Why or what or who is Lex Indicium?  Roughly translated, and with apologies to the classical scholars who may happen upon this blog, Lex Indicium means “law of information,” or “law of data” in Latin.  In a broad sense, the “law” that applies to data, and/or rights in data or information is what this blog seeks to explore.  In my law practice, I might say that I am an “intellectual property lawyer, who specializes in trademarks, copyrights, and information law.”  But my passion and interest have been drawn to this craft by fundamental questions  – “who owns or should own information—any information, be it text, raw factual data, art, etc?  Should it be free or should it be exploitable and monopolized and monetized?  And which answers lead to the greatest good for society?”
Since I began practicing law almost 20 years ago these questions really have been asked repeatedly in the context of one burgeoning cultural phenomenon known as digital technology—which technology has had one primary (and largely freely available) medium– the internet.  But the questions themselves and the issues that flow from them are ancient, stretching back to ancient times.  This, combined with my own background in classical archaeology, form the bases for selection of a Latin name as the name for this blog.  I hope we can use this blog to explore these topics together.