Tim Wu

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Tim Wu
Tim Wu

Tim Wu (吳修銘) is a professor at Columbia Law School, the chair of media reform group Free Press, and a writer for Slate Magazine. He is best known for popularizing the concept of network neutrality, a term he is credited with coining during a dialog with Larry Lessig. Wu's specialty is copyright and telecommunications policy. 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.

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[edit] 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. 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 became a full Professor at Columbia Law School.

As of 2008 Wu was serving as an adviser to the Barack Obama campaign.[2]

[edit] 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:

“ I find it extremely heartening to see that an academic paper—in this case by Professor Timothy Wu of Columbia Law School—can have such an immediate and forceful influence on policy.[6] ”

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.

[edit] Selected publications

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Ante, Spencer E.. "Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter", Business Week, 2007-11-08. 
  2. ^ "Presidential Campaigns Asian Update". 
  3. ^ Wu, Tim (2006-05-06). The World Trade Law of Internet Filtering. SSRN.
  4. ^ Rugaber, Christopher S.. "Google Fights Internet Censorship", Washington Post, 2007-06-25. 
  5. ^ Wu, Tim (2007). "Wireless Carterfone". International Journal of Communication: 389–426. 
  6. ^ Copps, Michael J. (2007-07-31). Statement of FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps on the 700 MHz Service Rules. Free Press.
  7. ^ Program on Law & Technology - Columbia Law School

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