panel. I like this feature a lot and I use it for my own researches too.

The Reason? First, it is linked to external websites, so you won't be searching only this site. Second, there is no need to re enter "nano" or "nanotechnology" in your search box. You can directly enter terms such as "health", "environment", "patent", etc and the search will automatically show up in a nanotechnology context for I have filtered it for you. Third, the website/homepage lists will be continously updated. So, your search box will always be updated. Searching using normal google.com box may not deliver you the best outcome as the search result is too broad. Such is not the case with the Nanotechlaw search box.

Anyway, if you want to search this blog's posts only, you can use the column provided by Blogger located in the top left of this page. You can enter the search term there and it will show you results exclusively from this blog.

Have fun!

 

Merry X-mas!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

 

, , , , ,

Nanotech regulations in Canada?

Saturday, December 23, 2006

This column written by a lawyer for The Globe is worth to read:
How many nanotech products are being manufactured and sold in Canada? What kind of emissions are being produced and released? What happens when nanomaterials enter the environment? Do they break down into other substances or are they persistent? Do they build up in the bodies of living organisms? What is the level of exposure of Canadians to nanomaterials? What are safe levels of exposure? What are the health effects of exposure to nanomaterials? What laws or regulations will ensure the safety of workers, consumers and the environment?

There are no answers to these questions. There has never been a debate in the House of Commons or even in a parliamentary committee about the policy implications of this new technology. As Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl has acknowledged, "none of us knows anything about nanotechnology."

"None of us knows anything bout nanotech". As has been previously discussed, this does not necessarily means that it is entirely not regulated. When there is a case, courts will decide based on legal principles. The drawbacks: more to risk-mitigation than risk avoidance. The GMO and asbestos case may reoccur.

Hat tip: Mike Treder/CRN

 

, , , ,

Defend yourself using blog networks

Friday, December 22, 2006

Emerging technologies such as nanotech is a two-bladed sword for venture capitalists. It is a raising trend as more and more products are sold on the market, it is strongly associated with modernism, it is very promising as it will shape the future world. These factors will trigger people to invest. The media and blogosphere contributed a lot to these developments. On the other hand, a single defective nano product can ruin the whole thing. The media and the blogosphere also plays a major stake here: what brings you up can always take you down.

Forbes had a good article which illustrate this case:
Then the bloggers attacked. A supposed crusading journalist launched an online campaign long on invective and wobbly on facts, posting articles on his Web log (blog) calling Halpern "deceitful,""unethical,""incredibly stupid" and "a pathological liar" who had misled investors. The author claimed to be Nick Tracy, a London writer who started his one-man "watchdog" Web site, our-street.com, to expose corporate fraud. He put out press releases saying he had filed complaints against Circle with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Yahoo and Google is responsible for this (un?)holy alliance. Not only Google has its adsense advertisement network that feeds bloggers with money, not only that it hosted blogs and provide blogsearch, it also include blogger comments in its finance site. The commentaries will affect people's decision to invest.

Those are the drawbacks the longtail gives to the economy. Are there any remedies to this? Well, Forbes recommends to start building a blog network.