This episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast begins by digging into a bill more likely to transform tech regulation than most of the proposals you've actually heard of – a bipartisan effort to regulate US tech investment abroad. The new bill holds a mirror up to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Matthew Heiman reports. Where CFIUS regulates inward investment from adversary nations, the new proposal will regulate outward investment – from the U.S. to adversary nations. The goal is to slow the transfer of technical expertise (and capital) from the U.S. to China. It is opposed by the Chinese government and the same U.S. business alliance that campaigned against Senator Cornyn's CFIUS reforms in 2018. If it passes, I predict, it will be as part of must-pass legislation and will come as a big surprise to most technology observers.
The cryptocurrency world might as well make Leslie Gore its official chanteuse, because everyone is crying at the end of the crypto party. Well, except for Nick Weaver, who does a Grand Tour of all the overleveraged cryptocurrency firms on or over the verge of collapse as bitcoin values drop to $20 thousand and below.
Scott Shapiro and I trade views on the spate of stories claiming that Microsoft is downgrading security in its products. It would unfortunately make sense for Microsoft to strip-mine value from its standalone proprietary software by stinting on security, we think, but we can't explain why the firm would neglect cloud security, as it is increasingly accused of doing.
