Tim Wu

Tim Wu (吳修銘) is a professor at Columbia Law School and a writer for Slate Magazine. He is best known for popularizing the concept of network neutrality. Wu's specialty is copyright and telecommunications policy. He has a well-known series of articles on network neutrality, and is often credited with coining the term. For his work in this area, Professor Wu was named one of Scientific American's 50 people of the year in 2006. In 2007 Wu was named one of Harvard University's 100 most influential graduates by 02138 Magazine. He serves on the board of directors of Free Press Action Fund.

Background

Wu is an American citizen, but grew up in Toronto, Canada. His father is Taiwanese and his mother is British. They both studied as immunologists at the University of Toronto^[1]. Wu graduated from McGill University in 1995 with a B.Sc. in chemistry, and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1998. At Harvard, he studied under copyright scholar Lawrence Lessig^[1]. He worked with the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, after graduating law school, and before starting a clerkship with Richard Posner on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998-1999. Wu also clerked for Stephen Breyer, U.S. Supreme Court in 1999-2000. Wu has made small political donations towards the Howard Dean and the John Edwards presidential campaigns 2003^[2]. Following his clerkships, Wu worked at Riverstone Networks, Inc. (2000-02) and then entered academia at the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2006 he accepted a faculty appointment at Columbia Law School.

Influence

In 2006, Wu wrote "The World Trade Law of Internet Filtering"^[3], which analyzed the possibility of the World Trade Organization treating censorship as a barrier to trade. In June, 2007, Google Inc. lobbied the United States Trade Representative to pursue a complaint against China's censorship at the WTO; Wu's paper was cited as a "likely source" for this idea.^[4] In 2007, Wu published a paper proposing a "Wireless Carterfone" rule for mobile phone networks^[5]; the rule was adopted by the Federal Communications Commission for the 700 mHz spectrum auctions on July 31, 2007. In a statement, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps wrote:

In 2007 Wu also founded the Columbia Program on Law and Technology^[7]. In August of 2007 he and other developers and contributors launched AltLaw.

Selected publications

• Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World (with Jack Goldsmith, 2006)
• Copyright's Communications Policy Michigan Law Review (2005)[1]
• The Broadband Debate, a User's Guide Journal of Telecommunications & High Tech. Law (2004)
• Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination Journal of Telecommunications and High Tech. Law (2003)

Notes

External links

• Tim Wu Home Page
• Columbia Law School Biography
• All papers by Tim Wu at SSRN
• Article - Why you should care about network neutrality
• Article - Keeping secrets: A simple prescription for keeping Google's records out of government hands
• Record detailing Tim Wu's Political Contributions
• Article - Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination
• Article - Wireless Net Neutrality: Cellular Carterphone and Consumer Choice in Mobile Broadband
• Web Page - Understanding Network Neutrality
• Dedication to Water Without Ice
• Airport Reviews
• Profile in New York Observer
• Columbia Program on Law and Technology