Abramson, Bruce 1963–

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Abramson, Bruce 1963–

(Bruce D. Abramson)

PERSONAL:

Born December 31, 1963. Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1983, M.S., 1985, Ph.D., 1987; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 2000.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Francisco, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, lawyer, computer scientist, consultant, educator. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, assistant professor, 1987-93; Informationism, Inc., (formerly Gordian Solutions, Inc., and BDA Consulting), San Francisco, CA, president, 1988—; Information Extraction and Transport, Inc., Arlington, VA, principal scientist, 1993-94; Cambridge Research Associates, Inc., McLean, VA, director of economic and policy analysis, 1994-96; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, adjunct associate professor, 1994-99, adjunct professor, 1999-2003; CRA International (formerly Charles River Associates), Boston, MA, consultant, 1998-2000, principal, 2000-03, senior consultant, 2004—; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, law clerk for the Honorable Arthur Gajarsa, 2003-04; World Bank Group, consultant, 2006—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellow, John M. Olin Foundation for Law and Economics, Georgetown University Law Center, 1998-99; John M. Olin Prize in Law and Economics, Georgetown University Law Center, 1999; fellow, Institute for International Economic Law, Georgetown University Law Center, 1999-2000, emeritus fellow, 2000—; CALI Awards for Excellence in the study of Administrative Law, Law and Economics, Constitutional Law, and Antitrust Economics and Law, Georgetown University Law Center, 1999-2000; elected to the Order of the Coif, Georgetown University Law Center, 2000.

WRITINGS:

The Expected-Outcome Model of Two-Player Games, Pitman (London, England), 1991.

Digital Phoenix: Why the Information Economy Collapsed and How It Will Rise Again, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2007.

Author of the blog the Informationist. Author of numerous scholarly articles.

SIDELIGHTS:

With a doctorate in computer science from Columbia University and a law degree from Georgetown, Bruce Abramson has positioned himself as a consultant to companies both domestic and international in interpreting the laws surrounding intellectual properties. Writing on his blog, the Informationist, Abramson described himself as "an expert in the law and economics of technology, with a particular emphasis on the Internet, software, and the still-emerging world of digital content." He further noted: "I have never viewed myself as a computer scientist, a lawyer, or an economist, despite having been employed as all three. Instead, I view myself as a scholar or as a problem-solver, specializing in understanding the emergence of the information age. The common thread running throughout my career … [is] how our newfound ability to manipulate large amounts of information could help individuals make better decisions, organizations plan better strategies, governments devise better public policies, and society make the world a better place. In one way or another, this fundamental question has lurked beneath each of my specific research inquiries."

Abramson delves into all of these areas in his books on the economy and information technology. His 2005 title, Digital Phoenix: Why the Information Economy Collapsed and How It Will Rise Again, investigates not only the collapse of the Internet bubble, but also goes on to show how intellectual property rights will be the "engine for new growth," as a Publishers Weekly contributor noted. Abramson gives an economic explanation of the burst of the dot-com bubble in the early years of this century, laying the blame on false assumptions about the ease with which profits could be earned online. The Internet proved to be a platform for fierce competition in prices, thus making profits harder to come by and forcing many overextended start-up companies into bankruptcy. Abramson argues that monopolistic practices, as seen by Microsoft, along with the absence of adequate and balanced intellectual property law helped lead to the collapse in 2001; by strengthening such laws new growth can occur. Abramson looks at intellectual property rights cases, including Microsoft, the music download site Napster, and Linux, the open source competitor to Windows. The Publishers Weekly contributor commented: "Abramson gives an intricate but lucid and engaging account of these controversies, illuminating the interplay of copyright and patent law, technology and marketing." Stephen E. Margolis, writing in the Independent Review, found fault with parts of Abramson's argument, noting that Digital Phoenix "advocates broad policy reforms, but unfortunately offers few specifics." However, Margolis concluded that "Abramson provides a readable articulation of the techno-utopian worldview."

Abramson's 2007 work The Secret Circuit: The Little-Known Court Where the Rules of the Information Age Unfold examines the roles of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the court of appeals for patents, and the legal body that oversees international trade law and government business law. Abramson demonstrates in this study the vital role the Federal Circuit has in shaping technology policy and the rules of globalization for this country.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Across the Board, September 1, 2005, "Who Will Own Tomorrow's Digital Markets?," p. 69.

Choice, December, 2005, J.L. Rosenbloom, review of Digital Phoenix: Why the Information Economy Collapsed and How It Will Rise Again, p. 706; June, 2007, J.L. Rosenbloom, review of Digital Phoenix, p. 1673.

Independent Review, summer, 2006, Stephen E. Margolis, review of Digital Phoenix.

Journal of Economic Literature, December, 2005, review of Digital Phoenix, p. 1153; September, 2006, "Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth," p. 739.

Law Society Journal, May, 2006, Charles Wong, review of Digital Phoenix, p. 86.

Library Review, January, 2007, Stuart Hannabuss, review of Digital Phoenix.

Publishers Weekly, May 30, 2005, review of Digital Phoenix, p. 54.

Technology and Culture, July, 2006, Bruce Epperson, review of Digital Phoenix, p. 683.